Perhaps the prospect of sterile seeds is so frightening because it not only challenges our food supply, but also dissolves our mythic imagination.

This technology, which was never used commercially, produces plants that have sterile seeds so they do not flower or grow fruit after the initial planting.

AF36 is grown on sterile seeds which serve as the carrier and a source of nutrients.

Genetic use restriction technology, colloquially known as "terminator technology", produces plants that have sterile seeds.

Fill a planting flat with sterile potting mixture and plant the seeds 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep, 2 inches apart in all directions.

Frozen, sterile seeds, adrift on no wind, bloated from decompression and turning forever.

This uncommercialized technology would allow the production of crops with sterile seeds, which would prevent the escape of genetically modified traits.

The cones have several sterile and one (rarely two) fertile scales, each fertile scale with one seed.

"We are recognizing now though that there is something psychologically offensive about sterile seed in every culture," Mr. Angell said.

Petunias come closest, because of their frost-hardiness and the fact that some have been bred to set no seed or only sterile seed.