The claim that the activity is the last, best hope to improve the agricultural productivity of the world is very bold, given that it has not even been shown to be a hope in improving agricultural productivity.

It might be conceivable that Monsanto could use this technology to produce GM seeds that can be used in a progressive agricultural system in, say, the eastern DRC ... the former "breadbasket of Central Africa" ... should political stability return to the area.

But the fact is that to date Monsanto has done no such thing. The streams of income come from having seeds that cannot be saved and re-used and from crops that encourage more intensive use of artificial inputs. So whether or not GM could be used as a technology to contribute to a more sustainable agricultural for developing nations, in both the sense of ecological sustainability and in the sense of being self-propagating within developing economies ...

... its not doing that now, and its not clear that there is any reason why a commercial corporation would ever put their attention to the task of doing so.

This is a case of "you know, if Junior ever set his mind to it, he could make a big contribution to the local team with that cricket/baseball bat" ... when in reality what Junior does with the bat is go around the neighborhood beating people upside the head.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.