Having just stepped into the shouting match more than patents on genetically engineered crops, there are a number of little items that I, as well, would like to get off my chest.
I say little points. I'm not speaking about today's big sizzling issues : Whether genetically modified organisms GMOs need to be labeled, or bring about cancer in rats, or may well improve the lives of poor farmers in Africa none of that.
This is about one thing straightforward : Seeds of GMOs. Numerous myths have grown up all around these seeds. Like most myths, they are inspired by reality. But they've wandered off into the planet of fiction.
Central Illinois corn and soybean farmer Gary Niemeyer readies his genetically modified seed corn for spring planting at his farm near Auburn, Ill.
Myth one : Seeds from GMOs are sterile.
No, they will germinate and expand just like any other plant. This thought presumably has its roots in a actual genetic modification (dubbed the Terminator Gene by anti-biotech activists) that can make a plant create sterile seeds. Monsanto owns the patent on this strategy, but has promised not to use it.
Now, biotech businesses and Monsanto in unique do appear to want that this notion were real. They do their very best to hold farmers from replanting the offspring from GMOs. But they do this since, in truth, these seeds will multiply.
Myth two : Monsanto will sue you for growing their patented GMOs if traces of these GMOs entered your fields by wind-blown pollen.
This is the idea that I see most generally. A group of organic and natural farmers, in fact, not long ago sued Monsanto, asserting that GMOs might contaminate their crops and then Monsanto may well accuse them of patent infringement. The farmers couldn't cite a single instance in which this had happened, even though, and the decide dismissed the case.
The idea, even so, is inspired by a genuine - world occasion. Back in 1999, Monsanto sued a Canadian canola farmer, Percy Schmeiser, for expanding the company's Roundup-tolerant canola with no spending any royalty or " technologies fee." Schmeiser had by no means purchased seeds from Monsanto, so people canola plants clearly came from somewhere else. But the place ?
Canola pollen can move for miles, carried by insects or the wind. Schmeiser testified that this need to have been the bring about, or GMO canola might have blown into his area from a passing truck. Monsanto mentioned that this was implausible, simply because their exams showed that about 95 percent of Schmeiser's canola contained Monsanto's Roundup resistance gene, and it is impossible to get such substantial ranges by way of stray pollen or scattered seeds. On the other hand, there is tons of confusion about these exams. Other samples, tested by other men and women, showed decrease concentrations of Roundup resistance but however more than 50 % of the crop.
Schmeiser had an explanation. As an experiment, he'd truly sprayed Roundup on about a few acres of the field that was closest to a neighbor's Roundup Prepared canola. Several plants survived the spraying, showing that they contained Monsanto's resistance gene and when Schmeiser's employed hand harvested the area, months later, he kept seed from that portion of the area and employed it for planting the upcoming year.
This convinced the judge that Schmeiser intentionally planted Roundup Ready canola. Schmeiser appealed. The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Schmeiser had violated Monsanto's patent, but had obtained no advantage by performing so, so he did not owe Monsanto any income. (For much more specifics on all this, you can read the judge's determination. Schmeiser's web page includes other paperwork.)
So why is this a myth? It is surely real that Monsanto has been going immediately after farmers whom the organization suspects of using GMO seeds with no spending royalties. And there are a lot of instances which include Schmeiser's in which the company has overreached, engaged in raw intimidation, and manufactured accusations that turned out not to be backed up by evidence.
But as far as I can inform, Monsanto has under no circumstances sued anybody in excess of trace quantities of GMOs that had been introduced into fields simply via cross-pollination. (The company asserts, in reality, that it will spend to get rid of any of its GMOs from fields exactly where they will not belong.) If you know of any case in which this in fact took place, please allow me know.
Myth 3 : Any contamination with GMOs helps make natural meals non- natural and organic.
The organic and natural rules prohibit the "use" of genetic modification in natural agriculture. But if pollen blows from genetically modified corn into your natural and organic cornfield and pollinates a handful of kernels, you are not " employing " it at least according to the USDA's interpretation of individuals guidelines. In fact, a great deal of the natural and organic corn that's fed to organically raised chickens or pigs, does include some degree of GMOs.
That mentioned, organic and natural producers commonly do test to reduce the presence of GMOs, because their clients do not want them. It really is generally not as well tricky to keep contamination to a very low level. But there are crops especially canola and corn in which it really is extremely tough to remove it entirely.
Myth four : Ahead of Monsanto received in the way, farmers usually saved their seeds and re- used them.
By the time Monsanto received into the seed company, most farmers in the U.S. and Europe have been previously relying on seed that they bought each and every yr from older seed businesses. This is in particular accurate of corn farmers, who've been growing just about solely commercial hybrids for far more than half a century. (If you re-plant seeds from hybrids, you get a mixture of inferior types.) But even soybean and cotton farmers who don't expand hybrids had been moving in that direction.
This shift started off with the rise of commercial seed companies, not the advent of genetic engineering. But Monsanto and GMOs absolutely accelerated the trend significantly.
Myth 5 : Most seeds these days are genetically modified.
Essentially, amazingly few are. Here is the complete list of food crops for which you can find GMO types : Corn, soybeans, cotton (for oil), canola (also a source of oil), squash, and papaya. You could also incorporate sugar beets, which are not eaten right, but refined into sugar. There is also GMO alfalfa, but that goes to feed animals, not for sprouts that people today eat. That leaves rather a great deal of your garden untouched.
GMO versions of tomatoes, potatoes, and rice have been created and accepted by government regulators, but they are not commercially available.
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