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TERMINATOR TECHNOLOGY The Killing Fields of the Future? TERMINATOR TECHNOLOGY The Killing Fields of the Future? The use of a technique for genetically engineering the death of second-generation seeds may have destructive consequences for ecosystems as well as human health. enetically modified organisms (GMOs) have become a commercial reality in agriculture. For example, it is estimated that in 1998 over 18 million acres in the United States will be planted in Roundup Ready® soybeans, which were first introduced in 1996 (Horstmeier, 1998). These soybeans are engineered by the Monsanto corporation to contain a bacterial gene that confers tolerance to the herbi- cide glyphosate, or Roundup®, also made by Monsanto. Only two years after the intro- duction of Roundup Ready® soybeans, over 30 per cent of the corn and soybeans planted in the United States and close to 50 per cent of the canola planted in Canada have been genetically engineered to be either herbicide or pesticide resistant. Monsanto and the other companies that have invested heavily in biotechnology in the last two decades are starting to make some money after years of promises without prod- ucts, and they are aggressively protecting their patented seeds. In the November 1997 issue of the Farm Journal, Monsanto ran a full-page advertisement asking farmers to respect the company's property rights: It takes millions of dollars and years of research to develop the biotech crops that deliver superior value to growers. And future investment in biotech research depends on companies’ ability to share in the added value created by these crops. Consider what happens if growers save and replant patented seed. First, there is less incentive for all companies to invest in future technology, such as the develop - ment of seeds with traits that produce higher-yielding, higher-value and drought- tolerant crops. In short, these few growers who save and replant patented seed jeopardize the future availability of innovative biotechnology for all growers. And that's not fair to anyone. In the future, companies and government breeders who genetically engineer crops may not have to ask for such compliance. If the procedure outlined in a recent patent comes to fruition and is widely used, plant variety protection will be biologically built into the plants themselves. In March 1998, Delta and Pine Land Company (a seed company later to be purchased by Monsanto), in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture, was awarded US Patent Number 5,723,765: Control of Plant Gene Expression. Although the patent is broad and covers many applications, one application favoured by the patent's authors is a scheme to engineer crops to kill their own seeds in the second generation, thus making it impossible for farmers to save and replant seeds. This ‘invention’ has been dubbed 'Terminator Technology’ by the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), and that group of researchers has analysed some of the technology's serious social, economic and environmental implications (RAFI, 1998). However, many of the consequences of Terminator cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the science behind the invention. In this paper, I outline the steps involved in engineering Terminator Technology into a specific crop. After explaining the process, I then discuss which details might have the devil in them. The use of a technique for genetically engineering the death of second-generation seeds may have destructive consequences for ecosystems as well as human health. by Martha L. Crouch © 1998 Associate Professor of Biology Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana, USA E-mail: crouch@indiana.edu Website: http://www.bio.indiana.edu/ people/terminator.html Overview of Terminator Technology To help describe the Terminator procedure, I've confined the explanation to only one of the many possibilities covered by the patent. The example I have chosen is cotton seed, which previously has been genetically engineered with a unique trait: herbicide tolerance. In my discussion, I have assumed that to ensure that descendants of the herbicide-tolerant NEXUS © 25 DECEMBER 1998 - JANUARY 1999