PLAINFIELD - While working on my farm in Plainfield this wet, cool spring, my thoughts wandered to the challenges encountered by the farmers who worked this land before I became steward. Weeds, insects, crop diseases, wildlife, rocks and of course weather all came to mind. The same challenges I face today.

Then my thoughts focused on a new threat to my crops and livelihood. Unlike natural challenges this threat is created in distant laboratories. A new threat so out-of-control I'm unable to overcome it.

The new threat is housed in pollen grains that drift on the winds or are carried by insect pollinators. Genetically engineered (GE) or more commonly genetically modified (GMO) crops are being grown in Plainfield on land that once grew potatoes. An Ashfield man and his son are growing genetically engineered soybeans in Plainfield. What are GMO crops? GMO crops are made by forcing genes from one species, such as bacteria, viruses and animals, into the genetic material of unrelated food crops, such as soybeans and corn. GMO technologies create plants with gene combinations that could never exist naturally.

There is, despite the claims of biotech salesmen, no way to control the inevitable contamination by GMO crops of organic and non-GMO crops. The contamination of neighboring farm and garden crops is but one reason why many residents in Plainfield consider the planting of GMO crops irresponsible.

Pollen produced by genetically engineered plants contain genetic contaminates. Pollen carried by the wind and insect pollinators is impossible to control and can contaminate neighboring crops by cross-pollination. Corn pollen can be blown great distances to cross-pollinate with neighboring corn and although most soybeans are self-pollinating, well-documented research shows GMO soybean pollen is carried by insect pollinators that are impossible to control and can fly many miles.

It is these insect pollinators and their ability to carry pollen from GMO soy to non-GMO soy that prevents some Plainfield residents from growing soybeans and edamames. Any crop with the ability to genetically contaminate neighboring farm crops and home gardens infringes on the neighboring farmers' or gardeners' right to grow uncontaminated crops.

Whether or not a crop is contaminated can only be determined by chemical testing. Who is doing the testing? To my knowledge, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, the USDA and the organic certification organizations are not testing for GMO contamination in Massachusetts. The biotech industry and their salesmen say contamination is not a problem. If there is no testing, there are obviously no problems!

We should always be concerned when the fox is watching the hen house, but in this case no one is watching at all.

Genetically modified soybeans and corn contain genetics that allow them to be resistant to glyphosate the active herbicide ingredient and soil biocide in numerous herbicide brands including Roundup. A farmer can spray an entire field with glyphosate and kill the weeds but the corn and soybeans are not killed because they are genetically altered to resist the killing effects of the herbicide.

Recent data relating to GMO crops and glyphosate use show soybean and corn weeds need to be managed with increasingly excessive amounts of herbicide not less as the salesmen of biotech claim. The pounds of this toxic herbicide applied to American agricultural fields have increased dramatically.

The biotech salesmen claim the herbicide used on herbicide resistant crops like GMOs is less harmful than other herbicides. Comparing herbicides is like comparing the health effects of filtered and non-filtered cigarettes.

The excessive application of glyphosate has led to the creation of glyphosate resistant "superweeds." As reported recently in the New York Times, at least 10 species of superweeds are resistant to glyphosate, spread over 22 states and millions of crop acres. As weeds become more resistant to glyphosate, farmers apply more or spray multiple herbicides at once. Applying more glyphosate is like trying to put out a brush fire by adding gasoline.

A large percentage of commodity farmers in the U.S. are growing GMO crops. Can all those farmers be wrong? Were all the farmers who used DDT, Aldrin, Chlordane and organophosphates to name a few - once allowed and now illegal - agrochemicals wrong in abundantly applying those chemicals to agricultural fields? In many cases, farmers are too busy to research a product and end up believing promotional information. These same farmers are concerned about the government taking away their agrochemicals for human health and environmental reasons. In my 50 years in agriculture I have seen many toxic products that were legal today deemed illegal tomorrow.

As the health and environmental evidence against genetically engineered crops - like the soybeans grown in Plainfield - continues to mount, Plainfield residents continue to endure another season of irresponsible farming.

Ed Stockman is a biologist who lives and farms in Plainfield.