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Question

I keep reading about how Monsanto's seeds (and other GM seeds) that become sterile and unusable by farmers, so they are forced to by new seeds every season, even though Monsanto promised to never use those kinds of seeds back in 1999. Can you debunk this myth once and for all?

Submitted by: JoAnna Wendel Wendel


Answer

Expert response from Kelly Clauss

Global Communications Strategy Lead, IT, Bayer Crop Science

Thursday, 15/08/2013 14:41

We have never developed a biotech trait that resulted in sterile – or “Terminator” – seeds.  And, this is one myth that is easy to debunk.  In October 1999, then-Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro made a very public commitment in an “open letter” to the Rockefeller Foundation stating that we would not to commercialize technologies that result in sterile seeds in food crops.  We have no plans or research that would violate this commitment. 

 

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