Huge quantities of maize and soya are produced in the  USA. Despite this, imports from overseas – for example from Romania, Turkey and Ukraine – are on the increase. Why? In America, over 90 %  of production consists of genetically modified varieties. But, at the same time, more and more US consumers want to buy organic food, and that means food containing no GMOs.

The newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, citing the Ministry of Agriculture and the news agency Bloomberg, reports that  imports of maize from organic agriculture trebled last year, and in the case of organic soya imports rose by almost a half.

Most soya and maize ends up in animal feed. In the case of organic animal keeping, where a lot of  green fodder is used as well, genetically modified plants are not permitted. However, in the USA, for years  GMO varieties have predominated that are mostly resistant to herbicides like the controversial glyphosate and/or release their own insect poisons.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that in the USA there is “a small but growing number“ of farmers who are opting for GMO-free maize and soya production. It says the reasons are the rising demand and simultaneous falling price of their (genetically modified) harvests. The next step – conversion to organic -  is however sometimes difficult in the regions of the USA and also in Canada, where genetic modification is widespread. The risk of your land being contaminated by GMOs is too great. If it is contaminated you can't market your harvest as organic.

Website resource: http://organic-market.info/news-in-brief-and-reports-article/demand-for-organic-usa-imports-maize-and-soya.html