Gives an update to the situation which better explains exactly what the issue was rather than just a ‘hybridization issue’ – it’s still from a Monsanto source and so won’t satisfy everyone.

“The 1940s saw Monsanto become a leading manufacturer of plastics, including polystyrene, and synthetic fibers. Since then, it has remained one of the top 10 US chemical companies. Other major products have included the herbicides 2,4,5-T, DDT, and Agent Orange used primarily during the Vietnam War as a defoliant agent (later proven to be highly carcinogenic to any who come into contact with the solution), the excitotoxin[dubious – discuss] aspartame (NutraSweet), bovine somatotropin (bovine growth hormone (BST), and PCBs[2]. Also in this decade, Monsanto operated the Dayton Project, and later Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg, Ohio, for the Manhattan Project, the development of the first nuclear weapons and, after 1947, the Atomic Energy Commission.
Monsanto began manufacturing DDT in 1944, along with some 15 other companies.[3] The use of DDT in the U.S. was banned by Congress in 1972, due in large efforts to environmentalists, who persisted in the challenge put forth by Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring in 1962, which sought to inform the public of the side effects associated with the insecticide. In 1947, an accidental explosion of ammonium nitrate fertilizer loaded on the French ship S.S. Grandcamp destroyed an adjacent Monsanto styrene manufacturing plant, along with much of the port at Galveston Bay. The explosion, known as the Texas City Disaster, is considered the largest industrial accident in US history, with the highest death toll. As the decade ended, Monsanto acquired American Viscose from England’s Courtauld family in 1949.
In 1954, Monsanto partnered with German chemical giant Bayer to form Mobay and market polyurethanes in the US. In the 1960s and 1970s, Monsanto became one of 10-36 producers of Agent Orange for US Military operations in Vietnam[4][5]

Lobbying
The company spent $8,831,120 for lobbying in 2008. $1,492,000 was to outside lobbying firms with the remainder being spent using in-house lobbyists.[84]
[edit]Public officials formerly employed by Monsanto
Justice Clarence Thomas worked as an attorney for Monsanto in the 1970s. Thomas wrote the majority opinion in the 2001 Supreme Court decision J. E. M. AG SUPPLY, INC. V. PIONEER HI-BREDINTERNATIONAL, INC. which found that “newly developed plant breeds are patentable under the general utility patent laws of the United States.” This case benefitted all companies which profit from genetically modified crops, of which Monsanto is one of the largest.[79][85][86]
Michael R. Taylor was an assistant to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner before he left to work for a law firm on gaining FDA approval of Monsanto’s artificial growth hormone in the 1980s. Taylor then became deputy commissioner of the FDA in 1991.[79]
Dr. Michael A. Friedman was a deputy commissioner of the FDA before he was hired as a senior vice president of Monsanto.[79]
Linda J. Fisher was an assistant administrator at the United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA) before she was a vice president at Monsanto from 1995 – 2000. In 2001, Fisher became the deputy administrator of the EPA.[79]
Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was chairman and chief executive officer of G. D. Searle & Co., which Monsanto purchased in 1985. Rumsfeld personally made at least $12 million USD from the transaction.[79]

Illinois
Monsanto Chemical company founded and incorporated the town of Sauget, Illinois, to avoid taxation from East Saint Louis. For many years the company employed the city’s people and polluted its environment while giving them no tax revenue in return, even during the city’s decline throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
[edit]Alabama
Monsanto is accused of encouraging residents of Anniston, Alabama to use soil known by the company to be contaminated with PCBs as topsoil.[73]

Missouri
Gary Rinehart of Eagleville, Missouri was sued by Monsanto in 2002, who claimed that he had violated their Roundup Ready Soybean patent. Rinehart is not a farmer or seed dealer, but he still had to spend money for his legal defense. Monsanto eventually dropped the lawsuit, but never issued an apology, admitted to making a mistake, or offered[dubious – discuss] to pay for Rinehart’s legal expenses.[81] This is not the only case of aggressive, misconstrued action on the part of Monsanto. Monsanto has been accused of showing up at farmers’ houses, making accusation, and demanding records;[81]
Monsanto sued the Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator in Pilot Grove, Missouri, claiming that offering seed cleaning services to farmers was tantamount to inducing them to pirate Monsanto seeds. The Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator had been cleaning seeds for decades before companies such as Monsanto could patent organisms.[75][77]

In the United Kingdom
Monsanto dumped thousands of tons of waste containing PCBs in a quarry near Groesfaen, Wales.[73] Also responsible for dumping various unconfirmed contaminates at a site near Llwyneinion, North Wales.[citation needed]

Child labor
A subsidiary of Monsanto employs child labour in the manufacture of cotton-seeds in India. The work involves handling of poisonous pesticides such as Endosulfan and the children get less than Rs.20 (half dollar) per day.[67]

Indonesian bribing convictions
In January 2005, Monsanto agreed to pay a $1.5m fine for bribing an Indonesian official. Monsanto admitted a senior manager at Monsanto directed an Indonesian consulting firm to give a $50,000 bribe to a high-level official in Indonesia’s environment ministry in 2002, in a bid to avoid Environmental impact assessment on its genetically modified cotton. Monsanto told the company to disguise an invoice for the bribe as “consulting fees”. Monsanto also has admitted to paying bribes to a number of other high-ranking Indonesian officials between 1997 and 2002. Monsanto faced both criminal and civil charges from the Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Monsanto has agreed to pay $1m to the Department of Justice and $500,000 to the SEC to settle the bribe charge and other related violations.[56].

Pollution in Anniston, Alabama
On January 1, 2002, New Year’s Day, The Washington Post carried a front page report on Monsanto’s legacy of environmental damage in Anniston, Alabama. Plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit provided documentation showing that the local Monsanto factory knowingly discharged both mercury and PCB-laden waste into local creeks for over 40 years.[32]. In a story on January 27, The New York Times reported that during 1969 alone Monsanto had dumped 45 tons of PCBs into Snow Creek, a feeder for Choccolocco Creek which supplies much of the area’s drinking water. The company also buried millions of pounds of PCB in open-pit landfills located on hillsides above the plant and surrounding neighborhoods.[33].

MON863 liver and kidney toxicity
MON863 is a variety of maize genetically engineered to be resistant to corn rootworm[20] and intended for human consumption. The MON863 grain is approved for human consumption in Japan, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and the European Union.[21][22]
Both Monsanto experts, and independent toxicology experts attached to research institutions and food safety authorities internationally did not indicate statistically significant adverse effects. The European Food Safety Authority has found that “the placing on the market of MON863 is unlikely to have an adverse effect on human and animal health or the environment in the context of its proposed use.”[23]
However, a statistical analysis conducted on results of a Monsanto 90-day feeding study by Gilles-Eric Seralini, Dominique Cellier, and Joel Spiroux de Vendomois found it increased triglycerides in female rats by 20-40%, caused increased weight gain in female rats of 3.7%, a decrease in male rat weight of 3.3%, and increased certain indicators associated with liver and kidney toxicity.[24]“

They are corrupt and their only goal is to maximize their profit margins. They use well-funded lobbyists to ensure that their products breeze through the necessary testing processes and find their way to supermarket shelves without the awareness of the general public. They fight tooth and nail against any bills tabled to ensure that GM products are marked as such in stores. Their concerns are not the well-being of consumers.

If it is widely accepted that we face huge corruption issues in South African government; how can WE trust that these products ever went through the required probity?

DKC78-35R has been on the market for 4 years

DKC 78-45BR for 2 years (ie this year is its second)

DKC 77-71R is in its first season in the market.

The original conventional hybrid used in all cases has been on the market for the past 8 years (ie the non-GM form). And to restate – the pollination problem only occured when the parental lines were switched.

Monsanto is a criminal corporation. Monsanto must die.

Thinking a little further on the nomenclature – I think the numbers probably represent the inbred lines used, and the letters the traits in them (R = roundup B = Bt?)

http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/variety/PVJ_103.pdf
http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/SAvarietylist_1007.pdf

detail plant varieties in SA in 2004 and 2007 respectively – DKC78-45BR appears on both, DKC78-35BR appears in the second document, I’m not sure on an introduction date for the DKC77-71R.

I’m not a plant breeder so I am not entirely sure on the nomenclature involved, but there does appear to be a DKC77-61R which I would assume is a close relative of the 71R variety.