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To: Mr. Lucky
Farmers who agree with you are wholly free to continue to propagate heirloom seeds; but, you'll have a hard time finding any serious farmers who agree with you.

Not so; there have been instances where [possible] wind-borne pollination from neighboring GMO crops have led to the legal persecution of their owner. -- This is especially damaging for any farm which raises "natural organic" produce, as even the pollination from GMOs destroys the legitimacy [and results in legal liability IIUC] of their labeling the produce as such. (So if you decide to go with an organic crop, catering to a small, specialized customer, but your buddy-across-the-road doesn't [and uses the GMO] and there is cross pollination you could be in trouble from two directions: copyright infringement from the corporate, and fraud suits from your customers.)

Prior to the introduction of Round Up ready seeds, There was no economical/efficacious soybean herbicide: soybeans were weeded mechanically. Tillage encouraged erosion, increased moisture loss, damaged the crop, and was back breakingly laborious.

And? Does the added convenience of such negate the rights of those farmers that do it the traditional way?

30 posted on 02/25/2013 6:51:08 AM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: OneWingedShark
This thread seems to have become the proverbial dead horse which we've beaten enough, but the "wind-borne pollen story never withstands scrutiny.

First of all, soybeans are largely self pollinating; that is, the pollen transfers from the stamen to the pistil before the bean blossoms. While some pollen can become windborne, and fertilize the pistil of a different plant, it's the exeception, not the rule.

But, let's assume that the chances were 50-50 that the bean would be pollinated by a different plant and let's ignore that the likelyhood of one plant being pollinated by another decreases geometrically with distance, the odds of an advantageous trait accidentally transferring from one field to another would be so low as to be mathmatically impossible. (keep in mind that the Round Up ready trait provides no benefit unless it is found in virtually all beans in the same field).

There are about 180,000 soybeans in a bushel, an average yield would be about 50 bushels per acre and a typical field maybe 40 acres. So, 360,000,000 soybeans would be a fair test population.

Just as heads wouldn't innocently turn up each time in 360,000,000 coin flips, virtually all of 360,000,000 million soybeans wouldn't be cross pollinated by a neighbor's field.

31 posted on 02/25/2013 8:20:05 AM PST by Mr. Lucky
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