With the continuing concern of home gardeners as well as farmers around the world, I offer the following information found on the internet for your viewing. All of the information contained are not my works, but snips of articles from many internet sources and I cannot take credit or responsibility for their content. This is for information only. Virtual Seeds does not knowingly buy or offer any genetically altered seeds. We are strong advocates of seed saving and our special interest is in heirloom varieties from the past.
With that statement, below is some very interesting material. Please use common sense when interpreting this info.

Survey predicts Downturn of GMO Acres (Seeds & Crops Magazine-3-2000)

The results of a survey sponsered by the American Corn Growers Association shows that those farmers who planted genetically modified maize in 1999 will reduce their GMO planted acres by 16% in 2000. Farmers listed reasons for decline in planting GMO's as declined marketability to foreign and domestic buyers, grain elevators not accepting GMO crops as well as continued negative acceptance by the public in general.

"As more and more countries reject GMO's it is clear that the time has come for US grain exporters to supply the customer the product they want instead of the product the grain industry dictates they purchase. With the market clearly requesting non-GMO's, farmers are responding to that call by growing more conventional maize to meet the market demands."

Seed Germination or Termination New Scientist, 28 March 1998

They call it "terminator technology", a "breakthrough" in genetic engineering. It is the seed that doesn't germinate. If adopted, it means that the tradition of saving seeds from one crop for the next season's planting will disappear. In early March 1998, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a Mississippi seed company, the Delta and Pine Land Company, were granted a patent for a technique that can sterilize the seeds produced by most agriculture crops.

They expect the technology to be adopted by all the major seed companies which for many years have been looking for ways to prevent farmers from recycling seeds from their crops. Willard Phelps, a spokesman for the USDA, predicts the new technique will soon be so widely adopted that farmers will only be able to buy seeds that cannot be regerminated.

The fall harvest in Missouri will feature the first crop of genetically engineered soybeans. Manufactured by Monsanto, the soybeans resist Roundup which is Monsanto's trade name for glyphosate, the largest selling herbicide in the world. With over 60% of processed consumer food products containing soy, the implications are enormous for the world food supply. There are a wide variety of foods which use soybeans in varying amounts in products as diverse as bread, margarine, milk, soft drinks, tofu, baby food, and meat.

Roundup Ready Soybeans require the use of Roundup during the entire growing period. Farmers, environmentalists and consumer groups have expressed growing concern that the use of the soybeans may lead to greater chemical use in agricultural fields. Farmers like Bill Christison, president of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, also question becoming more dependent on companies like Monsanto. "Farmers are apprehensive about entrusting our future to chemical corporations that also own the seed patents. Our independence is on the line here, Christison says.

By entering into an agreement with Monsanto, farmers will no longer be allowed to stockpile their seeds . They will be required to buy Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soybeans with each planting season.

The full implications of genetically altered food products is not known, although there are several areas of concern. Through cross-pollination there is the danger of creating super weeds and insects. Soybeans join tomatoes, corn, cotton, and potatoes as new experimental crops The last three crops mentioned, bioengineered by Monsanto, secrete a poison that kills insects. The danger lies in "new and improved insects which are part of the food chain, affecting any creature which consumes insects, and eventually coming full circle to the human population. Also, the New England Journal of Medicine states the "allergenic potential of these newly introduced microbial proteins is uncertain, unpredictable and untestable.

From London:

The strongest evidence yet has emerged to show that genetically modified crops pose a significant risk to wildlife. Scientists have found that pollen from GM plants can kill endangered butterflies.

One of the first studies into the environmental effects of GM crops found that caterpillars of the monarch butterfly suffered serious side-effects when they fed on leaves dusted with pollen from GM maize.

Nearly half of the caterpillars died and those that managed to survive grew to only about half their normal size, the scientists report in the journal Nature.

"These results have potentially profound implications for the conservation of monarch butterflies," write John Losey, Linda Rayor and Maureen Carter, all of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Also from Britain:

What are the possible consequences of the widespread usage of these seeds? Is it possible that a farmer that uses "normal" seed can be affected by the pollen of a neighboring farmer's genetically altered crops? Will this eventually require all farmers to use these seeds? Will it soon be too late to stop the cross pollination of the genetically altered crops with normal crops? Why are some countries banning these seeds completely? Have these seeds been studied sufficiently by government agencies?

The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) announced recently that it has uncovered over three dozen new patents describing a wide range of techniques that can be used for genetic sterilization of plants and seeds.

According to RAFI, every major seed and agrochemical enterprise is developing its own version of Terminator seeds. Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Monsanto are among the multinational corporations who have sterile seed in the works.

Bioengineering involves manipulating the genes of a living organism. The process can make plants more resistant to disease and pests without the use of pesticides.

The growing use of such techniques has already caused an uproar in Europe, where the space-age products are derided as "Frankenstein foods." But now the focus is switching to the United States, where the issue until recently has been dismissed as alarmist nonsense.

From NASA:

An experiment conducted aboard the space shuttle Discovery suggests that problems in growing food in space can be overcome by genetic engineering.

Aboard the shuttle that lifted off in October with astronaut John Glenn were 60 tomato seeds, 30 of them genetically altered by Yi Li, an assistant professor of plant science at the University of Connecticut.

The shuttle crew conducted the experiment in a temperature-controlled chamber by pushing buttons that first immersed the seeds in water to trigger germination, then dashed the resulting plants with a solution that killed and then preserved them.

The 30 genetically altered seeds dramatically outperformed 30 unaltered seeds used as a control, growing roots 50 percent longer.

"The plants had much longer roots than the control ones," Li said. "That was our intention, to improve root growth."

The ability to grow healthy plants in space is critical to any long-term space travel or space habitation by humans.

Li altered the genetic structure of the seeds so that the resulting plants would not respond to a stress hormone called ethylene. When plants live under unfavorable conditions - such as weightlessness in space - stress is inevitable. If the stress hormone reaches high levels, a plant will not grow well or at all.

The Associated Press
Monday, Oct. 18, 1999; 10:20 a.m. EDT

BANGKOK, Thailand will ban imports of seeds derived from genetically modified organisms pending clear scientific proof they are safe, Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi said Monday.

Thailand, the world's number-one rice exporter and a major producer of other foods for export, has become increasingly edgy over mounting concerns about the safety of genetically modified foods.

Fears reached new levels last week when a shipment of genetically modified wheat believed to be from the United States was reported to have arrived in Thailand without authorization.

The wheat reportedly came from test plots in the Pacific Northwest and was never destined for export, though U.S. authorities later said they were unsure of its origins.

Supachai, who is also trade minister and will head the World Trade Organization in three years' time, announced the ban after a meeting of the government's International Economic Relations Policy Committee.

The committee agreed to ban the import of genetically modified organisms in food for commercial purposes, but would allow in such seeds for research and experiments, Supachai said.

Thailand will also allow the import of grains like corn and soybean to produce animal feed meal, but they will not be cleared for human consumption or for cultivation.

The ban will last until the public accepts proof that genetically modified food provides more benefits than drawbacks, Supachai said. Many nations are wary of genetically modified foods.

The European Union has banned imports of genetically modified food from the United States, citing fear over the possible hazards to consumers and the environment.