Corporate Ventures
The production of sterile plants limits the possible food supply and keeps farmers poor. Is this acceptable corporate behavior?
Monsanto has developed seed technology that produces sterile plants: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_use_restriction_technology
Plants grown from these seeds produce seeds that don't produce plants. This means that farmers must buy a new supply of seeds every year, as opposed to collecting seeds from plants to plant for the next crop.
Because of the unpopularity of this technology, Monsanto pledged to refrain from marketing it, but they require that their customers sign an agreement that they will not collect seeds, thereby requiring that farmers buy new ones each year. Monsanto reinforces this agreement ruthlessly: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
In a world where people are starving, is this ethical?
1 Answers
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There is some concern that Terminator Technology is contagious, and that it will spread to other plants through natural processes, thereby making formerly natural plants both genetically modified and sterile: http://www.progressio.org.uk/content/what-terminator-technology
