Historically, USDA's position on Terminator has been confusing and inconsistent. When USDA proudly announced that it won its first Terminator patent back in 1998, the agency openly admitted that the technology was designed to prevent farmers from saving seed and to bolster seed industry profits. A USDA 'fact sheet' on Terminator published later that year declared that the agency has no plans to insert the system into plant materials it publicly releases for variety development programs. Suicide seeds offer no agronomic benefit, so there s no reason to accept any level of risk,' concludes RAFI's Delahanty. Gary Goldberg, CEO of the American Corn Growers Association, agrees, 'The use of taxpayer money to develop Terminator is a giant kick in the teeth to farmers everywhere.
Terminator technology is designed solely to maximize seed industry profits.
RAFI is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and to the socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. RAFI is concerned about the loss of agricultural biodiversity, and the impact of intellectual property on farmers and food security.