http://st4.yahoo.com/seedsofchange/

This is part two of two articles on Genetic Engineering. The excerpts for this article were taken from the September 1999 Issue of CONSUMER REPORTS and will be marked with (cr).

Until reading this article I did not realize that as much as 40-50% of some foods we consume daily have been Genetically Engineered. In our September 23 report we covered the process that is called Genetically Engineered Technology. Detailing to some extent how plants are altered and changed by inserting genes from other plants or animals into that plants DNA. In this report we are going to discuss a very controversial issue which if nothing is done soon will let a few powerful seed and chemical companies control the production of all seeds that are produced in the world. This process is called:

THE TERMINATOR

The dictionary says that to terminate is: To come to an end or capable of ending.

That more or less is the philosophy behind the process being developed by these chemical and seed producing companies. To make it impossible for the purchase of their seeds to use the seeds from the next season. So that the seed user must again purchase the seeds from them.

HERE IS WHAT THE ARTICLE IN CONSUMERS REPORT HAD TO SAY

(cr) No environmental worry over genetic modification has elicited as much concern--even outrage--as "terminator" technology, so called because it makes plants produce sterile seeds. Monsanto has announced its intention to buy the company that, along with the USDA, holds the patents to the technology. (cr)Terminator technology was developed as a way for biotech companies to ensure that only paying customers can take advantage of their research investments. But the very idea of the widespread use of seeds programmed to be sterile has caused an international uproar, touching off protests overseas, including one in which 200 farmers in southern India reportedly set two Monsanto test plots ablaze. The economic and social foundation of some cultures could be profoundly changed if, instead of saving and replanting seeds, farmers had to buy seeds every year from multinational corporations that own the technology. What's more, some scientists worry that terminator genes might accidentally cross over to other crops, causing them to produce sterile seeds, too. And there's news of "traitor" technology, a spin-off in which a certain proprietary chemical would be needed to produce a crop, whose plants could yield sterile seeds.

(cr)Monsanto has said it will not attempt to commercialize any such technology "until a thorough, independent examination of gene-protection systems has been conducted and all points of view considered." (cr) But Monsanto states that "seed companies around the world, as well as government and independent research institutions, are in some stage of research and development on gene-protection technologies."

(cr) Yet even Agriculture Secretary Daniel Glickman, once a strong proponent of genetic engineering, now acknowledges the controversy in Europe over these foods and the environmental and health questions. "We have to have rigorous testing and strong regulations," Glickman told the World Agricultural Forum, a nonprofit group of scientists, educators, and agribusiness executives, at its inaugural meeting this spring in St. Louis, Monsanto's home town. "We have to make sure that those involved in determining the safety of genetically engineered products are staying at arm's length from the people who stand to profit from them."

In the Sept. 27th 1999 issue of the Tomah Journal was a very good editorial on what Terminator technology has and will do. Let me quote a line from that article: "Like New Deal agriculture, the terminator seed intentionally suppresses wealth in order to enrich a select few at the expense of everyone else.

(cr) One more thing that should be mentioned is: For years, the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) bacterium has been sprayed on crops as a natural pesticide; it's more benign than many synthetic pesticides. Now, its DNA is being genetically engineered directly into corn, potatoes, and cotton, and soon into soybeans and other crops, to make them resist pests.

(cr)Organic farmers are furious about Bt crops. Bt spray is one of the few and most effective natural pesticides those farmers are allowed to use. Now that it has been genetically engineered into millions of acres of crops, they fear that bugs will become resistant--and soon.

"The clock is ticking," says Dave Welsch, an organic farmer in Nebraska who leads the Organic Crop Improvement Association International, the major group that certifies organic producers and processors. Without Bt, organic farmers will be left with far less effective strategies such as ladybugs and parasites, he says. And conventional farmers, who have also relied on Bt sprays, will use pesticides that are more toxic.

Organic growers are fighting back. Dozens of farmers have joined with organic growers' organizations, Greenpeace, and others in a lawsuit that seeks to revoke the registration of Bt crops with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Monsanto makes it part of its contract with farmers that they must plant some non-Bt corn along with the Bt crop. The theory, endorsed by the EPA, is that bugs that have developed resistance will somehow find and mate with unexposed, nonresistant bugs, thus reducing the chances that any offspring will be Bt-resistant.

In April a consortium of major biotech stakeholders submitted a plan to the EPA in hopes of delaying the appearance of resistant bugs for 15 years or more. If farmers don't comply, resistance could come in five years, according to some estimates. When resistance occurs, of course, Bt crops will lose marketability.

Companies have promised a continual supply of seeds with new genes to kill increasingly resistant bugs. But organic growers and consumers who buy their produce will be out of luck.

For more information on this whole business of Genetically Engineered Plants go to: >http://www.biotech-info.net/<