Re: Food for thought

**"Duane Campbell" d*@chilitech.net**

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Underwood Gardens" <info@underwoodgardens.com>
>
> 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.

And I have no problem with that. In fact, I applaud it. You misrepresent 
what I said. Saving open polinated seeds is no more stealing from Mother 
Nature than breathing her air or drinking her water or cutting down her 
trees to build your house.

> 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.

So ... are you suggesting that hybrids should also be banned?

>  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
>

This is what is called an unsubstantiated assertion. In many cases of 
unsubstantiated assertions I can get some idea of where it is coming from. 
Not here. I have no idea what you are talking about.

> 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.

Since you offer no details, perhaps list members would be interested in 
knowing what you are referring to. First, the Percy Schmeiser case has 
nothing to do with terminator technology. He was growing a field full of 
Monsanto "Roundup-Ready" canola without permission. He claimed in court 
(though it was never substantiated) that his crop was "contaminated" by a 
nearby field of GM seed. The court found for Monsanto and fined Schmeiser 
$20,000. What is interesting in this case is that if the "contamination" had 
been from the terminator gene, there would have been no case. He would not 
have had any of the Monsanto seed growing in his field.

D 

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