Well, perhaps I am hijacking this thread and perhaps I am not. But here is my take on Round Up Ready.
As a person who has grown a fair amount of rape seed, I have almost always used "farmer seed" - in other words "bin run". Every now and then I would mix up the genetics a bit by using some from a distant neighbour.
Then one year I used generic bin run seed and across the fence line someone else grew Round Up Ready.
That fall after harvest we put everything to bed. Next spring we went out to kill any volunteer rape with Round Up. No luck. The pollen from the other field had created Round Up Ready volunteer seed in our bin run seeded field. Not the whole field, but certainly a singnificant portion.
Now that may seem small and not note worthy.
But - to grow Round Up Ready seed, you have to PAY for the seed and PAY the seed company a license fee.
Because of laws and because of courts and because of money, if we are not careful we will not have the right to plant our own seed.
Simply because - right or wrong - it has become Round Up Ready seed - through what I call genetic pollution. Patents allow those companies to prevent you from planting your own seed - because it is now genetically modified.
Now that in itself may not bother many folks. But when you are FORCED to go to a seed company to buy seed to plant a crop - you WILL pay THEIR price!
Beware of this.
Then add in the terminator gene - so that every crop you grow will produce seeds that will not germinate if you keep them and plant them next season.
If you use bin run and the pollen from terminator seeds hits your field YOU WILL HAVE terminator seed genetics in your crop - reducing the likelyhood of a successful use of bin run seed in the future.
There is more to this than many realize.
I watched my brother have his bins inspected and vaccuumed with a dust buster by Monsanto reps after growing Round Up Ready rape one year. I thought he was going to bust a gasket. He cleared them off and will not have them back
I have also seen Monsanto employees or reps take samples from fields in the area - and test it to ensure that field is not producing Roubd Up Ready rape seed. The fields they were testing were supposed to be bin run fields and they were not afraid to step into that field and take a sample.
Those businesses are going to be big trouble to the producer down the road - especially when they own ALL the seed and you HAVE to buy from them because there is no more bin run seed available.
It is because of the above there is now a growing number of seed banks around the world. People actually collect seeds that are not modified and store them in order to maintain a genetic diversity. Someday we may thank them for this.
RR corn has been around for years and I do not know many who plant "bin run" corn. In fact I do not know anyone who does this. But I do know a lot of folks who plant bin run rape seed, wheat, oats and barley. When this ability disappears I think there will be many who realize we have lost something very important.
Just my two cents.
No RR for me thanks.
Bez>
