bcc: my family dear cj, I asked my family here in Kauai, and none of them had even heard of terminator technology. Kind of boggles the mind. If someone were plotting how to eradicate the human race, this technology would be a very good candidate method. And yet it makes no appearance in the mass media. regards, rkm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1999 To: •••@••.••• From: Eric Fawcett <•••@••.•••> (by way of Rycroft and Pringle <•••@••.•••>) Subject: Earth Int'l-- s4p-71: Privatising nature itself: Monsanto The Age, Melbourne, Australia Tuesday 15 December 1998 Meet the company that would privatise nature itself ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Monsanto's seed patents have horrified plant growers everywhere. By Matthew Townsend <•••@••.•••> Monsanto, the company that gave the world Agent Orange, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormones, and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), is on a spending spree. The world's largest agro-chemical producer has just invested about $6 billion in seed operations in Africa, Asia, Central and Latin America and Europe. This might not mean much were it not for Monsanto's shareholding in the company that owns the so-called "Terminator-patent" a process of genetically modifying plants so they produce only sterile seeds. If Monsanto and other seed companies succeed in inserting Terminator genes into their expanding array of patented seeds, farmers around the world could have little choice but to buy non-reproducing varieties. As the New York Times put it, "The Terminator will allow companies like Monsanto to privatise one of the last great commons in nature - the genetics of crop plants that civilisation has developed over the past 10,000 years." The technology appears to be directed towards the developing world. Willard Phelps, the Spokesman for the US Dept of Agriculture, the government agency that co-sponsored the Terminator's development, has reportedly acknowledged that the "second and third world markets are the main targets for the Terminator seed." Seed producers are worried that developing nations are saving their patented seeds from one season to the next and thus reducing their purchasing costs. For example, Monsanto demands that its Roundup Ready seeds are only used once, and monitors compliance using private investigators. However, companies have been unable to do the same in developing countries, where patent protections are weak. The primary inventor of the Terminator technology, Melvin J. Oliver, has said: "Our mission is to protect American technology and to make us competitive in the face of foreign competition." However, if Terminator seeds become established in international markets, it could devastate traditional farming practices. The Director of the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) Mr. Pat Mooney says: "Traditionally, women farmers not only save seed but they use purchased seed to cross with other breeding stock to improve and adapt the seed to their local needs. The Terminator makes all this impossible." Monsanto responds that people who don't want the Terminator seeds don't have to buy them. But in many developing nations government rules or commercial credit often force farmers to grow particular crop varieties. The threat posed by Terminator seeds is not only economic. If the technology goes wrong, they could sterilise surrounding crops through cross-pollination. It has already been shown that genes can jump from crops into weeds, creating new species of superweeds resistant to herbicides. An experimental crop of herbicide-resistant oilseed rape in Britain had to be destroyed after it cross-pollinated nearby plants. The British Government considered prosecuting Monsanto for allegedly contaminating the environment. There are also questions about the new seeds' potential toxicity. Martha Crouch, Associate Professor of Biology at Indiana University, says: "The key to Terminator is the ability to make a lot of a toxin that will kill cells, and to confine that toxin to seeds." Yet she questions the toxin's effect on other life-forms: "How will a particular toxin affect birds, insects, fungi and bacteria that eat or infect the seeds?" Professor Crouch points out that even if the toxin is not harmful to animals, it "may cause allergic reactions and if the seeds are being mixed with the general food supply, it will be difficult to trace this effect." The Terminator raises serious questions about food security. Indian agriculturalists, for example, are concerned that once farmers in developing countries are reliant on imported patented seeds, they may be subject to gene tampering to make their crops either less productive or to fail completely. Unsurprisingly, the public response to the Terminator-gene has been poor. Since the Terminator patent was granted in the United States last March, concern has been expressed worldwide from environmentalists, farmers and scientists. The world's largest agricultural research network, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research has now announced it will boycott the use of Terminator technology. The group expressed concerns about inadvertent pollination; the sale of flawed seeds; the importance of farm-saved seed to resource-poor farmers; and the potential impacts on genetic diversity. The controversy surrounding the Terminator patent has done little to dispel the criticism that the biotechnology industry is on the wild west frontier of development, and that Monsanto is one of its principal cowboys. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Townsend is a barrister and lecturer in environmental law at Victoria University of Technology. •••@••.••• ------------------------------------------------------------------------ a political discussion forum - •••@••.••• To subscribe, send any message to •••@••.••• A public service of Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance (mailto:•••@••.••• http://cyberjournal.org) Non-commercial reposting is hereby approved, but please include the sig up through this paragraph and retain any internal credits and copyright notices. 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