4 ms·
Oh, and there is a special place in hell reserved for anyone involved in designing food crops that can’t reproduce.
by efitz 4mo ago
Oh, and there is a special place in hell reserved for anyone involved in designing food crops that can’t reproduce.
- ch4s3 4mo agoDo you want novel genes propagating throughout the food system by accident? Terminator genes prevent that problem.
- lukeinator42 4mo agoisn't this just a by-product of seed hybridization which has enabled pretty much all of modern agriculture? A lot of testing goes into finding the two strains that combine together to create high-yield seeds, but the next generations of those seeds won't produce well.
- dbcurtis 4mo agoAlmost true. For many plants, a hybrid is naturally unstable, and can often be stabilized with one extra cross. (But isn't, as it serves as intellectual property protection for the seed company.) But some plants, soy beans being a biggest cash-crop example, can not be bred to be unstable. (See my comment above about Monsanto Roundup-Ready beans.)
- Aurornis 4mo agoIt is preferable if genetically engineered crops cannot reproduce. The impact of their wild propagation should be studied first, not unleashed upon the local ecosystem.
- sampo 4mo ago> their wild propagation In general, crop plants don't propagate well in the wild. The whole point of breeding a crop plant is to remove their chemical defenses (to make them edible) and to make them produce lots of edible parts. This is usually the direct opposite of what plants need to survive in the wild.
- Aurornis 4mo agoThe wind carries pollen from the crops long distances, where it cross-pollinates with other crops, some of which are grown from seed. This is a real thing that happens. There have been major court cases about it, like this one from Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmeiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmeise...
- sampo 4mo agoIf we understand "in the wild" to mean outside of farmers' fields, then rapeseed pollen flying from one rapeseed field to another nearby rapeseed field is not "in the wild".
- Aurornis 4mo agoIf you redefine the words to win an argument you can win the argument. By "wild propagation" I meant outside of the original controlled planting. Propagating to another farm leaves the controlled area and now it's spreading in the wild.
- sampo 4mo agoThis is what you wrote: "The impact of their wild propagation should be studied first, not unleashed upon the local ecosystem." So by "wild propagation" you meant farm-to-farm propagation? And by "local ecosystem" you meant "farmers' fields"? And you accuse others of redefining words.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- Suppafly 4mo ago>The courts at all three levels noted that the case of accidental contamination beyond the farmer's control was not under consideration but rather that Mr. Schmeiser's action of having identified, isolated and saved the Roundup-resistant seed placed the case in a different category.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago> anyone involved in designing food crops that can’t reproduce This is a side effect of many clonal varieties of selective-bred crops. It's why they have to be grafted.
- 2847372828273 4mo agoDoes stop clueless numbskulls from cursing those who created these high-yield varities.
- odie5533 4mo agoEssentially all commercial apple trees are grafted and don't reproduce true to seed. Been this way for almost a century now.
- dylan604 4mo agoThem doing it for a certain amount of time does not make it any less egregious. I'm not sure if you're just stating fact or wanting to use it as a rebuttal. I hope the former.
- icantevenhold 4mo agoThe reality is that it’s not as clear cut like “X is bad/Y is good” as laypeople in this thread assume
- LorenPechtel 4mo agoApples don't breed true. You plant a seed, you have very little idea of whether the apples will be good. This isn't a modern evil, this is simply how apples are.
- biotinker 4mo agoIt's been that way forever. No apple reproduces true to seed, period. 400 years ago, if you wanted another of your apple tree, you grafted it.
- cyberax 4mo agoSo you want to destroy all the people who create hybrid plants? Isn't that a bit cruel? Edit: also, Monsanto has never actually used their non-replicating seeds. This is a common trope in the greenie hippie community that "Monsanto wants to own your food forever".
- jolmg 4mo agoStrawman if I ever saw one.
- cyberax 4mo agoReally? How? Has Monsanto used its termination patents?
- jolmg 4mo ago>> These people are evil. > So you want to kill them? If you're being serious, saying "there is a special place in hell" does not equal "let's send them there".
- delichon 4mo agoTrue, he's not suggesting that they be sent prematurely, just that they should endure eternal torture afterwards. That seems harsh for growing a seedless grape.
- jolmg 4mo agoPeople also say things in ways not to be taken super literally. "There's a special place in hell" is an idiom. > Said of a person whom one considers to be especially wicked, evil, malevolent, etc. Often used facetiously or sarcastically. From: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/there's+a+special+place+in+hell https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/there's+a+special+place... So they're not really saying this either: > just that they should endure eternal torture afterwards They're really just saying, "these people are evil/wicked".
- 2847372828273 4mo agoI hope you don't eat any cultivar fruit or vegetable.
- dbcurtis 4mo agoWell, as an Iowa farm boy (and farm land owner) I have a more nuanced view. There have been hybrid maizes for many decades. It is possible to create unstable hybrids of normal field corns, which serves as a form of intellectual property protection for seed companies. As a farmer, you certainly can go out and plant heirloom varieties that can self-reproduce if you so choose. At which point, the choice of buying hybrid seed versus planting an heirloom variety is a simple business decision. Now with soy beans, on the other hand, it is not possible to create an unstable hybrid. Even hybrid soy beans can be saved and planted. Which is the direct root of the insanity around Monsanto's Roundup-Ready hybrid seed licensing scheme, and all the notorious law suits around that. We would be better off if Monsanto could sell an unstable soy hybrid. That would eliminate all the craziness that the licensing system creates.
- throwup238 4mo agoLike seedless grapes?
- sampo 4mo agoSeedless watermelons are my favorite!
- Suppafly 4mo agoBetween this comment and few of your others above, it's pretty clear you don't have any concept of how farming works and are just angry about things you don't understand.