Why can’t farmers harvest seeds from GM plants and reuse them? That is not fair.

Expert response from Laura Rutherford

Ninth Generation Farmer

Tuesday, 16/12/2014 00:39

My husband and I grow sugarbeets in the Red River Valley region of North Dakota and I am happy to address your question. 

First, there is no seed to save on a commercial sugarbeet farm. The reason is because sugarbeet plants do not produce seed in their first year of production. We harvest the root the first year to make sugar. If the beet could survive through the winter it would send up a seed stalk the following year. However, except for California, sugarbeet growing areas have freezing temperatures that kill the beets we do not harvest. Sugarbeet seed can only be grown in climates where it gets cold but does not freeze. 

Secondly, sugarbeet seed is produced from hybrids that require special plantings. The seed has a very large and rough outer cork-type coating that would never allow us to use it in our planter. The seed is processed and the outside coating is removed, sized and then a variety of treatments are applied to help it grow and protect it from insects and bacteria underground. 

Thirdly, constant improvements are being made in sugarbeet genetics, and each year we want the latest and best variety of sugarbeet seed available. 

Finally, it typically costs about $136 million to develop a biotech variety, and it takes 13 years from discovery of a trait until we can first plant it because of all of the testing and regulatory approvals. So if farmers saved the seed, they would be literally stealing the technology that is under patent by the technology provider. Saving biotech seed would give no return on the investment by the tech provider and they would no longer pursue new traits given the high cost of development. 

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