Thomas Peterson and Bryony Bonning
Departments of Agronomy, Zoology and Genetics, and Entomology
Iowa State University
Ames, IA
Description of the new technology
Seeds for many high yielding crop varieties are patented and
farmers are legally obliged not to save and use seed from
the crop that they grow, but rather to buy more seed from the
company. A technique has been developed to prevent farmers from
saving or re-using patented seed. This technology results in the
F2 seed (offspring of the plants grown by farmers) being inviable.
This technology is called the trait protection system and is covered
under US patent No. 5,723,765 (Oliver et al., 1998).
How it works: The plant genome is engineered so that it
produces a protein that is toxic to the plant. The promoter that
controls expression of the gene and subsequent production of the
toxin is only active late in embryo development. In order to produce
the transgenic F1 seed, a spacer is put between the promoter and
the toxin gene so that the toxin gene is inactive. On either side
of the spacer are sequences that are recognized by a "recombinase"
enzyme that cuts out the spacer. This event brings the gene and
promoter together so that the toxin is produced late in embryo
development. A promoter that is activated by the chemical treatment
of the seed sold to farmers controls the production of the recombinase.
Thus, until the seed is chemically treated, the toxin gene remains
inactive. The result of chemically treating seed purchased by
farmers is that the farmer can buy viable seed and harvest the
crop, but any seed collected from the crop will not grow. Opponents
of the new technology refer to it as the "Terminator Technology".
The current state of affairs in the world agronomic seed
industry.
The mode of reproduction of a crop plays a significant role
in the seed industry. Hybrid crops like corn, sunflower,
sorghum automatically require that farmers purchase new seed each
year to maintain yield. If farmers kept their own seed of hybrids,
50% of the advantage of growing the hybrid would be lost in the
next year. The incentive for farmers to buy new seed of a hybrid
each year is quite large.
Self-pollinated crops, like wheat, soybean, and rice do
not require that farmers purchase new seed each year. This is
because the seed harvested from the crop is genetically identical
to what was planted. It is common practice both in the US and
the rest of the world for growers of self-pollinated crops to
keep and plant their own seed.
Brown bagging
The practice of farmers saving their own seed or "brown
bagging" as it is usually called causes significant economic
problems for commercial companies. Farmers may only purchase seed
of a new variety once and in future years produce their own seed
of this variety. This limits investment by the commercial sector
in self-pollinated crop breeding because there is limited potential
return on investment. Much of the breeding of self-pollinated
crops is done in the public sector, both in the US and the rest
of the world. Brown bagging has also limited the use of biotechnology
in self-pollinated crops, because it is difficult to control this
practice. Hybrid crops do not have this problem and offer built
in protection for intellectual property.
Patenting crop varieties and requiring farmers to sign grower
agreements has been one way of circumventing the brown bagging
issue in the US. Both the patents and the grower agreements prohibit
farmers from saving seed to plant the following year. There are
obvious enforcement issues, but US farmers have been prosecuted
for brown bagging patented crop varieties.
In the case of corn
Even though hybrids offer a tremendous yield advantage in
corn, hybrids are not grown by farmers world wide. Hybrid seed
production can be expensive and technically challenging to subsistence
farmers. For example in corn, nearly 100% of the US acreage is
planted with hybrids and farmers purchase new seed each year.
In contrast, 62% of the corn acreage in developing countries is
planted with local germplasm or open-pollinated varieties, whereas
only 38% is planted with hybrids. The local germplasm or open-pollinated
varieties are grown from seed saved the previous year by the farmer,
purchased from other farmers, purchased from a public or government
agency, or in some cases purchased from a commercial company.
Forty percent of the hybrid seed planted in developing countries
is of public origin. The developing countries represent a potentially
huge market for corn hybrids. The primary hindrance has been that
farmers in developing countries do not have the capital to purchase
hybrids and intellectual property laws are weak in developing
countries.
In the case of wheat
The situation with a self-pollinated crop like wheat is much
different. Greater than 90% of the US hard red winter wheat acreage
is planted with publicly (usually from land grant institutions)
developed varieties. The situation is very similar in developing
countries. Biotechnology has not been introduced into wheat because
companies have no way to protect investment in their intellectual
property. Few commercial companies breed improved wheat varieties,
because the return on investment from breeding is very low.
Controversy over this new technology
The case for introduction of the new technology - the industry
perspective
The case against introduction of the new technology
International dialogue is required to address the potential impacts
of this new technology on global agriculture and food production.
Questions.
Citations: