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them more time to care for their children and earn extra income. A female farmer generally saves 12 days of pesticide spraying, more than 250 gallons of water, pesticide exposure, and increases her income by $85/season.

A final concern for many people is how GM foods are used. Many have heard of the "terminator" gene and think it is appalling because on the surface, it sounds as if big business is trying to control the food supply or squeeze money from poor farmers who have none to give. However, once one understands the purpose of the terminator gene, it would seem almost irresponsible for it to be absent from GM crops. The addition of the terminator gene means GM crops are sterile. There are two main reasons for this. First, it prevents gene flow. Gene flow occurs when two plants create progeny. If, for example, a GM crop plant crossed with a weed plant, then it would be possible to find all the good traits that were in your GM crop in the new hybrid. This means the hybrid could have a trait for insect resistance, pesticide resistance or faster maturity just like the GM crop except these traits would now be incorporated into a weed. The hybrid, then, would be harder to kill, grow back faster and be even more of a menace to the farmer than it was originally. The terminator gene prevents the natural gene pool from becoming contaminated with the GM crops' modified genes. The second reason the terminator gene is actually a good idea is due to the simple laws of inheritance described by Mendel in 1866. What happens when you cross two heterozygous plants through to the second generation? If you can do a punnet square, then you know that recessive traits start showing up. So although the original GM crop grown by the farmer produced a homozygous crop, the second generation crop would be heterozygous. A heterozygous mixture of plants would be harder to control, care for and maintain. Some plants would be insect resistant, some would not. Some plants would grow faster, others slower. It would be difficult to know when to apply a pesticide because some of your plants would need it, but not all. In short, it would be a mess that could cost an already poor farmer a good season. For those who still believe farmers should be able to save seed, a gene called "exorcist" has been developed. This gene allows farmers to have a second generation of plants however, the GM gene is lost. They get a second season, but the reason they originally wanted the GM seed is no longer there.

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