Zombie Seeds -- great sci-fi story fodder on a big business gambit that could go awry

Plot Device · Dec 12, 2008

I was researching about seeds this morning, and I found an article in National Geographic (pasted below) about a strain of seeds being bred by giant agri-business. These seeds are NOT designed to produce crops that are larger or more nutritious or more disesase resistent. These seeds are covert "zombie seeds" which are designed to produce just one harvest, which makes lifeless seeds that are utterly sterile. And so the farmers who get tricked into using them will harvest a single crop, and will lay aside the seeds for next year, but next year's crop will be non-existent.

So you either need to buy a whole new round of seeds from the seed company (which they would like very much) or, if you went ahead and sowed your entire field with the dead seeds, the only way to get the sterile zombie seeds to produce a crop (after you have already spent time, money, and resources sowing them into your entire field) is to apply a special chemical to them ... which is patented and sold exclusively by just one corporation at whatever price they demand.

How's THAT premise for a Sci-Fi Channel MOW? Can you see things going wrong? Can you see seeds getting mixed up? Can you see the zombie seeds accidentally cross-polinating with regualr seeds? Can you write about a hero scientist who has to save the world from starvation?

Back to reality....

Now at first as I read this I figured the technology was still new. And the patents on the seeds (as well as the patents on the life-giving chemicals needed to coax the seeds into growing) would be years away. But it turns out the seeds have been growing in the test fields of giant agri-business corporations for over ten years now. Back in 1999, the scientists working on these projects called them the "Terminator seeds." Only now has the industry nicknamed been changed to "zombie seeds."

http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/08-11-20/news-zombie.html

Zombie seeds and foodies

Slow food movement gets political

Fritz Mayer -- November 20, 2008

CALLICOON CENTER, NY — The 30 or so people who turned out to the slow food event paused after munching on a wide variety of home grown and homemade appetizers to listen to remarks by Joseph Lennon before digging into dinner.

[...]

Lennon said that the leaders of Slow Food USA were considering becoming more politically active and taking public stands against such things as zombie seeds.

Zombie seeds?

It seems European researchers are in the process of creating plants that produce sterile seeds, but the seeds can be made fertile if a specific chemical is applied to them. The research for zombie seeds was preceded by the creation of plants that produced “terminator seeds,” which are entirely sterile, and which can’t be brought back to life. Large seed companies, like Monsanto, pursued the terminators because they didn’t want any of the 1.4 billion small-scale farmers in the world to save seeds from their plants and use them the next season, rather than buying new seeds from the companies.

However, according to various news accounts, many governments objected to terminator seeds, fearing that the parent plants could cross pollinate into other plant varieties and wreck the global food supply. An informal global ban against planting terminators has been effectively in place for about eight years. With zombie seeds, which could be brought back to life, the companies believe they have a safeguard against the wrecking-the-food-supply scenario, but it’s not clear that governments are going to allow these seeds to be planted either.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/70/seeds

Seeds of Crisis for Organic Farms

by Frederick Kirschenmann, Ph.D. -- Special to the National Geographic -- August 1999

In 1997, Keith Thompson of Hartz Seed Company, owned by Monsanto, told Marc Lappé, author of Against the Grain, of the company's intention to have 100% of U.S. soybeans converted to Roundup Ready varieties by the year 2000. Every major seed and agrochemical enterprise is developing a version of the "Terminator," genetic technology that renders seeds sterile, according to Hope Shand of Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI). The latest is so-called "Traitor" technology, sterile seeds whose desired genetic traits, such as drought resistance, can only be activated by the company's patented agrochemicals. "If these technologies are developed for commercial sale, farmers will be forced to surrender control of their seed supply. Seed sterility is not about insuring quality or productivity, but a power grab pure and simple," says RAFI executive director Pat Mooney.

GeorgeK · Dec 12, 2008

Generally producers of anything more than self sufficiency don't store seed. They buy new seed every year because they are planting hybrids anyway and so they wouldn't like the second generation plants or products. Montsanto, DuPont etc got farmers hooked on hybrids in the mid 20th century. There are open pollinated old varieties of stuff around if you want corn that tastes like corn instead of candy, or if you want to be able to save seed, but you'd need to go to a farmer's market or plant your own. If I remember correctly, Shumway's has a wide variety of the old style seeds available.

icerose · Dec 12, 2008

They'd better ban that. Just what we need on top of every other crisis, a mass food crisis due to pure and simple greed.

Monkey · Dec 12, 2008

Monsanto has been doing this for years. They also sell gentically modified seeds that DO reproduce, which is almost worse; seeds are moved by bugs, float on the wind, and can cross-polinate with other fields. When this happens and it's discovered that a field has even one or two of Monsanto's copyrighted seeds growing in it, Monsanto can take legal action against the farmer and/or demand that the entire field be destroyed.

So farmers that never bought Monsanto seeds, never planted them, never wanted them, can find their livelihoods taken by Monsanto.

Just one more way that Monsanto is eveeeeeeiiiiiil.

Don · Dec 12, 2008

Note: This is a relatively new field to me, so if I mis-speak, someone please correct me.

There's an active movement among 'preppers' to focus on heirloom plants and seeds, rather than the more modern hybrids. Much of today's food production is based on hybrids, which in many cases produce either sterile seeds or seeds that do not grow true to type.

To be an heirloom, a plant must be "open-pollinated", meaning it will grow "true to type" and produce plants like the parents from seed. This excludes nearly every hybrid. Open pollination allows the same cultivar to be grown simply from seed for many generations.

Some of those active in the heirloom movement are very concerned that the European Union's lists of vegetable cultivars that may be legally sold consist almost exclusively of hybrids, and that corporations are trying to bring the same concept to the US. Perhaps as many as 2000 varieties of vegetables have been lost since those laws were adopted in the 1970s. Since most hybrids don't breed true, this leaves much of the food production capability in the hands of corporations who supply seed stock.

Sounds like a lousy way to manage food production, IMO. Can someone with more knowledge expand on this issue?

Monkey · Dec 12, 2008

The organics movement often focuses on heirloom seeds. Online catalogs for organic heirloom seeds are pretty easy to find.

So the subsistence or hobby grower can skirt this problem easy enough, assuming no modified seed gets in their field. But organic heirloom seeds are expensive, and major growers have a harder time.

Zombie Seeds -- great sci-fi story fodder on a big business gambit that could go awry

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

GeorgeK

ever seeking

icerose

Lost in School Work

Monkey

Is me.

Don

All Living is Local

Monkey

Is me.