Genetically Modified Organisms or GMOs have become a topic of skepticism, especially in France, and the discussion was on tap Monday afternoon at the International Farm Management Congress.

Anti-GMO activists, who view the harvests as highly unnatural, have destroyed fields of these experimental crops. Mourad Hannachi, a PhD student the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, has studied the difficulties involved with “natural farmers” and GMO farmers coexisting.

“It is a scientific controversy,” Hannachi said. “It’s the consumers choice. And some consumers have a fear of the GMO.”

Hannachi conducted studies in the Alsace and southwest regions of France where experimental GMO maize crops are being grown right alongside natural crops. The problem that exists is France’s farmland is divided up much differently then here in the U.S. For example in Illinois, plots of land are broken up clearly into perfect-shaped plots.
But in France much of the land is scattered, and a GMO farmers crop could be in very close proximity to that of a natural farmer. The problem with GMO farmers and farmers that use pesticides is a cross-pollination takes place when the crops are in close proximity. The GMO takes over the natural plant, and there are many consumers that don’t want to buy a GMO product, and farmers that don’t want to grow it.

“It’s a big problem (between the farmers) because it’s cross- pollination,” Hannachi said. “The only way to stop it is to put the two different crops far away from each other.”

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