Genetically modified seeds are a
manufactured technology and have ownership. These seeds have an owner and
they are not the farmer that signs a contract to use them or the farmer that
has the misfortune to end up with corporate “property” on their
farm. In large Monsanto owns the seeds. In Stolen
Harvest The Highjacking of the Global Food Supply, Vandana Shiva identifies
the corporation as being, “recognized primarily through its association with
Agent Orange [and] today controlling a large section of the seed industry”
(81). Their seeds are all patented. Particularly interesting is
their ownership of the patent for a sterile seed known as the “terminator
technology”. Even more interesting is a government agency, the USDA,
receiving a 5 percent profit from the sale of this particular patented
seed. The seed is considered to have a built in “gene police” as it
creates “sterile seeds by selectively programming the plant’s DNA to kill its
own embryos” (Shiva 82). This results in the next generation of a plant’s
seeds not being able to grow. This system then forces farmers to buy new
seeds every year from seed companies. Opposing groups have
therefore dubbed the practice “terminator technology” asserting it threatens
the independence of farmers and “the food security of over 1 billion poor
farmers in Third World countries” (Shiva 82).
I find that the
more information that is divulged and understood, it is more easily understood
to what extent and how political the issue of genetically modified seeds truly
is. It is an issue that affects us all. Food is essential to
living. It is also essential to farmers, because they make a living from
the crops they produce. Boyle’s “I Got a Mashup” chapter explores how
copyright law shapes the scope of cultural creation, specifically music through
the idea of intellectual property. I feel the patent laws on seeds have
an influence similar for farmers. Corporations like Monsanto are
redefining the culture of the seed to be concerned with piracy, predation, the
termination of fertility, and the engineering of sterility (Shiva 90).
The intellectual-property-rights system that has pervaded the ownership of
plants and seeds, seeking to view them as corporate inventions, is changing the
duties of farmers. Saving and exchanging seeds with neighbors, formerly a
common practice is transforming into a crime. What was once a free
practice has become a monitored trade, for profit, by contracting companies
(Shiva 91).