Terminator Gene Ban Suggested in Canada

innocent_white_lamb writes "A member of the Canadian Parliament has proposed legislation to outlaw the development and deployment of 'terminator genes' that would prevent seeds from germinating after a set span of time. This practice would require farmers to re-purchase seed every year instead of saving the seeds from last year's crop. The legislation is not expected to pass due to opposition from the Agriculture Minister. 'There is also an issue with the technology, which is based on a complicated five-gene construct. It is "inevitable" it will fail and could harm biodiversity, said Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, which backs the ban. CFIA argues exactly the opposite, saying "the terminator approach provides an excellent method to protect against transference of novel traits to other crops and plant species."'"

Comments

I never thought I'd see..

[tehwebguy]

.. DRM for seeds.

Re:Doesn't sound like such a good idea.

[someone1234]

Haha, something goes wrong and a full year's crop goes wasted. People die, lawyers get rich and the designers of this plan get a free card out of jail.

Re:can someone explain how a plant with a t-gene

[bobo mahoney]

did they use amphibian DNA in these plants?

Re:can someone explain how a plant with a t-gene

[Anonymous Coward]

Jurassic Park anyone?

Yes, that was a great documentary.

Insightful? ugh.

Re:scary stuff

[erroneus]

So *THAT*s why a girl can't get pregnant from giving a blowjob!

Re:scary stuff

[sesshomaru]

You mean Heroes lied to me?

Because. It'll be back :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

It had to be said.