Safe Seed Initiative

Second, I notice that the Safe Seed Initiative has clumped all GE varieties together and hasn t analyzed each one on a case-by-case basis. To me this is throwing the baby out with the bath water. GE plants approved by EPA or FDA have risks of unintended consequences ranging from extremely low to low, and also have a range of benefits, including some that would fit well into our criteria for a sustainable agriculture (box P.3). 

Commodities need to be dried to the m.c./e.r.h. level unsuitable for fungal or mite growth, and this is often achieved by continuous or hot-air dryers. The temperature selected for drying depends on the initial m.c. to protect against loss of seed and baking quality. For instance, safe temperatures range from about 49°C at 27% m.c. to about 63°C at 15-17% m.c. (Lindberg and Sorenson, 1959). 

In the semicontinuous process, the reactor is initially charged with a fraction of the formulation (monomers, emulsifiers, initiator and water). The initial charge is polymerized in batch for some time and then the rest of the formulation is added over a certain period of time (typically 3—4 h). The monomers can be fed either as an aqueous pre-emulsion sta-bihzed with some emulsifier or as neat monomers. Monomers contain inhibitors to allow safe storage and they are used without purification. The initiator is fed in a separate stream. The goal of the batch polymerization of the initial charge is to nucleate the desired number of polymer particles. Because particle nucleation is prone to suffer run-to-run irreprodu-cibility, seeded semicontinuous emulsion polymerization is often used to overcome this problem. In this process, the initial charge contains a previously synthesized latex (seed) and eventually a fraction of the formulation (monomers, emulsifiers, initiator and water). Therefore, nucleation of new particles is minimized leading to better reproducibility. 

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