Don't know if any of you are following the controversy surrounding
"Terminator Technology" used in some genetically modified plants where
the seeds they produce are all sterile--requiring you to purchase seeds
each year in the case of food crops, for example. The two biggest
entities involved in its development are Monsanto and the USDA working
together.
Anyway, here is an article about it from the Biodiversity Conference
going on this week down in Brazil. ("The Convention on Biological
Diversity"--"the main instrument for protecting biodiversity and
ensuring equitable and sustainable access to the benefits of the
Earth's genetic riches and a healthy environment. [There is a] 2010
deadline agreed by the international community for achieving
significant results in reducing biodiversity loss.")
See another article regarding Canada and this issue at
<http://theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/…
TPStory/National>
--Lee Poulsen
Pasadena, California, USDA Zone 10a
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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32582
Inter Press Service News Agency
Thursday, March 23, 2006 19:54 GMT
BIODIVERSITY:
Don't Sell "Suicide Seeds", Activists Warn
Haider Rizvi
CURITIBA, Brazil, Mar 21 (IPS) - On Tuesday morning, as delegates
arrived at the conference venue, they faced more than 100 peasant and
indigenous rights activists at the main gates staging a demonstration
in support of a complete ban on the sale and use of Terminator seeds,
officially known as Genetic Use Restriction Technology.
"These seeds are killed seeds," the crowd shouted as they watched
delegates arrive in cars and buses.
"Terminate the Terminator", the activists chanted in unison, while
demanding tough laws against field testing and sale of so-called
"Terminator" technology, which refers to plants that have had their
genes altered so that they render sterile seeds at harvest. Because of
this trait, some activists call Terminator products "suicide seeds".
The U.N. Convention on Biodiversity had adopted a moratorium on field
testing and commercialisation of Terminator technology in 2000. But
opponents fear that such seeds are likely to be marketed soon unless
governments impose a blanket ban.
Currently, the product is being tested in greenhouses throughout the
United States. Developed by multinational agribusiness firms and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Terminator has the potential to keep
small-scale farmers from saving or replanting seeds from one growing
season to another, activists say.
"Somebody is trying to befool me as a farmer," said Clement Chipokolo
of the African Biodiversity Network, who came here all the way from
Zambia. "In my culture we don't buy seeds. We save them. But now
somebody is trying to bring agricultural slavery for us."
The industry claims that it will enhance biodiversity and its high
cost is more than compensated for by improved crop yield and quality.
But opponents argue that Terminator would not only undermine
traditional knowledge and innovation, but would add to the economic
burden of poor peasants who depend on saved seeds.
"It's the neutron bomb of biotechnology," said Hope Shand of the
Canada-based Action Group for Erosion, Technology and Concentration
(ETC), about Terminator. "It is designed to maximise profits for the
biotech industry because farmers will be forced to buy seeds every
year."
Currently, the number of small farmers around the world is estimated
to be over one billion.
The biotech industry's interest in promoting Terminator is not hard to
understand because each year the global commercial seed market brings
in about 23 billion dollars in revenue, according to independent trade
experts who estimate that if farmers were forced to buy new seeds at
each planting, the global market would be worth over 45 billion
dollars.
ETC researchers estimate that if allowed to sell Terminator seeds, the
industry will earn at least an additional 10 billion dollars from
farmers in developing countries. They say that Brazilian farmers will
have to pay no less than 500 million dollars a year to buy soybean
seeds, while the purchase of seeds for wheat and cotton crops will cost
peasants in Pakistan more than 120 million dollars a year.
Currently, about 80 percent of farmers in both Brazil and Pakistan
grow crops based on saved seeds from previous harvests.
Many governments in the developing world have so far resisted pressure
from the U.S. government and industry, but some governments in the
industrialised world are trying to influence the outcome of the
negotiations in favour of the industry, say activists closely watching
the talks here.
Last year, the government of Brazil -- the world's fifth most populous
country and a major agricultural producer -- passed a law prohibiting
the use, registration, patenting and licensing of modified seeds.
India, a predominantly agrarian nation and home to one billion people,
has done the same.
Yet indications are that rich countries like Australia, Canada and New
Zealand will side with the U.S. and the biotech industry during the two
weeks of negotiations on the Convention on Biodiversity, which has
drawn delegates from 188 countries. The Australian delegation is
reportedly trying to introduce language that would undermine efforts to
keep the U.N. moratorium on field testing and commercialisation of
modified seeds intact.
Last January, when delegates to the Convention on Biodiversity met in
Spain, the Australians recommended that Terminator technology be
studied on a "case-by-case risk assessment basis", a turning point in
negotiations that activists fear has the potential to undermine the
U.N. moratorium.
"It is an immoral technology. It's anti-farmer," Shand said. "We don't
need any more studies. It must be banned."
Francisco Rodriguez Anamuri of Compesina (a women and indigenous
people's group in Chile) added: "It's not about Monsanto. It's about
our food security. You don't have food security if you don't have
seeds."
Monsanto, the U.S.-based biotech giant, has repeatedly come under
attack from environmental and indigenous right groups for its
aggressive research and marketing of genetically modified crops. Though
it had pledged in the past not to commercialise Terminator, Monsanto
says it seeks to study "the risks and benefits of this technology on
case-by-case basis".
Some countries have agreed with the industry that genetic
modifications can play a significant role in fighting hunger at
negligible risk to the environment. But a 100-page study released in
January by Friends of the Earth concludes that only a handful of
countries have introduced and increased the use of genetically modified
crops.
Titled "Who Benefits from GM Crops?", the report says that after 10
years of GM crop cultivation, more than 80 percent of the area sown
with biotech crops is still concentrated in only three countries: the
United States, Argentina and Canada.
In other countries -- including Brazil and Paraguay -- GM crops were
planted illegally, and in Indonesia, they were planted after government
officials were bribed, FoE said.
On the debate surrounding the use and sale of Terminator seeds, a
senior U.N. official said indications are that delegates might reach a
consensus by the end of the meeting next week.
"For six years there has been a deadlock," Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive
secretary of the Convention on Biodiversity, told IPS Monday. "I think
the decision could likely be taken at this meeting." (FIN/2006)
Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.