More on Genitically Engineered seed: "Terminator Gene"

Monsanto is in the process of acquiring and patenting their newest technology, known as "Terminator Technology."

Billions of people on the planet are supported by farmers who save seeds from the crops and replant these seeds the following year. Seeds are planted. The crop is harvested. And the seeds from the harvest are replanted the following year. Most farmers cannot afford to buy new seeds every year, so collecting and replanting seeds is a crucial part of the agricultural cycle. This is the way food has been grown successfully for thousands of years.

With Monsanto's terminator technology, they will sell seeds to farmers to plant crops. But these seeds have been genetically-engineered so that when the crops are harvested, all new seeds from these crops are sterile (e.g., dead, unusable). This forces farmers to pay Monsanto every year for new seeds if they want to grow their crops.

"It's terribly dangerous," says Hope Shand, "half the world's farmers are poor and can't afford to buy seed every growing season, yet poor farmers grow 15 to 20% of the world's food and they directly feed at least 1.4 billion people - 100 million in Latin America, 300 million in Africa, and 1 billion in Asia. These farmers depend upon saved seed and their own breeding skills in adapting other varieties for use on their (often marginal) lands.

"What is even more frightening is that traits from genetically-engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile. (This has the potential of making our food source dependant on patented seeds from major corporations like Monsanto; much like our medications are now)
To read more: http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/terminator.shtml

India Saying No to Large International Corporation: Genetically Engineered Seeds

Farmers in India are loosing farms, and protesting Monsanto as a result of their genetically engineered cotton seeds. Monsanto ran adds convincing farmers to buy the more expensive genetically engineered cotton seeds saying it would eliminate the need for pesticides, and produce higher yields. However after the cotton was planted neither of these claims panned out, and the result put many in foreclosure.

Even worse these seeds have begun to bleed over into the natural cotton fields, altering them, and destroying the safety in diversity. Some farmers are working hard to make sure the natural seed production is not lost, and are protesting Monsanto's reckless implementations of untested procedures. You can read more in the following links:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/indiacotton.cfm

http://www.poptel.org.uk/panap/latest/mondia.htm

It seems that large international businesses are having their way all over the world at the expense of mankind. Thank God for those who are saying no more. Hopefully our politicians will jump on board soon.