Ban Terminator Campaign
Monsanto Turns about on Terminator
by Jim Thomas and Lucy Sharratt
Ban Terminator
www.zmag.org, February 25, 2006
It turns out you can't trust Monsanto.
The world's largest seed and agbiotech company, made a landmark
public promise in 1999 not to commercialize 'Terminator Technology'
- plants that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds.
Now seven years later Monsanto seems to have changed its mind.
Itsays it may develop or use the so-called 'suicide seeds' after
all. A newly revised pledge from Monsanto now suggests that it
would use Terminator seeds in non-food crops and does not rule
out other uses of Terminator in the future. Monsanto's modified
stance comes to light as the biotech and seed industry confront
peasant and farmer movements, Indigenous peoples and their allies
in an escalating battle at the United Nations over the future
of Terminator that will come to a head next month..
Its the latest in a seven year struggle
over what has been called 'The neutron bomb of agriculture' -
genetically modified seeds that can't be saved. In 2000 the United
Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a de
facto moratorium on sterile seed technologies (known in UN-speak
as Genetic Use Restriction Technologies or GURTs). But at next
month's high-level meeting of the CBD in Curitiba, Brazil (20-31
March 2006) the biotechnology industry will intensify its push
to undermine the six-year old de facto moratorium.
In response, over 300 organizations have
this week declared their support for a global ban on Terminator
Technology, asserting that sterile seeds threaten biodiversity
and will destroy the livelihoods and cultures of the 1.4 billion
people who depend on farm-saved seed.
"The world's farmers and Indigenous
peoples cannot trust Monsanto," declares Alejandro Argumedo
from Asociación ANDES - Potato Park in Cusco, Peru one
of many indigenous groups backing teh Ban terminator call. "Monsanto's
broken promise is a deadly betrayal because Indigenous peoples
and farmers depend on seed saving for food security and self-determination."
Terminator technology was first developed
by the United States Department of Agriculture and US seed company
Delta & Pine Land to prevent farmers from saving and re-using
harvested seed, forcing them to buy new seeds each season. Delta
and Pine Land refer to Terminator as Technology Protection System
(TPS). and are currently testing the crops in greenhouses. Delta
and Pine Land's Harry Collins has vowed that his company will
commercialize terminator within the next few years
A few years ago terminator's fortunes
weren't looking so good. In October 1999, in response to worldwide
opposition, Monsanto publicly pledged not to commercialize Terminator
seeds. Then-CEO, Robert Shapiro, wrote an open letter to the Rockefeller
Foundation, stating, "I am writing to let you know that we
are making a public commitment not to commercialize sterile seed
technologies, such as the one dubbed 'Terminator.'"
Now it turns out that Monsanto has quietly
revised that commitment, pledging to keep Terminator only out
of food crops. Their new wording opens the door to the use of
Terminator in cotton, tobacco, pharmaceutical crops and grass
with sterility genes. Referring to new versions of GURTs, Monsanto's
'pledge' now says, "Monsanto does not rule out the potential
development and use of one of these technologies in the future.
The company will continue to study the risks and benefits of this
technology on a case-by-case basis."
"Monsanto's revised pledge resonates
closely with the actions of a few rich governments that have been
promoting Terminator at the UN recently," points out Chee
Yoke Ling of Third World Network. "It looks like Monsanto
and other corporations are behind the strategy to unleash Terminator
at the upcoming meetings of the CBD".
Indeed Monsanto's new stance on Terminator
is part of a wider industry attempt to undermine the de facto
moratorium that was established six years ago. In the past year,
government delegates from Canada, Australia and New Zealand ,
working hand in hand with the biotech industry, have used UN meetings
to introduce new text that will be considered at next month's
CBD meeting in Brazil. This text recommends Terminator technologies
be approached on a "case by case risk assessment" basis
- echoing the language of Monsanto's new 'pledge.' The intention
behind the 'case by case' approach is to regulate Terminator just
like any other genetically modified crop - looking only at health
and environmental impacts. This would ignore the uniquely devastating
societal impacts of genetic seed sterility.
"Terminator is a direct assault on
farmers, Indigenous cultures and on the food sovereignty and well-being
of all rural people, primarily the very poorest," said Chukki
Nanjundaswamy of India from La Via Campesina, an organization
representing hundreds of millions of peasant farmers worldwide.
"If Monsanto bullies the UN into allowing 'case by case'
assessment of Terminator, it means farmers will be carried off
the land coffin by coffin."
"These companies have a clear and
simple vision that nothing should be grown without a license from
Monsanto and a few other masters of sterility and reproduction,"
explains Benny Haerlin of Greenpeace International. "They
pursue this strategy step by step or 'case by case' as they now
call it. If governments at the CBD give in to Monsanto and erode
the Terminator moratorium we will all have to pay the bill tomorrow
and the collateral damage will be the integrity and fertility
of nature."
The Ban Terminator campaign this week
announced the names of over 300 organizations worldwide that are
demanding a ban on Terminator technology and encouraged others
to join the alliance. The list of organizations is available at
www.banterminator.org/endorsements These organizations are from
every region of the world and include peasant farmer movements
and farm organizations, Indigenous peoples organizations, civil
society and environmental groups, unions, faith communities, international
development organizations, women's movements, consumer organizations
and youth networks.
"We are particularly alarmed that
Monsanto's edited pledge no longer rejects commercialization of
this dangerous technology." said Lucy Sharratt who is co-ordinating
the International Ban Terminator Campaign. " We invite all
civil society and social movements to join with us for the battle
against Terminator next month in Brazil."
If organisations wish to sign up to the
Ban terminator campaign they can do so at www.banterminator.org
or contact Lucy@banterminator.org
Boycotts page
Home
Page