Corn Wars

I am reminded of a comment made about the Melissa virus [1]:<p><pre><code> While the Melissa license is a bit unclear, Melissa aggressively encourages free distribution of its source code. </code></pre> While the license on genes is a bit unclear, they aggressively encourage free distribution of their source code. How are we going to prevent the Chinese from standing downwind of a farm plot and catching pollen for analysis? (I say &quot;Chinese&quot; only because that&#x27;s what the story happens to be about... it applies to anyone, of course.) Or sequencing them through mundane means in the US and transmitting the gene code back to China?<p>Physically preventing people from &quot;stealing&quot; your genes is impossible in the long term. Only legal protection can work, and that is probably questionable in the long term too.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.debian.org&#x2F;debian-devel&#x2F;1999&#x2F;04&#x2F;msg00292.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.debian.org&#x2F;debian-devel&#x2F;1999&#x2F;04&#x2F;msg00292.html</a>

Is there a term for regulatory capture of bodies that aren&#x27;t really regulatory? This seems a lot like the result of elected folks leaning on the FBI&#x2F;DOJ about issues that are important to campaign donors.<p>The extreme measures being taken to try to stop something that is impossible to prevent feels like a stunt, like posturing. As the article mentions, the genetic information is available to anyone driving down a road in Iowa or Illinois. The intellectual property paranoia focused on seed engineering companies feels very similar to the domestic patent legislation&#x2F;litigation discussions of the past decade or so.

Reminds me Paolo Bacigalupi&#x27;s stories, &quot;Wind-up girl&quot;, &quot;The calorie men&quot; and others. He&#x27;s created a dystopian world of GM crops being the only viable food source on the planet.

i guess we&#x27;re due for DRM built into the corn seeds&#x2F;DNA. And in some near future one can imagine human designer genes with DRM too. You lose connection or skip monthly payment and your 3rd eye stops working...

I guess if the Chinese can&#x27;t figure it out for themselves then they should just starve.<p>Malthus would be proud of the people in this thread.<p>By the way, population isn&#x27;t growing nearly as fast as it used to.<p>Also the answer to these problems is high-tech ultra-local subsistence farming (aeroponics&#x2F;aquaponics&#x2F;dwarf orchards in&#x2F;on the home) and the seeds and other genetic enhancements should be open-source.<p>If we leave our food security up to a few giant American companies we are asking for trouble. We meaning the global population, which by and large is currently being fucked over by the system.

It&#x27;s almost as if he&#x27;s asking for these companies to stop innovating.<p>Crop research isn&#x27;t free, and the government can&#x27;t (or won&#x27;t) afford to do it. Obviously the solution is to have companies fund the research and be expected to give it away to the world and not protect what they&#x27;ve created.<p>I wish people stopped the whole &quot;monsanto is evil! GMO is evil!&quot; bullshit, and start lobbying their government to fund public crop genetics research.

this article smells funny...