Traitor Technology Gene Giants and Food Security, Farm Inputs, Marketing Arrangements, Formulated Proposed, Transgenic Crops, Subsistence Farmers

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	Traitor technology, 'gene giants' and food security The traitor technology in the hands of 'Gene Giants' according to RAFI, is a threat to global food security, since this will lead to increase in the cost of seed and other farm inputs. The farmers will also need to accept licensing and marketing arrangements formulated and proposed by these ‘Gene Giants’. It is also possible, according to RAFI, that the subsistence farmers may be forced to grow transgenic crops with traitor technology as a condition for loans/credits, leading to the spread of this technology.
Such an analysis of traitor technology does not appear to be realistic, because the adoption of transgenic crops with or without traitor technology will be governed by a variety of market forces and pressures of bioethical issues on the ‘Gene Giants’. Further, most of this criticism is based on a wrong assumption that non-TPS varieties will disappear, forcing farmers to buy seeds from the giant seed companies, each season, instead of saving seed for replantation (TPS = technology protected seed). One would hope instead, that despite the oligopoly of few, transgenics will be used to bring another revolution in agricultural productivity, and will be grown along with a number of non-transgenic traditional varieties.