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Monsanto Agrees Not to Sell "Terminator" Seeds
flanksteak writes "Monsanto has bowed to pressure not to sell single-use seeds for their genetically modified crops. These so-called "terminator" seeds work only once. The resulting plants produce sterile seeds that can't be used to grow more food. This forces farmers to keep buying seed to grow additional crops. Monsanto says it's a way to recoup the cost of genetic engineering. Are we going to have to buy "seed" licenses to grow food? Read about it at the USNews Web site." On a planet covered with 6 billion humans, agriculture is our most important concern. Yes, more important than the Internet. We rarely pay attention to food-growing on Slashdot, but nerds need to eat too. (Fun fact of the day: even frozen pizza and Hostess cupcakes are made from farm products!)
This sounds like a wonderful opportunity to get lots of people on the upgrade treadmill. Imagine a grower getting something like this:
Dear Seed'98 owner:
We are proud to announce Seed 2000! This novel product is an upgrade/replacement for Seed '98, for which our records show you are a registered customer.
Many people felt that the elimination of all birds eating Seed '98 was an overly ambitious goal. Heh, the insects really liked it anyway! In response to customer demand Seed 2000 is now completely bird friendly, causing at most mild diarrhea.
The gene that caused half the seeds to grow downwards has been fixed.
Plants will no longer expire on Y2K rollover, the death gene now handles negative ages correctly.
In addition Seed 2000 only requires twice the water that Seed '98 did.
We hope you will send us your money soon, so we can ship your new seeds.
Yours truly,
SeedSoft Inc.
P.S. If you have difficulty planting the new seeds due to high levels of insects in your fields, see our new genetically engineered Bird on our avian pages.
In a hundred years small family farms will be a thing of the past no one needs to accelerate this trend.
It is well past time for the small family farm to have gone the way of the small family loom and the village ferrier. The more acceleration, the better.
ok, some useful info on corn that i may not have exactly right, so any farmers (or Iowans) out there feel free to clarify.
corn, as grown for food, is sterile. you can't plant your leftover food corn. in order to be used for "seed corn", it must be painstakingly hand-fertilized (i.e., tie off the tassels with a paper bag then collect the stuff & redistribute, inseminating the poor celibate plants)
this is the result of centuries of genetic engineering the slow way.
the kind of corn we eat could not reproduce in the wild without human intervention, i.e. farmers must buy new seed from people who do corn sex.
This behaviour is common in the farming industry and has been for years. Companies like Monsanto have been prosecuting farmers who do not purchase their seeds every season.
Here is the reasoning:
1) Monsanto has created seeds via genetic engineering that are resistant to chemicals, or pests, grow with less water, etc.
2) This process costs Monsanto millions of dollars.
3) Since this seed does not occur naturally, Monsanto has created the seed and therefore "owns" the seed. It is the product of their intellectual property.
4) Since Monsanto "owns" the seed, they can sell it (license it) using any method they wish. That includes requiring that the farmer does not reuse the seed, share the seed, or use seeds that are descendants of the original seed.
5) This final step is just a technological enforcement of their policy. Farmers still do not have the "right" to use Monsanto's variation. Those that do are doing it illegally.
6) Prosecution and enforcement costs the industry millions every year. The only people that benefit are the lawyers.
I agree with Monsanto in this. Since they have spent millions creating a seed variation, they now "own" that variation. If the farmer doesn't like it, then don't use the variation. Don't believe the hype that the farmer is some starving hick. Most farmers are large conglomerates earning millions every year.
When I first read this (a couple of weeks ago. d'oh!), I gave a little dance. Fortunately, no-one saw me.
I've a few problems with GM food, and terminator was the main one. Now all we've got to worry about is the ridiculous amount of antibiotics that goes into making the seeds. Once that's dealt with, as far as I'm concerned most of the problems with the production will be over. Legal problems, however...
This is truly a good thing.
This would mean that the "high-tech" genetically engineered plants are also available to third world farmers who could benefit very much from some properties of those plants such as resistance to certain diseases and insects.
That in turn would benefit the environment because they would need less chemicals.
Everybody happy, including Monsanto, they get a better image
With all this genetic modification going on, shouldn't the open source movement adopt it's own project? Start up the FFF, free food foundation?
Maybe hacking (reverse engineer) these new seeds to make them spawn non sterile offspring?
Never mind me. I've had my try at biotechnology, and I like computers better. Lucky for all of us heh?
the pun is mightier than the sword
This is truly frightening..but I have to ask: what makes these seeds to great that anyone would be WILLING to buy seeds that can't re-produce? Can't farmers just walk down the street and buy someone else's seeds that DO re-produce? If all the big corp's start making terminator seeds can some small-time organic farmer just start selling his seeds? It seems like even if MonSanto (MS...hmmm) wanted to become the evil empire of farm products, they'd have a losing battle on their hands.
Werd.
"Explain to me why it is good that third world farmers have access to better seeds?
.
Are you under the impression that world hunger is caused by farmers not growing enough food?
I can assure you that is not the reason, even though the liberal media will tell you otherwise."
Just bumping some important content up in score with my Karma, - just because the guy was an AC, and all the moderators have finished with this discussion, doesn't mean this statement deserves to languish at 0.
Saw a news report on CNN about the Monsanto thing, the closing statement was by Greenpeace guy - saying basically that GM foods are unnecessary, starvation in the world is caused not by a shortage of food or surplus of people, not by a longshot, but instead by inequality and economic hardship - factors which are not affected by genetic engineered crops.
I guess CNN wasn't hoping for a renewal for advertisements from Monsanto and ADM. .
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Can you imagine the results of accidental cross-pollinization with 'Terminator' crops and regular???
It could've resulted in the accidental genocide of, say, corn.
This shows a complete and utter ignorance of natural selection. Think about what you just said. Organisms that win out in natural selection do so according to their darwinian fitness. For those of you who don't know what this is, darwinian fitness is defined as an organism's ability to pass on its genes.
Any plant that crossed with a terminator and inherited the terminator genes would be unable to reporduce. Period. That means that its darwinian fitness would be zero. Such a plant cannot pass on its genes, and therefore cannot compete against a plant that isn't sterile. For that matter, it can't compete at all.
The truly sad thing isn't that this guy doesn't understand ecology, it's that so many otherwise intelligent environmental organizations have put forth this same absurd argument.
(BT is the only effective organic killer of the pest worms. So, if the worms develop a resistance, the only product organic growers have for killing worms will be gone.)
The worms are as likely to become resistant to bacillus toxins if they are on the plant as they are if they are in the plant. This isn`t an issue. In fact, they`re more likely to become resistant with the organic growers applying it to the plants, as they have to use so much more of it.
Anyway, what ever did happen to 100% pure food?
What the hell is pure food? No such thing. Even 100% organically grown food varies tremendously in chemical composition depending on where and how it was grown, what the rainfall was, whether or not a particular plant was attacked by beetles on xyz day, when it was harvested, what fungus was growing on it that day and so on.
Let's give an interesting example. Here in the East part of the US this year we had a bad drought. Some farmers where however able to get perhaps 25% production of corn. This corn however turns out to be completely usesless for animal feed because the concentration of nitrates in the corn is so high that it is toxic to cattle. On the other hand, this was a GREAT year for grapes. The hot dry weather led to usually high concentration fo sugar in the fruit making them tasty and very potent for wine making.
If they are unsafe, wouldn't they be forced to cease and desist selling the GM seeds? Or worse, the government might consider them safe and ignore the other consequences, such as the environment.
There has been all kinds of debate on this topic, and many of the techniques used in making the GM foods have been worked out specifically to address these concerns. There are trials going too, before each type of food is introduced.
Why such hostility to small family farms?
Do you truly prefer depending on large megacorp semi-monopolies for your food?
Sorry but this is rubbish
Did you even look at the web site I posted a link to? IRRI is a third world run organization. It has nothing to do with Monsanto or large agribusiness. It has a long history of delivering new hybrid rices to sustinance level farmers. There are VERY few if any organizations in the world today that have done so much to alleviate human suffering - right now their hydbrids are feeding something like 3 BILLION people per day; it has been estimated that their work has already saved 1.5 billion people from starvation.
They know how to get around the political and distribution problems, and how to develop products that third world farmers can effectively use. They have done it for many years, and very successfully.
They are embracing GM in a big way because of it's potential to further eliminate human suffering.
The distribution/political problems are real. Third world countries often don't produce enough to feed their population, and can't afford to buy food on the international market. T
The answer is to get the tools into the hands of local farmers to grow more of their own food. If you were take a look at the IRRI web site you would realize that this is exactly what they are doing, and they are making heavy use of GM R&D to achieve this laudable goal.
I just don't understand the ruckus about this. Conventional hydridized crops don't breed true; if you want to replant the same hybrid you must buy new seeds anyway.
Also note that the article states a half dozen or so other companies are looking into the same tech. Also, they haven't given up. The article goes on to say that now they'll develop a spray which could have the same effect (among others, I'd imagine).
What spooks me most is where this leads logically. Imagine you're given a life saving gene therapy only to be told you've purchased a time limited license. In 12 months you can buy another license or die! That's the sort of situation we're heading for with all this IP protection BS.
GM won't feed the starving millions
Absolute crap. Your ignorance of this issue is breathtaking.
Take a look at the International Rice Research Institute in the Phillipines and tell me that GM won't have a HUGE impact on feeding the starving millions (840 million at last estimate).
GM foods are one of the most important scientific developments of this century. Ultimately their impact will affect third world nations that must import food from the developed world FAR more than any other new technology developed this century.
This is an interesting situation - at one end, if Monsanto were to limit these plants, it would have a negative impact on farming. On the other hand, I have to agree that they deserve to make money off of it, and if they do not have a method of limiting the seeds, what is to stop a farmer from selling off his seeds cheaper? And once everyone has Monsanto seeds, Monsanto has no more buisness, and they lose out. Doesn't seem very fair for them.
But if they were to use some method of limiting seeds/distribution/whatever, then the world would not benefit nearly as much, and we would still have a large food shortage.
As much as I agree that this should be in widespread use, Monsanto should definitly get what they deserve for it, as well.
-palp
Can you imagine the results of accidental cross-pollinization with 'Terminator' crops and regular??? (It's been proven to happen)
It could've resulted in the accidental genocide of, say, corn.
Good riddance. That's probably why Mosanto has ditched the plan.
---
My, you wrote a long reply. Too bad none of it is correct.
1). The IRRI is not a GM company. It is a non-profit organization funded by third world countries to improve rice for use by sustenance level farmers. It has been very effective doing this; it is estmated that it's products feed 2-3 billion people right now.
2). Wrong. Third world countries are already using the biotech products of the IRRI.
3). Wrong. The amount of arable land in production in in rice growing countries is strictly limited by geography.
4). Monsanto is not the IRRI.
5). IRRI super crops are being used to feed nearly 50% of the world population today.
6). Rice supplies the basic calorie input of 50% of the world population today. It is a simple fact. Fruits and vegatbles are nice too, but the basic caloric intake needed to sustain life comes from grains.
7). Irrigation is not going to increase the output of a rice paddy that is already intensively irrigated.
8). If Southeast Asia used organic methods like you propose 1 Billion people would die of starvation next year. Their methods are not organic, but are sustainable.
Simple - by looking at the people and the politics we can solve the problem not by throwing more technology at it.
While you screw around with pie in the sky ideas, 840 million people are starving.
are you sure you have *all* the facts
In this case, yes. The IRRI is a third world run institute with a long established record of delivering innovations to rice growing countries that have made huge impacts already to the quality of life in these countries. It has been estimated that their hydrid rices already have resulted in productivity gains that have saved over a billion people from starvation. They know how to deliver improved technologies to sustinence level farmers. They are not allied with first world agribusiness in any way.
When corporations willingly restrain themselves, I have to ask "For how long?" What's stopping them from threatening to introduce this again in 5 years. And 5 years after that. How long before the media and people in general will ignore them doing this, because they've heard about happening so many times?
(Keep in mind what Nestle did in China - giving formula to new mothers for a few months for free - until they dried up, and then they started charging them for it. The UN pointed out to them they were violating human rights and made them stop. They started again 5 years later. What can the UN do? You can't continually work people into a frenzy every 5 years over the exact same thing.)
I have no doubts that these seeds will be back.
-- Your friendly neighbourhood cynic.
The only problem with this announcement is that those terminator genes, although designed to be a profit saving device, may have been the only mechanism to save us from widespread ecological damage due to a runaway genetically modified plant.
With the terminator gene in place the harmful spread would have been limited to one generation, now they're free to expand indefinately.
Hotnutz.com
I'd suspect it would be hard to collect seeds from your harvest of seedless grapes to replant.
Hahahaha you are joking, right? Grapes have been propagated by cuttings (a form of cloning) for at least the past 4000 years or so. Grape vines are perennials - they last a very long time, perhaps 50 years or so, if properly cared for. It takes 3-5 years for them to mature enough to get a good harvest. Most grapes grown now are actually grafts - a hardy rootstock with the desirable fruit producing variety grafted at the stem.
Seedless watermelon seeds (invented in Korea) are obtained by hybridizing two other varieties that result in a sterile cross (no seeds).
Don't people take high school biology?
I agree that frozen pizza is made from farm products, but Hostess cupcakes are made from petroleum by-products, as any consumer knows.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
Realizing that hacking C code is a wee different from gene sequencing, I still wonder if there's a new breed of hacker (pardon the pun) on the horizon. As many academic groups and biotech firms have shown, you can do a lot of research with minimal equipment. True, you can do a lot more with a wad of cash, but cash usually buys reduced time and not creativity. Following the thought through, won't we begin to see agri-hackers emerge as big firms put the squeeze on small producers? (Just as MS put the squeeze on the rest of the industry using bad-for-the-consumer products?)
There are already countless farmers and biologists who are hybridization experts, and I don't think it's a great leap to see them experimenting with Monsanto's latest genetically engineered product, and chatting with their virtual neighbors about it. Hybridization techniques are a far cry from laboratory engineering of specific genes, but still quite effective for guiding/preserving/producing desired traits. And gene sequencing no longer takes the army of researchers it once did. A little of both would reveal all manner of wonders -- Monsanto's NDAs be damned. All that's missing from the picture is an updated forum for sharing information (alt.agro.gene.warez? rec.hybrid.splice?) and some websites detailing how to do gene sequencing/splicing at home hosted by down-home agrihackers, hybrid-phreaks, and gene-crackers.
I'd venture a guess that in 10 years, Monsanto will have to develop gene encryption techniques in order to maintain their current business model, and we'll be looking at SETI@home or RC5-crack style distributed sequencing projects.
- Jon (sticking to certified organic food)
I think not...(*poof*)
- A gene for a toxin that will kill the seed late in development, but that will not kill any other part of the plant.
- A method for allowing a plant breeder to grow several generations of cotton plants, already genetically-engineered to contain the seed-specific toxin gene, without any seeds dying. This is required to produce enough seeds to sell for farmers to plant.
- A method for activating the engineered seed-specific toxin gene after the farmer plants the seeds, so that the farmer's second generation will be killed.
Full technical description on the Edmonds Institute Websiteai731
--
"I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent"