10/05/21 14:41:24
Detractors say that a large-scale shift to terminator-gene
seeds would force subsistence farmers in the developing world
to buy new seeds from seed suppliers each planting season,
rather than rely on those from last year's yeild. And history shows
that once a new, advanced strain gains dominance in the
market, these may be no turning back. Pat Mooney, executive
director of a Canadian advocary organization, says that poor
farmers will have to climb on the terminator-seed platform
or stay on the sidelines with old technology and hope they
survive with outdated, inferior quality seeds. And even if the
purchase of terminator seeds was subsidized by developed
countries, Mooney says, farmers would then also be dependent
on this aid. If the aid ever dried up, terminator companies could
back out, leaving farmers with no grain.