A seed, especially one with commercial agricultural application, which is genetically engineered to cause critical plant functions governing reproduction, disease resistance, and seed viability to be disabled if certain conditions are not met.
Such seeds are now also known as Terminator II seeds. This is a reference to the first patent for genetically-engineered negative traits in plants which was filed by a company called DeltaPine, and as far as I can ascertain was designed to render second-generation seeds sterile in order to prevent farmers from saving seed. That original Terminator patent has now been outdone by scores of recently filed patents, which far surpass it in terms of its capabilities and aims, hence the name Terminator II.
One recent development featured in many of the Terminator II wave of suicide seed patents is the inbuilt dependence on proprietary agrochemicals for the normal functioning of plants. In other words, if brand X plants aren't fed with brand X fertilizer, they will die. One example of this type of engineered chemical dependency is AstraZeneca's "Verminator" technology. The company says it plans to file patents in 77 countries.
Another similar technique is the deliberate disabling of disease resistance in plants, known as Traitor technology. Novartis, a Swiss biotechnological company, refers in one of its patents to a genetically engineered "inactivation of endogenous regulation" which ensures that "genes which are natively regulated can be regulated exclusively by the application to the plant of a chemical regulator."
Drug-dependent wheat. Built-in vegetable obsolescence.
Progress.
Sources:
- http://www.naturalland.com/ov/onews/cab/bn0301.htm
- http://www.life.ca/nl/67/terminator.html
- http://mai.flora.org/forum/9258
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