I have read many posts over the years and this is the best!!

Hey I know this /. and primarily computing people like to comment on everything but some knowledge of genetics is helpful. Even if there are no patents and no fancy mol. biolgy methods used to generate new crops. And even if these strains are NOT pestiside resistant, or drought proof or any other evil thing construct but just have a higher average crop yield. And if these crops were created only with classical NON GM methods, then we would still be buying seeds every season. The reason is that high yield crops are predominantly hybrids produced from crossing two very inbred strains. The first generation crops produced from this mating are usually very robust and high yielding. Subsequent generations are less viable and productive. It takes a lot of genetic tampering to produce strains that inbreed and then for 1 generation outbreed. That's why high yielding crop seeds are always bought each season, because they are freshly generated to be as productive as possible every season.

Of course we should all give up this evil science stuff and run back into the forests were everything is happy and kind and nurturing as soon as possible. But until that time, first world farmers are going to have to front up and pay for seeds if they want the highest yields and the west will remain the bread basket of the world until the mass die off before the happy people can return to the forests.