The NEW World Dictators..... Hitlers Reborn

[lakenheath]

and...yes, Monsanto does not own or did not develope the Terminator Gene...however they did make and offer to purchase the rights to the technology and the purchase was made a few years ago....heavy public outcry forces Monsanto to go back on the deal, but don't think for one minute that it is not in there future plans....

another WOW to a farmer that supports or not the scared all to hell about something like a Terminator Gene.....give your head a shake man....it would be a environmental disaster....what benefit....just tell me one benefit....only one...that farmer would get out of having a Terminator Gene in there seed....

give me a break....and quit being brainwashed by multi-nationals....learn to think outside the box....

[nw9flynn]

Here is a thought. If everyone holds such strong opinions on this "terminator gene", and you don't see any benifits to using it, than don't buy the seed or products from that company. Simple.
If there is no market for it and farmers don't want they won't provide the service. Simple.
If you want the termainator gene buy seed from the monsantos of the world. I don't know why some producers get so mad when on producer does something that works for him. If it dosn't work for you don't do it. Nobody is forcing anybody to buy anything. This debate is ridiculous.

[lakenheath]

Your comment is rediculous nw9flyn. If farmers in the country started using wheat with the Terminator Gene and it cross pollinated with other wheat then that would be the end of bin run seed. Unless you like seeding bin run seed at 25% germination. All I am saying is don't be blind to the potential implications of science. It is not all benefit.

[nw9flynn]

People made the same argument about RR corn, RR soybeans, RR canola. At that time they claimed it was the "end of the world" also. That argument never worked then either. All I'm saying is that everyone seems to be blowing this out of proportion.
This is a product that some producers feel would contribute to their bottom line and we have people comparing this to the man who murdered millions of jews. That is plain stupid!!!! If the chem and technology are not making you money than don't use them!!!

[lakenheath]

Not talking about Hitler. Nor did the article mention Hitler. Terminator Gene is a whole issue apart from RR technology.

But, whatever. Keep supporting the Monsantos. They are a very envirnomentally and socially responsible company.

Funny how Round-up is showing up in water sources now. But, heck it won't hurt us any.

And heck, Round-up resistant weeds are no problem. Just blast them with another chemical.

[nw9flynn]

RR weeeds wouldn't be a problem if we had the terminator gene. thats the whole point.

[lakenheath]

Explain how? You are getting into the realm of mad scientist there flynn.

[countryguy]

By endorsing this technology one is saying that he is willing to be at the mercy of the multinational giants and pay whatever they choose to ask for their seed.I don't know about everyone else's farm,but on mine the least of my weed concerns are volunteers.

The only place,and I repeat only one place I could see this being of any use is with the RR canola system.Volunteer RR did pose a bit of a challenge last year when I intended to seed hemp on canola ground.It was an overlooked problem and have simply solved it by switching to LL canola.Monsanto should incorporate it into their seed FREE OF CHARGE to the farmer and they wouldn't have to worry about people replanting it,nor would they have the woes of having to get rid of their plants that happened to get into areas that they weren't supposed to.Other than that I have absolutely no use for this technology.

[gwynplaine]

I can think of one benefit, to your farm, and mine, lakenheath. Ever lost grade due to sprouted wheat?

Wheat is pretty highly self-pollenated, as I understand it. Worst case scenario, don't buy seed with the Terminator gene, and exclude the outside rounds from your saved seed (to lower the risk of cross-pollenation). And, thats assuming that this will even GET registered. Look at the outcry over RR wheat.

I personally support both biotech and PBR on wheat (functional traits, though, like Fusarium resistance rather than herbicide tolerance), however I'm glad we don't (and hopefully, won't) have RR wheat, for the simple reason that I don't enjoy the idea of adding a $12 treatment to my RR canola, to get rid of RR wheat.

[wd9]

Question for the scientific genius posters on this discussion.

How can pollen spread from a plant with Genetic Use Restriction Technology to another plant and have that new plant grow if the technology prevents the offspring seed from growing?

[lakenheath]

I am not a scientific genius, but the answer is very simple.

Let's look at a very over-simplified example.

I have a field with 1000 plants of non-gm wheat.

Neighbour plants next to me 1000 plants of RR Terminator Wheat.

West wind blows pollen and cross pollinates with 250 of my plants.

I go and clean seed from my harvested 1000 wheat plants and find out the my germination is 75% because 25% of the plants were cross pollinated with the Terminator gene.

Bye Bye bin run seed. Unless you like seeding with low germination wheat seed.

Tell me that disenabling an organism from reproducing is a good thing. I wouldn't want my bread made from that.

[lakenheath]

wd9

Or maybe you have a magic seed cleaner that removes Terminator seeds from the grain sample.