Terminator Technology :: Agriculture Agricultural Technological Papers

Terminator Technology Introduction: What is Terminator Technology? Terminator Technology is a reality that threatens the very existence of traditional agriculture. Where in previous times farmers depended on saving seeds from year to year in order to subsist, we are ebbing upon a time where genetically modified organisms, or GMO's as they are commonly referred to, have become a commercial reality and venture in agriculture. This commercial venture was surely the focus of a seed company Delta and Pine Land Company. In March of 1998, the DPL (Delta PineLand) company along with the cooperation of the United States Department of Agriculture acquired a patent for the control of plant gene expression. One such application of this patent is the plan to engineer crops to kill their own seeds in the second generation of its life. After the second generation, it would be impossible for farmers to save and replant their seeds for the next crop. Hence, the adoption of the name "Terminator Technology." Such technology has not only economic and environmental impl ications, but secular ones as well. There were most likely other reasons for developing Terminator Technology. One reason may be the way in which Terminator's effect differs from hybridization. In Terminator technology the second generation of the seed is killed. With hybridization, although with unpredictable combinations any genes present in the hybrid will be present in the second generation and at least the second generation is alive. One argumentation that supports the use of Terminator technology centers on the fact that if you use Terminator in combination with a genetically engineered variety it will help to cease any release of GMO's into the environment. If GMO's escape into the environment then the consequences are hard to predict, but if the repercussions were dangerous then having the entire second-generation seeds die would take away this hazard. Basically, to sum it up succinctly, the implications of such technology are not understood until we look into just how the science of these self-terminating orga nisms works. How Does Terminator Technology Work? To delve into the clockwork of this technology we must start from the beginning. A plant starts its life as a single celled organism; the sperm within pollen fertilizes an egg. This egg (cell) divides to form the tissues and organs of a species. As development proceeds cells grow unique of one another and change. Different cells make up different things (ex cells in the stalk of the plant are much different than those of the piston) and these differences are attributed to the fact the different amounts of proteins in each cell.