Terminator no solution to gene flow

Unfortunately, the authors’ shortsighted solution is to promote the terminator technology (genetic seed sterilization) as an environmental control mechanism. The authors fail to mention that 1.4 billion poor people depend on farm-saved seed as their primary seed source. The promotion of terminator seeds as a “green” solution to pollution by genetically modified (GM) crops is the Trojan Horse of agbiotech. If terminator wins market acceptance under the guise of biosafety, it will be used as a monopoly tool to prevent farmers from saving and reusing seed. The goal of terminator is now, and has always been, to maximize seed industry profits.

After more than 130 million acres of GM crops have been planted worldwide, we are told that we can prevent leaky genes by adopting an untested GM technology that has been widely condemned as an immoral application of agricultural biotechnology. This is illogical and dangerous. Unwanted gene flow is a serious problem that must be addressed, but food security for poor people and Farmers’ Rights must not be sacrificed to solve industry’s genetic pollution problem.

It is erroneous to suggest that agriculture is dependent on genetic seed sterilization as a method for minimizing genetic pollution from GM plants. In his article entitled “Molecular strategies for gene containment in transgenic crops” (Nat. Biotechnol. 20, 581–586, 2002) Henry Daniell reviews alternative strategies for gene-containment approaches. Clearly, much more research is needed. In the meantime, it is unacceptable to suggest that farmers and society should adopt an untested, immoral GM technology to fix the defects in biotech’s first- and second-generation products.