> GMOs, as they tend to be mules (that is they do not breed effectively and the farmer needs to buy more seed every year) There's a couple of myths in there. T

> GMOs, as they tend to be mules (that is they do not breed effectively and the farmer needs to buy more seed every year) There's a couple of myths in there. The issue of having to buy new seed every year isn't a GMO or not-GMO thing, it's about hybridization. Hybrid corn has been around since 1926. Farmers plant hybrid seeds to improve their productivity - to get crops that grow better. The seeds are a cross between specific parent strains designed to grow especially well given the local conditions. The resulting crops aren't "mules" - you could just use their seeds to plant the next generation if you wanted to - but if you did so you would lose all the benefit of hybrid vigor. It'd be a dumb thing to do. (If you want to re-use seed, buy normal seed, not a custom hybrid.) Farmers choose to buy hybrid seeds - GMO or not - because doing so is on-net cheaper than using regular seeds when one includes the value of the resulting improved productivity - in the case of corn, you get ~30% more corn per acre from hybrids. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/corn-info3.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/corn-info3.htm As for where the myth came from, it's true that some people have talked about possibly using GMO technology to prevent accidental seed reuse - there have even been patents issued related to that idea. But as far as I know the tech didn't work well and the idea has never resulted in any actual commercial product - there is nobody who is today buying and planting seeds that have been deliberately designed not to allow re-seeding. It was just a scare story that made the rounds for a while.