Re: Food for thought

**Underwood Gardens i*@underwoodgardens.com**

As some one who "steals" seeds for a living, I have a vested  
interested in clearing the misconceptions.

The "stealing" of seeds, as Duane calls it, has been obviously  
perpetrated for hundreds of years by wicked farmers without consent  
of the developer of the seed  -  Mother Nature.  What he is omitting  
is that only seeds that can be successfully saved and reproduce the  
parent plant are seeds from open-pollinated and "heirloom" varieties,  
i.e. those in their original, unhybridized form.  Seeds saved from  
hybrids,  an F1 generation, do not reproduce the parent plant.  Seed- 
saving and selecting from the fittest plants was the norm for farmers  
until the advent of hybrids.  Terminator Technology is already  
severely and adversely affecting that practice

So, we're talking apples and oranges here.  The DNA from Terminator  
plants can change the DNA in open-pollinated strains, as has been  
shown in corn varieties in the heart of Mexico and in the Percy  
Schmeiser case in Canada.  My question stands:   Since Terminator  
technology poses danger to the "originals" , is risking their loss  
(even should their genes be needed for more experimentation by our  
agribusiness "friends") worth allowing Terminator free reign?

I have spent years finding, growing and getting rare old "originals"  
back out into circulation.  Anyone can take these seeds I've  
provided, grow them, share them, start their own seed company i f  
they choose.  These seeds belong to no ONE person or  
company...they're in the public domain.  Why should they be changed,  
patented, become unavailable for an ego  or a bottom line?

Greenly,
Mayo Underwood
Underwood Gardens - heirloom seed specialists
www.underwoodgardens.com

"Bless the planet, trust yourself, expect the best".      the Kahunas

On Jan 31, 2006, at 9:26 AM, Duane Campbell wrote:

>
>
>> Terminator seeds are clearly a grave danger to all of us--I can't
>> imagine any other opinion.
>
> As Jonathin Swift said, "You cannot reason a person out of a  
> position he did
> not reason himself into in the first place." The danger of  
> terminator seed
> is clear only to those who accept myopia as the norm. I notice in the
> several messages on the subject that the responses are extremely  
> vague with
> no specifics given, but that seems sufficient for those who already  
> want to
> believe. I am not concerned about terminator seed, but nothing  
> frightens me
> more than people who cannot imagine any opinion but their own.
>
> Several years ago I debated Hope Shand of RAFI. Some of her  
> arguments were
> flat-out wrong, some dishonest. When cornered it came down to the  
> fact that
> she didn't believe in ANY property rights, intellectual or  
> otherwise.We have
> a word for people who think like that.
>
> One really good thing about terminator seed is that I don't use the  
> word
> "terminator" very often in my gardening column, so it took only a  
> couple of
> seconds for my search applet to pop out the column I wrote on the  
> subject in
> 1998.. For those who are not offended by opposing views, I pass it  
> on here.
>
> D
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Organic zealots have got their undies in a bunch once again. This  
> time their
> bete-noire is a nascent genetic engineering process called TPS, or
> Technology Protection System, but which they have labeled  
> "terminator seed,"
> apparently commemorating that great organic sage, Arnold  
> Schwarzenegger.
> (His catch phrase, "I'll be back," is an homage to recycling, but you
> probably already knew that.)
>
>
> Rights to the TPS technology belong to a small southern seed  
> company that
> specializes in cotton, but the organic cultists have taken aim at  
> Monsanto.
> This is partly because Monsanto is negotiating to buy the patent,  
> but mainly
> because they are myopic marksmen and Monsanto is a bigger target.
>
>
> Let me set the scene. An agribusiness invests a million bucks in  
> R&D to
> create a plant variety that will provide some benefit to the farmer  
> and the
> consumer. After throwing all that money at a product, they would  
> like to
> make some money from it, first to recoup the development costs,  
> second to
> store up some cash to pay for future research, and third to pass on  
> some
> profit to the stockholders. This is called capitalism, and as  
> Martha Stewart
> will tell you, it's a good thing.
>
>
> But organic gardeners think that they have a natural right (well,  
> of course
> it would have to be a Natural right) to steal the seed. They call it
> "saving" seed rather than stealing it, but euphemisms aside, it's  
> still
> taking something without the consent of the guy that worked to  
> produce it.
>
>
> TPS causes the treated crop to set sterile seeds so that the
> back-to-the-Earth bunch cannot use them the following season, and  
> this has
> made them apoplectic. They have started a screeching campaign, and  
> Organic
> Gardening magazine has been on it like brown on rice.
>
>
> Their first argument is brazen. They proclaim that taking the seed  
> that
> someone else has developed is their right. They don't explain just  
> how this
> right is derived, though, or why a company should bother to improve  
> a seed
> strain without compensation. Why complicate the issue.
>
>
> Maybe someone can explain this to me. If these people are already  
> saving
> their own seed of their own favorite varieties, what's the problem?  
> They
> wouldn't use the new seed anyway, would they? So they wouldn't be  
> affected
> by it, right?
>
>
> Their first argument, while not compelling, is at least honest.  
> Their second
> is not. They hint darkly that the "terminator" gene will escape and
> annihilate the entire world's food crops. That would be serious. If  
> it were
> true.
>
>
> There is an old joke that winds up, "If your parents didn't have any
> children, there is a good chance that you won't either." Organic  
> gardeners
> don't think that's funny. Most of 'em don't have much of a sense of  
> humor
> anyway.
>
>
> Confronted with the reasoning that sterile seeds cannot multiply  
> and take
> over the world, they mumble something vague about pollen. There is  
> a grain
> of truth in it, but only a grain.
>
>
> IF an organic gardener has land right next to a modern, progressive  
> farmer
> using TPS seed, and IF he happens to be growing exactly the same  
> crop there,
> and IF some pollen crosses over, then it MAY cause a FEW plants to  
> produce
> sterile seeds. So what? Even organically grown plants randomly produce
> sterile seeds. And since the sterility gene will prevent any  
> affected plant
> from reproducing, it stops right there. This isn't Attack of the  
> Killer
> Tomatoes, folks.
>
>
> Plant breeders have as much right to protect their product from  
> piracy as do
> video producers. And just as videos have thingies that make your  
> illegally
> copied tape of Babe fade in and out (at least that's what I'm told  
> happens),
> seed companies have a right to protect their product from theft. If  
> organic
> gardeners don't like it, for whatever feeble reason, they don't  
> have to buy
> it. That's the way the market system works. But they have no right  
> to force
> their extreme views on everyone else.
>
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