[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Someone told me recently that if an ear of corn were picked from a field that the seeds on the ear would never germinate and grow. Is this true?

I don't know that as a fact, but I suspect that is true. I've heard rumors of lawsuits against farmers who were using non-hybridized seed corn and saving some of the resultant crop to reseed the next year. The seed companies were trying to force farmers to go hybrid across the board as each plant is actually a clone and is sterile. That forces the farmer to buy seed corn every season. It also presents a major problem down the road in that wide areas are populated by what is genetically a single plant. If a pest develops to which the plant(s) have no resistance, you loose the whole crop. It's risking a biological "pandemic", and that's the truth w/o sugar coating. All the seed people say is "It ain't happened" (yet)!

Regards,
GtG

[Toddsterpatriot]

The seed companies were trying to force farmers to go hybrid across the board as each plant is actually a clone and is sterile.

If the corn or wheat were sterile, there would be no crop.