There’s a lot of good behind an ear of biotech sweet corn besides its great taste. Because of the built-in insect control, growers who plant Seminis® Performance Series^TM sweet corn are able to produce high-quality sweet corn with fewer wormy ears while helping growers produce sweet corn sustainably.

The naturally occurring protein, Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt, is built into biotech sweet corn. It helps to protect the sweet corn from damaging worms and other insects and is often used as an insecticide by organic farmers.

Thanks to the Bt protein, this product enables farmers to reduce their number of insecticide applications they make on their sweet corn by almost 85 percent. This reduces the chance for soil and groundwater contamination, which is important for farmers and their families. It also means sweet corn farmers don’t have to drive their tractors as often, which reduces their use of gasoline and minimizes greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a University of Arkansas Lifecycle Analysis “Comparison between Conventional and Biotech Sweet Corn”, reduced trips across the field and increased marketable yield reduces the carbon footprint of each ear of Performance Series^TM sweet corn compared to conventional sweet corn. Built-in insect protein enables farmers to grow sweet corn in geographies where insect pressure and damage from those insects previously made growing it impractical. That means more farmers delivering locally-grown sweet corn to you.

Simply put, farmers choose to grow biotech sweet corn because of all of these benefits – they can grow healthy plants in a sustainable way while producing sweet corn that is nutritious, fresh and flavorful.