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'Terminator' corn wins organic prize
Posted: Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:04 pm
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All Things Organic has just announced the winners of its 2009 New Product Competition, and one of the winners is "SK Food International's Crimson Red Corn (Best Overall Organic Ingredient)-A hybrid corn with a gene that prevents GMO contamination, used as an ingredient in snack foods, tortillas, and flour." SK Food spokesman Aaron Skyberg says "The gametophyte gene within the corn does not allow other types, or species, of corn to pollinate it." This is clearly a Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT).

If this were not touted by an organic food company, activists would be saying, "What if the gametophyte gene escaped into the wild? The plants with the invading gene would be sterile!" Or they'd say, "These plants are only fertile if the pollen comes from plants developed by the same International company."

This corn variety falls squarely into the definition of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) established by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. According to that definition, "The use of GURTs per se results in a genetically modified organism (GMO) even if applied to non-genetically modified material."

More specifically, this corn uses a combination of V-GURTs, also known as sterile seed technology, with T-GURTS, which restricts the expression of a trait through reliance on specific inducers. In this case, the trait is fertility, and the inducer is pollen. Highly specific pollen.

The threat to biodiversity posed by this corn is its inability to "allow other types, or species, of corn to pollinate it." That would include, of course, pollen from farm-saved seed -- and thereby additionally obstruct the efforts of farmers to breed new, indigenous landraces. These are only a few of the dangers of GURTs pointed out by the FAO. (I'm being facetious, but they aren't.)

Meanwhile, the Ban Terminator Campaign is convinced that crops with traits designed to prevent the outcrossing of GM strains may not be 100 percent effective -- and, in the event of failure, "would introduce new, dangerous biosafety risks." (I'm being facetious, but they aren't.)

Will there be an outcry, with activists "calling on" various people to do various things about Crimson Red Corn and its successors? That would be a shame, especially since it, and the prize it received, represent an attempt by organic advocates to solve their own issues, rather than to demand that everyone else bear the burden of their incessant complaints.
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GMO (noun) 1. An acronym for the term, 'Genetically Modified Organism'. 2. A plant, animal or microbe with a genetic code which has been intentionally altered, such as through forced evolution (see selective breeding); through random mutations induced with radiation or chemicals (see mutagenesis); or through the selective transfer, promoting or silencing of specific genes (see genetic engineering). 3. Most generally, any descendant of a primordial urbiote. (See evolution.)

obelus (noun) A dagger-shaped typographical symbol [ † ] which directs a reader's attention to important matters. From the Greek, obelus, literally, a roasting skewer.

GMObelus (noun, proper) A publication directing the attention of readers to the latest news and commentary regarding the development and use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture and related fields.

peer (noun) 1. One of two or more computers sending data to each other over the same network. 2. One of two or more persons sharing information with each other over such a network. (See also, 'remote peer'.)

peer review (noun phrase)  A process by which peers review information shared over a network, rather than each other. (Compare, argumentum ad hominem.)

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