Terminator plant gene 'terminated'

TIMARU - Monsanto's decision not to commercialise technology that makes plants sterile is a relief to New Zealand arable farmers, who feared it could eventually be introduced here.

The concept of a terminator gene was "something of a concern to all farmers," the national grain council chairman of Federated Farmers, Neil Barton, said yesterday.

The new technology could have resulted in farmers being forced to buy seed every season rather than harvesting their own, because the gene could make plants sterile.

Monsanto, the giant United States seed and chemical company, said on Tuesday that it had found other biotechnology capable of achieving the same ends and it did not now intend to use the genetic engineering technique.

The process has been patented by a seed company, Delta and Pine Land Co, which Monsanto is buying.

Mr Barton, a South Canterbury arable farmer, said he had always been a strong advocate of farmers being able to retain their own seed for their own crops.

He feared unforeseen complications if the terminator gene technology were introduced.

"My understanding of the terminator gene is that it could be turned off by a spray which Monsanto would use over feed areas.

"If anything went wrong we could see a seed shortage."

But Mr Barton said New Zealand farmers were not as affected by the large international food companies as other countries.

"We have got to be very careful not to get carried away.

"As long as we have a strong seed brokerage industry in New Zealand then the prospects of a multinational company demanding influence is fairly remote.

"We are a fairly small player in the international market."

New Zealand had not been dominated in the seed industry by any major company, he said.

"A good portion of our milling wheat varieties are commercially bred - probably over 50 per cent."

Other grain crops were brought into the country mainly by New Zealand companies working in conjunction with overseas breeders, he said.

But Mr Barton warned that just because Monsanto had decided not to commercialise the terminator gene it did not mean other companies would not try to develop their own.

Monsanto has said it already holds patents on other technology that would discourage farmers from planting seeds from a previous crop - but would not render those seeds infertile.

It was not yet developing those technologies, but would not rule it out, said the chairman of Monsanto, Robert Shapiro.

Other biotechnology companies have announced that they have found ways to create extremely high numbers of different mutations in conventional plant breeding.

They then select from those mutations the traits they want to breed into their commercial seed lines.

Because no genetic engineering is used, the resulting seed can be sold as "GE-free." - NZPA