Cell Fusion CMS Cybrid seed

[raymondo]

Apr 14, 2014 14:58:01 GMT -5 mjc said:

Feb 22, 2014 21:06:01 GMT -5 oxbowfarm said:

I'm pretty close to bill here. I disapprove greatly of GMO technology given its current direction, but I can see a place for it if it was used carefully and responsibly for the benefit of mankind. Some of the anti-GMO rhetoric would have you expecting triffids to start marching out of the corn fields any minute.

The use of intellectual property law as a bludgeon to enslave the producer and vertically integrate the food system is a very scary aspect of the conversion to GMO crops which gets much less attention than it should. The lawyers are here, and they are here to bury us.

And here's another voice of support for that particular point.

My concern also. I think Monsanto are laughing all the way to the bank when they see the media caught up with frankenfood hype. It is corporate ownership that should be worrying us.

[donald]

Here is a story I have written on the cisgenic cell fusion hybrid seed debate.

www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/05/draft-a-gmo-conundrum-organic-mutageniccell-fusion-hybrid-seeds-are-genetically-engineered/#.U3VhxpK9KSM

Please comment.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

May 16, 2014 4:52:01 GMT -5 donald said:

Mutagenic/Cell Fusion Hybrid Seeds are Genetically Engineered

By the way, there is also ‘naturally occurring CMS,’ which we have used in hybrid carrots, onions, and beets for many years and SHOULD NOT be included in this debate,” Navazio says.

I believe that naturally occurring CMS should be included in the debate. Perhaps not in the "regulatory" side of the certified organic debate, but definitely in the ethical side of the debate, and I think that seed companies marketing seeds to the general public should definitely be participants in the debate about whether naturally occurring CMS is acceptable. (Naturally occurring perhaps but unnaturally concentrated to extreme levels.) At a bare minimum I think that responsible/ethical seed companies would prominently disclose if the hybrid seed they are selling was created by CMS. I applaud High Mowing Organic seeds for only selling seed made by self-incompatibility in broccoli. I am disappointed in High Mowing for selling CMS carrot hybrids. I think that the Safe Seed Pledge's claim to create "a safe and genetically stable source for future generations" is bypassed by the use of any CMS however derived. I would like to see a "Safe Seed Pledge 2.0" which specifically bans all forms of CMS. I wonder if the Safe Seed Pledge might already ban CMS because CMS can't create "genetically stable" seed.

Without a government cisgenic GE labeling requirement or a ban on cell fusion and biotechnological mutagenesis, there is no way of knowing if seeds and their crops are cisgenically created GMOs — unless there is a CMS marker."

I have the ability to take a magnifying glass into the field and examine that anthers on the crop. If the anthers are missing or deformed, that is pretty much proof that the crop was made using cytoplasmic male sterility. On my farm, I ban all CMS regardless of whether it originated naturally or in a laboratory. I don't want to grow defective plants. It looks like more than half of High Mowing's carrot seed offerings are CMS.

If the campaign to ban GE seeds in organic production, currently being promoted by OCA and organic seed breeders (High Mowing Seeds, Wild Garden Seed, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, Adaptive Seeds, etc.), converges with state GMO-labeling campaigns, there is going to be a flurry in the open-pollinating and natural hybrid seed market.

In addition to working to ban GE seeds in organic production, I encourage High Mowing to do a bit of house-cleaning on their own, and purge their seed catalogs of all forms of CMS seed regardless of whether it was derived naturally or in a laboratory. As far as I can tell the other companies mentioned do not sell male sterile seeds.

[12540dumont]

There's only one problem with banning GMO seeds the way it stands now. The burden of proof that there is NO GMO will be on the farmer. This is a pretty expensive test to pay for. Since I have never used GMO seeds, and 99% of my seeds are OP, my customers trust me. But if you are Certified "Organic" you will have to pay for the test, on every GMO crop.

[billw]

Is it the process or the end result that is important? I really don't care if my seed has undergone genetic engineering, as a general principle. I would grow it and decide whether or not the plant is worthwhile based on the characteristics. I do care if it carries intellectual property protections, since that makes it useless to me. As a result, I don't grow any GE crops, because there aren't any that come without lawyers in tow. Likewise, I don't really care whether CMS came about in nature or in the laboratory; I care that the plants are sterile, since that makes them much less useful to me.

[billw]

May 16, 2014 10:49:55 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

There's only one problem with banning GMO seeds the way it stands now. The burden of proof that there is NO GMO will be on the farmer. This is a pretty expensive test to pay for. Since I have never used GMO seeds, and 99% of my seeds are OP, my customers trust me. But if you are Certified "Organic" you will have to pay for the test, on every GMO crop.

This is the flip side of educating the consumer. We think that, if we educate the consumers, they will then demand the products that we prefer that they demand, which will shift the market in favor of small producers. But, inevitably, the consumer doesn't want to shoulder the burden of identifying the "right" products and demands that government make it easy. Government is always most responsive to money and power, so the grass-roots effort is converted to a bureaucracy and the status quo is regenerated. Voila! You are poor again and now have government inspectors assessing you fines for missing paperwork.

I suppose I might be getting a bit cynical.

[12540dumont]

On the cynical side, I think you've hit the problem with a hammer. Organic is now owned by big dairy, big lettuce and big grocery stores. The moment that I saw "Organic" at Wallmart, I knew it was just another label. The big money can't stand us little guys.

[ferdzy]

On a practical note, I'd like to grow out "Mars" and "President" celeriac for seed nextyear, and also "Bandit" leeks. Does anyone know what their status is with regards to CMS?