Brazil Set to Legalize Terminator Seeds
B. McPherson Brazil may be the first country to defy the 13 year UN moratorium on the commercial sale of terminator seeds. This would be the “thin edge of the wedge” to gradually collapse the ban on the engineered seeds. Terminator seeds are those engineered to produce a crop but the seeds from the crop will not germinate or sprout if planted. So if a farmer buys a GM seed that also has the terminator trait, he cannot save seed and avoid buying seed from the corporation next planting. That is bad enough but many of the crops that are GM spread their pollen via insects, other animals and the wind spreading their traits to non-GM fields. The spread of terminator traits would be disastrous to organic and more traditional farmers, forcing them to purchase seed from corporations. It would eventually drastically reduce the biodiversity of food crops as seed houses sell what is commercially viable. The Judicial Commission is meeting this week to review their decision about ...