Given that many GE technologies don't seem to be effective for very long given that were seeing root worm resistance, weed resistance and problems with cotton in India leading to increased suicides and protests by farmers, is it good for farmers to become dependent on patented seed and for companies like Monsanto to take dominate market positions giving them little choice over where they get seed that they can no longer save and reuse for free legally and wouldn't the practice of saving the best organic seed work better long term, ensuring more genetic diversity and more profit for farmers?

Expert response from American Seed Trade Association

Wednesday, 18/09/2013 17:35

Resistance to treatments for pests and diseases is not new.  Whether trying to develop the most effective treatment for human, animal or plant diseases, mitigating the development of resistance has always been one of the goals of research and development, including in the area of plant breeding.  The science behind addressing resistance has become much more sophisticated, and this is no better illustrated than in the area of producing disease- and pest-resistant plant varieties.  The advancement of breeding techniques has enabled companies to better address evolving pests and diseases with more resilient seed varieties. Companies do protect the intellectual property contained in new varieties in order to get a return on the investment for the research and development to continue to produce new, higher-yielding, more resilient seed varieties.  While in most cases, growers are not able to save the seed of those varieties protected by patents, there are innumerable seed varieties that reside in the public domain, and growers are able to research, breed, multiply and save those varieties for future planting.