DO YOU KNOW?

As lovers of seed and what they can do for us, I send you the following.

Word has it that in about 2 wks the Patent for the US Goverment genetic
seed technology( working in behalf and conjunction with Monsanto) will
be under consideration by our legislature..
This is specific to the tech.now dubbed"TERMINATOR TECHNOLOGY",(or
SUICIDE SEED)which by design will be render seed sterile by an
inhibitor..

Thus far it has not been studied adequately to tell us what will happen
when these non seed producers 'out-cross' with the standard neighboring
crops..They do not produce seed but they DO produce POLLEN..Chicago
University recently released study results of this seed and they
maintain,'they a 20x mor like to out cross than conventional seed'..The
possibility of rendering 'normal'seed sterile as well is of course the
major concern.As well as factors not even recognized to date.

Not too be too technical in the description here, but consider that they
originally deemed it necessary to prevent farmers from saving  seed to
grow out the following crop year....Cotton, and several other crop seed,
have resisted F1 hybridizing so, yes, farmers could in essence save and
grow these seed for the next year,depriving the source of the original
seed their just compensation.The few outside of 3world farmers were few
however, this never the less is given as the justification of
implementing this technology with American tax dollars to develope it ..

Unfortunately all evidence is that,they will not limit the variaties to
these crops after all...Reports are numerous that they will be
increasing these as the technology advances and of course they gain
govermental approval,here and abroad..There is such enormous potential
for profit here others as well as Monsanto have also joined the race for
dominance..

If you read the following link you can learn much more and accordingly
send your message to the representatives at the USDA..The links are all
provided for you there,nothing to do but read,learn and make you e-voice
heard..

If you think that this technology will not affect you (and I pray your
right)at least read this an other links which I or Margaret L.can
provide you..Complacency has no place  in a time when we need to be
paying close attention to what happening to OUR world and .




http://www.rafi.org/genotypes/980311seed.html









FARM SCENE: USDA setting up gene
                research center at Cornell


                                                Tuesday, January 19,
1999
                                                 Breaking News Sections


                (01-19) 01:00 EST ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) -- In an effort
                to provide a valuable resource of genetic data on key
                crops, the Agriculture Department will set up a national

                gene research center at Cornell University.

                The new facility, the Center for Bioinformatics and
                Comparative Genomics, is expected to open this
                spring, said Judy St. John, an associate deputy
                administrator with the USDA's Agricultural Research
                Service.

                ``The USDA-funded center will aid researchers around
                the country and the world in the quest to discover all
                the genes in grains -- like corn, wheat and rice -- and
                plants in the family that includes tomatoes, potatoes
                and peppers,'' St. John said in a statement released
                Monday.

                Genomics refers to the study of the gene map, and
                bioinformatics is the use of computers to help
                researchers answer life-science questions. Once a
                gene's structure is mapped, scientists can use
                computers to look for similar structures in genome
                databases of plants, humans, mice and other life
                forms.

                Once a gene's function is identified, scientists can
                begin experiments to see if that gene can be rebuilt in
a
                way to make it more effective. For example,
                disease-resistant genes can be moved into plants that
                lack resistance, and those plants should require fewer
                chemical pesticides.

                ------













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