Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/opinion/doge-elon-musk-usda-crops.htmlNo paywall link
https://archive.li/8TYH3
In a climate-controlled bunker in an unremarkable building in rural Aberdeen, Idaho, there are shelves upon shelves of meticulously labeled boxes of seed. This vault is home to many of the United States’ more than 62,000 genetically unique lines of wheat, collected over the past 127 years from around the world.
Though dormant, these seeds are alive. But unless they are continually cared for and periodically replanted, the lines will die, along with the millenniums of evolutionary history that they embody.
Since its establishment in 1898, the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Plant Germplasm System and the scientists who support it have systematically gathered and maintained the agricultural plant species that undergird our food system in vast collections such as the one in Aberdeen. The collections represent a towering achievement of foresight that food security depends on the availability of diverse plant genetic resources.
In mid-February, Trump administration officials at what has been labeled the Department of Government Efficiency fired some of the highly trained people who do this work. A court order has reinstated them, but it’s unclear when they will be allowed to resume their work. In the meantime, uncertainty around additional staffing and budget cuts, as well as the future of the collections themselves, reigns.
This should unnerve every American who eats. Our food system is only as safe as our ability to respond to the next plant disease or other emergent threat, and a strong N.P.G.S. is central to our preparedness.
*snip*
= new reply since forum marked as read
People with no brain decided to dismantle the system. 
I think they call them terminator seeds because the plants they grow don’t throw seeds. Means farmers have to buy seed every planting season (vs building their own seed stock).
But I’m a city boy who just reads a lot…I’ll bet there’s a real farmer (or two) on this site that can explain it a lot better. lol.
Just sayin' 
...that's been on the market since at least the post-WWII era--they're called "F1 hybrid" seeds. F1 in genetics refers to the first generation of offspring. These seeds exhibit "hybrid vigor", meaning they tend to exhibit more robust growth and fitness. Hybridization also can be used to confer various highly-desired traits to the organism, e.g. disease resistance in tomato plants. The drawback: F1 seeds don't breed true, so that if you save seeds from this year's crop, next year's won't be the same. (They're not genetically stable, so you get back the parent plants plus some other recombinations).
Seed companies love F1 seeds because of this--you have to buy new ones when you run out because seed-saving doesn't work. They're also much cheaper to produce than GMO "terminator" seeds, though I didn't know those had never made it to market here. I guess the power of the farm lobby is strong enough in the USA. I wonder if they have been marketed elsewhere.
The alternative to F1 hybrids is the old-fashioned open-pollinated plant, often called an "heirloom" especially when it comes to tomatoes. They usually aren't as disease-resistant or robust (no hybrid vigor), but they have other desirable traits. Heirloom tomatoes are quite special and unique, for example. You can save seeds from heirloom plants, and they will breed true for many generations--however, unless you prevent cross-pollination, even heirloom plants will naturally hybridize through all the pollinators in the environment (e.g. bees/wasps, butterflies, hummingbirds).
Privatizers like Eloon hate "heirloom" seeds because most countries' patent laws (including ours) prohibit the patenting of open-pollinated or otherwise naturally-occurring plants. I wonder if Eloon is thinking about getting into the agriculture business. Or maybe he just can't help himself, like many end-stage capitalists: if we can't make big money from it, why not destroy it? 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_hybrid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosis
Very informative and well written. 
This is pretty much what I understand to be the case but could never have put it as succinctly as you did.
I'm an avid gardener (tomato gardening in particular), and I really prefer the heirloom plants. I've got okra seeds I've saved going back at least a decade now that are still viable (kept double-bagged in the freezer). I do grow some F1 hybrids, however, because those plants are so much more disease-resistant. (Heirloom tomato plants are especially susceptible to fungal disease).
Not from anything official…to be able to replace a seed, one must first grow the plant to maturity, collect the ‘new’ seeds…then the fresh seeds are the replacement.
There is probably a farm of some sort to accomplish this. Timing of replacements would be, more than likely, based on the historical viability of the specific plants seeds. I have stored seeds and had them germinate for as long as 6 years. We have a dedicated place in a refrigerator for storage. The 6 year seeds were a forgotten package that was found and tried as an experiment…they grew.
I'm sorta being sarcastic, but honestly, does he really need another reason? I'm not sure he has a real reason for half of what he does, beyond being drunk with power and high on the sociopathic pleasure of hearing the angry and agonized screams of those he's harming. 
