PuraMaize™ Gains Worldwide Attention
Chris Hoegemeyer, Executive Vice President

You may have recently heard or read that Hoegemeyer received a patent in April on a new system that blocks pollen contamination from one type of corn to another.

The new, all-natural system, called PuraMaize™, works by not accepting the pollen from corn plants that do not have the system incorporated into it. PuraMaize corn only accepts pollen from itself or other PuraMaize corn.

While the system is not completely airtight, it blocks out contamination from other corn pollen to levels below 1 percent. This system will be used to keep corn that is intended to be GMO-free from GMO contamination. Currently, the EU threshold for GMO contamination is 0.9 percent for approved events and 0.5 percent for non-approved events. PuraMaize easily meets these thresholds.

What this means is that if a farmer wants to grow non-GMO corn for a specific use (under contract with an elevator, for example), he can put this field next to a field where GMO corn is planted and be assured that his non-GMO corn will still meet specs. For people who want to see how this works, we'll be conducting a demonstration using purple corn next year. We will also have some plot quantities available on a limited basis for the 2006 planting season.

This new innovation has received quite a bit of attention since its announcement this summer. Stories have appeared all over the U.S., across Europe and into the Far East. It remains to be seen how large of an impact this product will have, depending on how the GMO vs. non-GMO debate shapes up. However, we will look for more opportunities for our customers to use the system as we continue to introduce it into more hybrids.

PuraMaize will only be used for non-GMO production. We are not against GMOs; however, we do understand there are consumers who don't want GMOs in their food, and are willing to pay for this to happen. The bottom line is, we feel PuraMaize represents another example of our company using one of its strengths, the breeding program, to meet customer needs and help our growers have more successful and profitable businesses.