Bio Sciences?

**Aclone** · 07-26-2012, 07:52 AM

Just curious, maybe someone here can help me with this. I have a friend who is very "green", and one of her current causes is boycotting Monsanto because they have gene engineered seeds. Some of the connected rationale sounds fishy to me (rice with human genes?), so I figured I'd come and ask where no one would know better--Iowa State's ag folks.

One link also had something about it about Monsanto now licensing their products--and some farmer getting arrested for "hiding" seed in his barn. Funny thing, I seem to remember that hybrids don't breed true (yeah, I worked in a lab in the Agronomy building a year or two--ages ago).

So, anyone care to help me straighten this out? She's a little upset that I'm not supporting her.

Not to mention "fracking". Sigh.

**Jgraham** · 07-26-2012, 01:03 PM

My girlfriend works in a corn genome research lab, so if you've got some documentation I can show it to her and see if it looks plausible at all.

**cychhosis** · 07-26-2012, 01:24 PM

Soybeans are not hybrids, the genetics from one generation to the next doesn't change. Seed is considered intellectual property and farmers who plant seed from last year's crop are breaking the law.

**DistrictCyclone** · 07-26-2012, 01:25 PM

Is this thread an attempt to troll rebecacy?

**Cyclonepride** · 07-26-2012, 01:29 PM

Genetically engineering food has saved millions from starvation. So there's that...

**MrOtter** · 07-26-2012, 01:34 PM

I can assure you they are not breeding rice with human genes. Well not like they are harvesting humans or anything. Many genes from all different species have homolgous genes in other species so rice and humans certainly share lots of lots of genes.

She is partially correct about the "licensing"and law suits and what not but it's a pretty cloudy area. Monsanto (along with every other biological technology company) has many patents on different gene constructs, hybrids, mutant lines etc. that they either use for in-house development or can sell. So when you buy special lines from Monsanto you have to sign an agreement that you will not save seeds from those plants, distribute seeds to other and whatnot.

The big case she is probably referring to is Monsanto vs Schmeiser which occurred in 2004 and was about Monsanto's claims that Percy Schmeiser (a canadian farmer) had been growing and saving seeds from Monsanto's line of RoundUp resistant canola plants. They were able to confirm through genetic testing that Schmeiser's plants were actually from Monsanto and also that he had knowingly applied RoundUp to them. However, this was only on a few acres of Schmeiser's land and so he claimed that Monsanto's plants must have "invaded" his field, potentially just from blowing off a truck or from pollen distribution from another farm. Eventually the case boiled down to Monsanto's right to have a self-replicating and living plant patented as their own and in the end the Supreme Court ruled in Monsanto's favor mostly based on precedent set by the Chakrabarty case in 1980 that claimed he (Chakrabarty, who worked for GE) could patent an oil-consuming microbe.

Sorry I was a Biology and Philosophy major so I really enjoy Bioethics and have studied those cases a lot. It hard to say whether Monsanto were really the bad guys here but I'll let you make up that decision for yourself.

**NickTheGreat** · 07-26-2012, 01:35 PM

Save yourself a lot of trouble and don't try to convince her. She wouldn't' believe you if God himself came down and said so.

**bringmagicback** · 07-26-2012, 01:37 PM

I would just ignore her. You wont be able to reason with her. People like that thrive on misinformation and hearsay. Much like myself, they make up their own facts and try to argue with others that are actually educated in that area.

Also, it is illegal to plant say pioneers stuff that you grew. However, sometimes you run a little short nawadimsayn.

**HFCS** · 07-26-2012, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by DistrictCyclone

Is this thread an attempt to troll rebecacy?

It's a safe bet the truth lies somewhere in the vast region between rebecacy and people chaining themselves to grocery stores wearing hazmat suits.

rebecacy if you read this, I do like you and enjoy your CF contributions :-)

**rebecacy** · 07-26-2012, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by Aclone

Just curious, maybe someone here can help me with this. I have a friend who is very "green", and one of her current causes is boycotting Monsanto because they have gene engineered seeds. Some of the connected rationale sounds fishy to me (rice with human genes?), so I figured I'd come and ask where no one would know better--Iowa State's ag folks.

One link also had something about it about Monsanto now licensing their products--and some farmer getting arrested for "hiding" seed in his barn. Funny thing, I seem to remember that hybrids don't breed true (yeah, I worked in a lab in the Agronomy building a year or two--ages ago).

So, anyone care to help me straighten this out? She's a little upset that I'm not supporting her.

Not to mention "fracking". Sigh.

quick, get a new friend.