The American Corn Growers Association has urged Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to advocate abandoning research and development of the "terminator" technology that renders second generation seed sterile.

A terminator genetic engineering technique prevents farmers from retaining seed for the next growing season, forcing them to buy new seed every year. The ACGA, at a meeting with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, expressed disappointment that USDA would use public money to help develop the technology that ACGA says is not in the best interest of production agriculture.

"The ACGA expects more from our department of agriculture. We expect advocates for farmer rights and well being. We expect partners working to expand our domestic and overseas markets. We expect a resource of valuable information that can make our farms more profitable, We do not expect public funding for research that makes seed sterile," says Gary Goldberg, AGCA CEO.

ACGA and the Rural Advancement Foundational International-USDA and the National Family Farm Coalition want USDA to stop negotiations with Delta & Pine Land to license a jointly held patent and abandon all research on genetic seed sterilization, including research grants to university scientists.

USDA developed the terminator technology at a Texas research facility. A patent was secured last year with Delta & Pine Land Co., Scott, MS, which had co-sponsored the research, according to an ASSOCIATED PRESS article. The article quotes USDA officials saying the research is continuing and negotiations on a marketing license with Delta are close to being finalized.

An article from REUTERS says some biotechnology experts believe the technology already has been overtaken by a new approach. Seed companies now are developing genetically modified seeds that can "turn on" a special characteristic such as repelling pests or protecting a plant during drought but only if a farmer buys a specific chemical to treat the seeds.

Glickman has said only that USDA would examine the issues surrounding the terminator genes in the context of the research agreement with Delta.

The American Corn Growers Association is less well-known than the larger National Corn Growers Association, and frequently takes more populist positions. It has been a regular critic of biotechnology, while NCGA has been more favorable.