Genetically modified seeds take root: six things Guo Huaren says you must know

General News Jan 1, 1970By Emily Carter 0 views

By Guo Hwa-jen (Professor Emeritus, Department of Agronomy, National Taiwan University)

The NewsMarket series "Investigation Report on GM Seeds Taking Root" points out that during transport, imported GM soybeans and corn were improperly contained, fell by the roadside and sprouted and grew. Such a serious matter of course needs to be dealt with, in order to nip problems in the bud.

The phrase "taking root" in the title is a rather interesting pun. Literally, "taking root" of course means a seed falling to the ground, sprouting and growing roots, but as an idiom it can also refer to outsiders coming here to settle down, with the meaning of establishing a home and a livelihood and multiplying their descendants.

In this report, "seed germination" gives rise to two questions that may be of concern to everyone. First, will GM seeds shipped across the ocean from the Americas actually germinate? Second, if they fall on the ground and can sprout and grow, will they contaminate native crops?

1. Will they contaminate native crops? Be especially careful when saving your own seed

Contamination is of course possible. The report points out the serious situation of native corn varieties in Mexico being contaminated by GM. Contamination in Mexico was discovered as early as 2001 and written up in a paper published in the journal Nature. This offended Monsanto, which actually launched an offensive, using a large number of emails to accuse Dr. Ignacio Chapela's research of being improper, leading the journal to retract the paper in 2002, and he even lost his job. Later, research by others confirmed that traditional corn had indeed been contaminated, so the paper could be reposted online, and the University of California, Berkeley also granted him tenure.

Corn pollen drifts quite a long distance, so there is of course a chance of contaminating locally cultivated corn. Mexico is especially serious because local people still keep and plant their own native corn varieties, so they are more easily contaminated by volunteer GM corn. In other countries, including our own, most farmers currently buy F1 hybrid seeds, which are obtained by seed companies producing seed in specific areas, and this also does more to prevent pollen contamination.

If the corn field planted by a farmer happens to be touched by pollen from volunteer GM corn by the roadside, only those few kernels of corn carry genes from the GM pollen, and they will be used as feed or food and disappear, and will not be used for sowing, so there is no chance for them to "take root."

However, seed saving by farmers is currently being promoted, so friends who plant corn from their own saved seed, or companies and institutions that produce corn seed locally, should be careful not to plant within one kilometer of the transport routes drawn in the report. Of course, the best policy is for the government to strengthen management of the transport of GM products, so that no one has to worry.

**5. Three ways GM companies monopolize seeds**

Why do GM companies want to develop sterile seeds? The reason is simple: GM seed research and development costs are enormous, and big companies that want to make big money not only want to raise seed prices 2 to 5 times, but further want to monopolize seeds, not letting farmers save seed, so that farmers have no choice but to spend money buying them every year.

In fact, there are three ways GM companies monopolize seeds: mergers and acquisitions, technology, and patents. Chemical companies began acquiring seed companies in the 1990s to develop GM seeds. By 2011, five companies held as much as 53% of the international seed market. Almost all sugar beet seed companies in the United States were acquired, and GM companies simply do not sell non-GM sugar beet seeds, so farmers can only buy GM varieties.

Among seed monopolies caused by mergers and acquisitions, Monsanto is the most extreme. A court once temporarily banned Monsanto from producing GM sugar beet seeds on the grounds of insufficient environmental review. However, the US Department of Agriculture, arguing that not letting the company produce and sell seeds would cause a sugar shortage in the United States the following year, still let Monsanto produce them.

Monopoly through technology is mainly F1 hybrid seeds (also called crossbred seeds). F1 hybrid seeds began to be developed in the 1920s; their growth is uniform and yields are high, so farmers like to plant them. However, when farmers save seed for the next planting, they find that although the seeds of the second generation and beyond can germinate, their field performance is extremely uneven and they have no commercial value, so they have no choice but to buy hybrid seeds every year. Among the current four major GM crops, corn, rapeseed, and cotton all sell hybrid seeds, creating a situation of monopoly.

Yet soybeans alone have not been made into F1 hybrid seeds. It is not that it is impossible, but because soybean seeds are very difficult to hybridize, and each hybridization can only produce two or three seeds, so commercial production is simply impossible. At this point patents are very useful. Through patent protection, US soybean farmers have no choice but to pay royalties year after year. Although many farmers save seed out of habit, Monsanto once sent staff to inspect more than 1,800 farms and found more than 400 that might infringe patent rights; the average amount they were sued for and fined was about USD 100,000.

**6. In 2000, commercial production of sterile seeds was banned**

Many other countries have no legislation allowing patents to protect seeds, and GM companies can also use contracts to force farmers to pay royalties. However, lacking legal protection still carries risk, and some countries still refuse to go along. For example, last year, because the yield of second-generation GM cotton was poor, farmers were deeply dissatisfied with the high royalties on GM cotton seeds, leading the Indian government to demand that Monsanto cancel the royalties. Similarly in Argentina, Monsanto also could not collect royalties on GM soybeans, and Argentine farmers still save seed and sow it themselves.

Unable to make F1 hybrids, and with no patent protection abroad, no wonder Monsanto planned ahead and long ago developed sterile seeds for soybeans, hoping to use new technology to make it impossible for farmers to save seed. But terminator seed technology is simply too high-handed, and as soon as the news came to light it immediately caused an uproar worldwide. The International Convention on Biological Diversity in 2000 passed a ban on the commercial production of sterile seeds.

In short, there is technology that can make GM seeds inactive from the moment they are produced, unable to germinate. However, such sterile seeds have not yet been produced or sold. So fresh GM seeds are alive and can germinate. But poor storage conditions will make seeds die quickly.

**GM Beans Caught by the Roadside - Investigation Report on GM Seeds Taking Root**

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Genetically modified seeds take root: six things Guo Huaren says you must know

1. Will they contaminate native crops? Be especially careful when saving your own seed

5. Three ways GM companies monopolize seeds

6. In 2000, commercial production of sterile seeds was banned

GM Beans Caught by the Roadside - Investigation Report on GM Seeds Taking Root

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