About “Beyond the Rows”

Beyond the Rows is a Monsanto Company blog focused on one of the world’s most important industries, agriculture. Monsanto employees write about Monsanto’s business, the agriculture industry, and the farmer.

This week we’ve been celebrating sweet corn in a variety of ways. I’ll have to write about it a few times, but last week, we did something a little different on our headquarters campus — of course we picked the hottest day of the summer to do an outside event! We had a local farmer set up a farmer’s market for a few hours at lunch. We told employees he’d have some of the sweet corn grown from our seed available for sale.

We had no idea what to expect, nor did the farmer. However, I’m safe saying none of us expected employees to be lined up for hours! The turnout was huge and steady. It was crazy hot and yet people waited and waited. We had toxicologists, agronomists, sales people, communications folks, researchers, lawyers, and more. As this photo shows, a few of us got a chance to volunteer since the farmer had underestimated staffing needs!

Several employees bought corn in big bags of five dozen ears of sweet corn! Many wanted a couple of dozen. They were buying fresh peaches, tomatoes, etc. The sweet corn was so popular we realized we couldn’t meet demand and had to limit sales to a dozen ears each. People were bummed but they also understood.

Then we sold out.

Having been lucky enough to have fresh GMO sweet corn on several occasions, I thought I should let my corn go. Others were so pumped to get some! And the line kept growing! The reaction reminded me of the movie of “It’s a Wonderful Life” as George Bailey pulls out the money meant to pay for his honeymoon for his community. One lady asked if it was okay to get four ears…. that was really all she needed.

Then we sold out again!

Next thing I knew, some corn was being repossessed so more employees could have the chance of proudly taking this home knowing customers had grown it from our seed. I hope a few more local farmers take note — it looks like a great fit for the area. There’s certainly a lot of pent up demand for the product!

Now and then, I’d stop selling sweet corn and grab my iPhone for a little video of co-workers. It’s a little shaky, but you can see the crowd was enthusiastic!

5 Responses to "Lining Up For Fresh Sweet Corn, GMO Sweet Corn"

This is outstanding, but why not include the greater St Louis community? You should sell this at the Soulard Farmers Market, proudly displaying the fact that it is GMO, along with info describing it, and all GMOs’, benefits. I (a Monsanto retiree) would volunteer (for free) to help sell it.

William has a point. What benefits does this corn have? I heard that a Canada company is going to sell GMO apples that never brown. I am excited to get them. What’s the story on this corn? Why is it better than nonGMO corn?

Thanks for asking. The Arctic Apples are a clear case of direct consumer benefits from a product, the benefits of bt sweet corn may not be as clear to the eye, but to me they are great.

From what I have seen as a consumer, the biggest benefit here is the reduction in insect damage, which makes the ear of corn not only look nicer, but you are less likely to find a worm in it! Not only do I just not like seeing worms on my food, but it is less likely to have a fungal disease or something.

Let me check with some others on the benefits they have seen from a personal perspective.