Economic downturn in the "Last Mile"

[Griff]

The terminater gene is the one part of the gm story which I don't worry too much about. It has the potential of acting as a barrier to the wider world so we don't end up perpetuating mistakes. I'd like to see it incorporated into all gm seeds. Most American farmers buy hybrid seed every year anyway since saving hybrid seed is hit or miss. The plants from the next generation of seed are not always true to type and farmers don't generally have much room for error. Saving seed fom open-pollinated (traditional) varieties is still common in the third world and among organic farmers world wide and a terminator gene would protect their crops from accidental cross-pollonation.

A disturbing part of this story is that the Canadian courts have given Monsanto property rights over all seed which contains "its" genes. A farmer up north planted regular soybeans across the road from a Monsanto gm crop, with the intent of cross-pollinating his crop and saving the Round Up ready seed to plant. He was forced to hand over the seed. So the farmer who had no agreement with Monsanto (farmers often have to sign agreements to handle planting in particular ways and only dispose of the seed in an approved manner) lost his crop to them since they were unable to control their pollen. The organic community considers this genetic pollution and their open pollinated varieties can be altered by inadvertant gm pollination. This is a truly complicated issue.