Terminator Seeds are Seeds of Death
Genetically modified plants grown from terminator seeds pollinate just like other plants, but the seeds aren't fertile. The danger is that the terminator gene will spread to healthy plants, until all plants in a given species cease to reproduce. Monsanto claims this can't happen?but they also claimed that seeds from their GM plants would not contaminate nearby fields of organic crops, and this has happened all over the world. Now confidential document leaked from within the United Nations reveals that at a meeting in Bangkok on February 7-11, the Canadian government agreed to attempt to overturn an international moratorium on Terminator seeds, despite the fact that they are plaguing Canadian farmers.
ETC director Pat Mooney says, "Canada is about to launch a devastating kick in the stomach to the world's most vulnerable farmers?the 1.4 billion people who depend on saved seed." At least most Canadian farmers can afford to buy new seed every year. Terminator seeds have had a devastating effect on farmers in poor countries, such as India, where they've led to waves of suicides among farmers who have realized that they can't save seed from one crop and replant it.
Terminator technology was first developed to stop farmers from re-planting saved seed, so that they need to buy new genetically modified seed yearly. This assures that Monsanto will receive payment for the use of the plants it has developed for as long as they are planted. When the seeds were first brought out in 1998, there was so much public opposition that Monsanto abandoned the "suicide seeds" and promised the United Nations that it would not to continue to develop them. But now that a major Western government like Canada plans to lift its ban on the seeds, Monsanto is likely to feel free to sell these seeds once again?and not just in Canada. They will end up being planted by farmers in poor countries who will not realize what has happened until it's too late, when the seeds they've counted on to replant their crops will not sprout, leading to a season of barren fields and starvation