Inside the hybrid seed debate

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - There’s a new breed of farming unfolding in the Miami Valley; farmers going high tech to maintain thousands of acres. They say if they don’t, they’ll get run over by their competition.

Allen Armstrong is one of the new breed of farmers. A fourth generation farmer, Allen says he’s gone high tech because the world is moving faster.

“There is a growing population that we need to feed and we need to have all the tools in our tool box available to do that,” he said.

One tool he relies upon heavily are high tech seeds called genetically modified organisms or GMO's. First introduced in 1996, GMO's are hybrids, injected with a bacteria or a virus producing anti-bodies It makes the "super seeds" resistant to sprayed pesticides, so seeds thrive, while weeds die.

While it seems like a farmer’s dream come true, Darke County organic farmer Dan Kramer says this practice goes against mother nature.

“The anti-biotic resistant marker genes that are used goes into the plant and we eat the plant or the animal eats the plant and we eat the animal,” he says. The GMO’s, he adds, are overloading our immune systems with harmful chemicals. “We'd like to say if you've got a salad bowl and you'd take some kind of bug spray and spray on that salad bowl and then offer it to somebody and would they eat it?”

But, Armstrong says government research proves GMO’s are safe.

“If I am not one hundred percent confident that it is safe for my family I certainly am not going to grow it for anybody else,” he explained.

Some of the argument surrounding GMO’s includes concern about the accumulative effect of the chemicals used.

“That's a valid concern, and a valid thing to talk about,” Armstrong said, “Not only does the Food and Drug Administration but also the EPA look at this and continues to keep them under the microscope to be sure we don't have anything get out of hand and I believe at the first inkling, in this country, we'll know about it.”

But, Kramer calls the enhanced seeds “Frankenfoods” and believes they cause environmental damage. He points to the situation at Grand Lake St. Mary’s as evidence.

“That chemical finds its way into the aquifer, the waters and streams,” he explains, adding that those chemicals are linked to the algae bloom there.

Armstrong disagrees, saying the GMO’s actually reduce the amount of pesticides he sprays.

“It really is a good system, a sustainable system and an environmentally friendly system or I wouldn't be doing it,” he said.