If a farmer’s organic crops (year on year) frequently become contaminated due to cross pollination from GM crops then the percentage of contamination is likely to increase due to the ever increasing probability of contamination from adjacent fields of GM crops and contaminated volunteers (wild GM relatives) surrounding the fields.
In my opinion, organic farming will be driven out of existence because farmers will be powerless to stop cross-contamination due to gene flow. In the end, I think farmers will have little option but to grasp the proverbial GM nettle.
In the short term this may not seem such a big deal to farmers, however, once a farmer has committed to GM cultivation there will be no going back. In the long term, the seed patent owners will control the seed prices and selectable GM attributes. The farmers will be left with few choices and will be at the mercy of the seed patent owners who will dictate seed prices. As a wise old owl might say “the tail wagging the dog”.
Last edited by deek; 4th-July-2008 at 11:18 PM.
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