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This clever genetically engineered terminator trait forces farmers to return every year to Monsanto or other GMO seed suppliers to get new seeds for rice, soybeans, corn, wheat whatever major crops they need to feed their population. If broadly introduced around the world, it could within perhaps a decade or so make the world’s majority of food producers new feudal serfs in bondage to three or four giant seed companies such as Monsanto or DuPont or Dow Chemical.
That, of course, could also open the door to have those private companies, perhaps under orders from their host government, Washington, deny seeds to one or another developing country whose politics happened to go against Washington’s. Those who say ‘It can’t happen here’ should look more closely at current global events. The mere existence of that concentration of power in three or four private US-based agribusiness giants is grounds for legally banning all GMO crops even were their harvest gains real, which they manifestly are not.
Possible advantages
Under warm, wet harvest conditions non V-GURT grain can sprout, which lowers the quality of grain produced. It is speculated that this problem would not occur with the use of V-GURT grain varieties.
Use of V-GURT technology could prevent escape of transgenes into wild relatives and prevent any impact on biodiversity. Crops modified to produce non-food products could be armed with GURT technology to prevent accidental transmission of these traits into crops destined for foods.
We've now been collecting and growing old fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers for 25 years. As we've come to know and love them we have become aware of their importance and their value in our lives and our future. They are the strongest seeds we have, with the widest genetic diversity, and have been developed over thousands of years to sustain and support human life.
In particular the seeds we have been saving are our own New Zealand Heirlooms, the seeds that have been saved by our own grandparents in the soil and climatic conditions of this land. These seeds are us.
Since 1920 we have lost around 90% of our vegetable seed, around 85% of the fruit varieties and our flowers are going fast. They are extinct, irretrievable. We are so concerned about this we have established a Charitable Trust called The Koanga Institute.
Originally posted by linuxer
...it just seems a bit suspicious, specially when the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are the main ones funding it.