> myth ~ fact or both

Most of what passes for common knowledge about GMO is carefully-crafted
propaganda.  I like to point to facts that can be verified in multiple
places (once one is given the correct keywords), as I think that such issues
are best discussed by people who have access to facts, rather than
propaganda.

> are there any benefits to having seeds 
> that produce infertile seeds?

This "terminator technology" ("Genetic Use Restriction Technology") was
developed by the USDA and a private company called "Pine Land".  It captured
everyone's imagination due to some slick PR work after a UN biological
diversity conference held in Brazil in 2006, where a moratorium on even
field testing the stuff was the consensus.  The technology has NEVER been
tested outside of lab settings with strict bio-containment protocols.  It is
highly likely that this technology will never see the light of day.

The logic behind the moratorium was and still is sound, as the potential for
a runaway "oops" scenario could be nearly as bad as the one in Kurt
Vonnegut's novel "Cat's Cradle" with "Ice-Nine", a fictional isomer or
polymorph of water that was (impossibly) more stable than ice.  Vonnegut's
fictional military wanted to use it to help fictional troops cross a
fictional river, and when a tiny amount was tossed into the river, the
entire river turned solid, as predicted.  But so did all the streams that
fed the river, the lakes downstream, the oceans, and all the other rivers
and streams and lakes that fed into all the oceans, thus making all water
undrinkable, and dooming all life on Earth.  A delightful bedtime story to
read the kids!

> I gather that most GM crops are not 
> meant to be saved for seed by farmers,
> usually due to a contract prohibiting 
> seed saving .

This was recently discussed here, and I think it is important to note that
"seed saving" is NOT what is prohibited, or the subject or lawsuits,
propaganda notwithstanding.  The lawsuits have been over the overt
manufacturing of 100% pure "Round-Up-Ready" seeds from the seeds saved, by
repeatedly planting, spraying Round-Up to kill off the non-Round-Up-Ready
plants, and thus creating enough pure Round-Up-Ready seed to plant 1000
acres from a 5 acre plot planted and replanted with "saved seed".

http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=BEE-L;9f0070a.13
05
or
http://tinyurl.com/obgpmwm

> I will not grow however, any plants
> that I'm legally not allowed to save seed from

You can save all the seed you want, but the GMO traits will not be present
in 100% of the plants, so you will not "enjoy" the "advantages" of those
traits in subsequent year's crops.  The people selling GMO seeds say that
this will lower your yield to the point where buying GMO seeds will look
like a good deal.  Those opposed to GMO claim that there really isn't much
increase in yields from the GMO traits, so the downside risks are not worth
the minimal upside.  These days I grow herbs and some ornamentals in a total
of 70 linear feet of indoor window-sill planters 27 stories above Manhattan,
so I don't think I will be able to participate in any testing.  :)

I will also repeat my standard offer I make whenever any "agricultural
technology" is criticized - I will act as tour guide to introduce the
tourist the far less fortunate 80% of the population, filling one's passport
with entry/exit stamps, and one's mind with unforgettable nightmares of
poverty and starvation.  Places so poor that every tangible object in view
is a result of "aid" of one sort or another. Places so dry that mud for
building structures is only possible with trucked-in water, and trucked-in
twigs, as all the trees were cut down and burned long ago, both now being
excruciatingly expensive. 

As drought-resistance is added to food crops using GMO technology, it saves
lives.  Why wait for traditional breeding and selection to do the same job?

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