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Ask your folks about the hybrid seed they've been buying since before you were born. GMOs didn't change a thing about the economics of seed because hybrid crop
by Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago
Ask your folks about the hybrid seed they've been buying since before you were born. GMOs didn't change a thing about the economics of seed because hybrid crops have been around for a lot longer.
It's only when you recognize this that the decline of seed co-ops makes sense. It didn't just start to happen recently, it's been going on for decades.
As long as GMOs are so expensive to take to market (and they're dirt cheap to develop), then they're only available to the big companies. Open up the market, and you can have GMOs that serve other interests.
- iam-TJ 11y agoI was born in the mid-60s and my memories go back to 1970 when I first helped 'dress' the seed corn (wheat and barley). My grandfather was using much the same process when he began farming around 1910. Seed wheat, barley, potatoes and oil-seed rape (Canola) are still produced using the same breeding process we've used for several generations, but with the added benefit of having very much more accurate technical support for measuring the benefits (or lack thereof) of new strains. Hybrid seeds through selective breeding is something very different from a single human-engineered genetic intervention.