I just got my copy of the Seed Savers 2001 Harvest Edition.There is startling info about Genetically Modified Seeds being released into our enveronment without lots of careful testing and it is contaminating regular and heirloom seeds also there are so called terminator seeds being used that grow the plant but you must use the company's chemicals or it will not mature and the resulting seeds from that plant are sterile.If your seeds that you save have been contaminated you have no crop next spring. A farmer from saskatchewan Canada has been taken to court and ordered to pay Monsanto chemical co. for their technology.He has always saved his seed and never bought seed from them.His field was contaminated with their product and he has to pay them? Something is wrong here!The edition was full of other examples of the chemical co.s shoving their product down peoples throats and making deals with govt.s both home and abroad to contaminate and eventally control all the seed production in the world so NO ONE can save seeds!!! I'm not a greenpeace type person but this really makes me upset! Discussion please as I have only found out about this from Seed Savers. fireliteca

-- E. Snyder (fireliteca@yahoo.ca), December 17, 2001

Answers

AH!! welcome to the 21st century big-ag farming. Where 2,3 or 4 corporations will eventually own all farming and patents, from the land,seeds,animals,production,distribution,etc. Most present day farmers will become serfs on their own farms.

You know what the real kicker is? 95% of the general public doesn't know whats going on behind closed doors & could care less. But when the Corps take control of it all and food prices rise to where bread is $5.00 a loaf, and hamburger is $4.50 a pound then the public will cry but it will be too late then.

I have predicted for awhile that MAJOR world corporations are our biggest threat to freedom not Government. The only role Government plays is the pawn in all of it.

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), December 17, 2001.

Yes, welcome. To the best of my knowledge Monsanto has still been denyed the ability to produce and market the "terminator gene" seed. The star corn thing has been such a fiasco that even factory farmers are chiming in against it. There was a major front page type article about it in one of the most conservative farm newspapers around.

The really big problem is that the people who have been fighting this for years are the ones that the right wing people call "watermelon people". Thank goodness people outside of this country are more concerned about the environment than we are and have spent really big buck fighting it.

If you want to learn more do some web searching. It will introduce you to the groups that are fighting it and tell you more about it.

Where this will really be a huge disaster is if they get away with marketing it in the third world countries. Here, and in most of the industrialized countries, we can afford to buy seed each year. In the rest of the world seed saving can make the difference between food and starvation for most people. They only buy seed after a disaster like flood or drought, and then it is very hard for them to do it.

Yes, there was an order for that Canadian farmer to pay Monsanto for "patent" infringement when his field got cross pollinated by a neighbor's field. I am not sure, but I think the case is still in appeal. Scary stuff.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 18, 2001.

I've been keeping up with the sad situation as it has unfolded through my newsletters from Rural Advancement Foundation International over the last few years. Here is a link to their site if you want to do a little reading. wayoutfarm@skybest.com), December 18, 2001.

Ok, totally furdged that link, you'll have to cut and paste. Sorry.

http://www.rafi.org/search2.asp?srch=terminator+seeds

Hope that helps.

-- gilly (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), December 18, 2001.

Read just a few days ago that traces of that Starlink maize's genes were found in wild teotinte in Mexico. Wind-borne pollen doesn't necessarily stay where it started. This sort of thing is serious because wild gene-pools are necessary for development of new commercial strains, and they're being contaminated. Give a wild strain an artificial competititve advantage, and it's likely to overwhelm other wild strains that had genes you're going to need ten or twenty years down the track. The other side of that coin is that we really don't need wild turnip or other invasive and troublesome weeds being given resistance to pesticides because they've hyridised with "Roundup-ready" canola. Come to that, bacteria can snip genes out of other organisms, then drop them into yet more organisms; so you could get "Roundup-ready" genes being passed into crabgrass or duckweed or kudzu or whatever. I'm not actually saying genetic engineering is a bad thing in itself, but every use of it I've seen so far has been irresponsible.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 18, 2001.

I just heard that the grain that was sent to Cuba was courtesy of ADM. I can only guess what that means, but the surest way to control the world is to control the world's food supply. Ahh, so sad.

-- nancy (stoneground@catskill.net), December 18, 2001.

Has anyone seen the ad on TV, using children in a classroom to promote the GMO foods and seeds? The children talk about all the benefits of the GMO, how it is going to feed the world.

Propaganda as far as I am concerned and digusting to use the children in that way. What do 8 and 9 year olds really know about GMO foods and seed?

I do plan to purchase extra organic seeds this year and store some for future use.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), December 18, 2001.

Not to worry. Monsanto has proof that all is well in biotech land. Check out monsanto.com:

Biotech Safety Information Available on New CD-ROM

ST. LOUIS (Dec. 11, 2001) - The first edition of "Essential Biosafety," a CD-ROM with information on the safety of biotech crops, has been developed by AGBIOS (Agriculture & Biotechnology Strategies Inc.). Distribution of the CD is being facilitated by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

"'Essential Biosafety' is a comprehensive biotech information resource, which provides a wealth of science-based information on biotech crop safety and benefits," said Marcia Vincent, technical communications manager, Monsanto Scientific Affairs. "This CD-ROM will be a great communication tool for biotech stakeholders worldwide."

The CD-ROM includes:

A database of safety information about biotech crop products that have received regulatory approval to date. This searchable database provides users with information on a particular crop, product, trait, inserted gene, country and/or developer of the biotech product. Abstracts, detailed descriptions and safety information are also provided for each of the biotech products.

A library containing more than 650 citations relevant to the environmental, feed and food safety of biotech crop plants, as well as the benefits of specific products and types of biotechnology applications. The database can be searched by topic, keyword or author.

A training section with educational materials that provides practical training in the environmental and food safety assessment of biotech plants. The risk-assessment concepts illustrated in the modules are based on international approaches, with case studies built around insect-resistant maize.

The CD-ROM will be updated annually by AGBIOS. More information on "Essential Biosafety" is available on the AGBIOS Web site www.agbios.com and on the ISAAA Web site www.isaaa.org.

The contents of the CD can be viewed at www.essentialbiosafety.info.

-- bruce (rural@inebraska.com), December 18, 2001.