February 11,
2005, ETC Group via CropChoice.com: Percy Schmeiser,
a Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto, spoke today
at a UN meeting in Bangkok - harshly criticizing his
governments' efforts to promote field-testing and commercialization
of Terminator seeds (plants genetically-modified to
render seeds sterile at harvest time).
"The Canadian government has acted shamefully.
It is supporting a dangerous, anti-farmer technology
that aims to eliminate the rights of farmers to save
and re-use harvested seed," said Schmeiser. "Instead
of representing the good will of the Canadian people
or attending to the best interests of the Biodiversity
Treaty, the Canadian government is fronting for the
multinational gene giants who stand to win enormous
profits from the release of Terminator seeds around
the world."
Schmeiser is the 74-year old Canadian farmer who was
sued by Monsanto for patent infringement when the company's
patented, genetically modified canola seed invaded his
farm - unwanted and unwelcome. A victim of genetic pollution
and a champion of Farmers' Rights, Schmeiser fought
Monsanto all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court.
A Canadian government proposal to unleash Terminator
was leaked to the ETC Group on the first day of a UN
meeting in Bangkok, February 7-11. The news stunned
farmers' organizations, government delegations, and
civil society worldwide. Ottawa's instructions to the
Canadian delegation in Bangkok called for an all-out
push for field-testing and commercialization of sterile
seed technologies, effectively un-doing the precautionary,
de facto moratorium on Terminator seeds adopted by governments
in 1998. ETC Group has also learned that, in advance
of the Bangkok meeting, Canadian embassies around the
world asked governments to support a recommendation
for "field testing and commercial use" of
Terminator.
After being swamped this week by protest emails and
letters, the Canadian government was forced to soften
its public position on Terminator, but it continued
to press a solidly pro-Terminator view in the corridors
and in a committee appointed to negotiate draft text
on Terminator. (The drafting group on Terminator included
representatives from Canada, the European Community,
Peru, Tanzania, and the Philippines.) By Thursday morning
Canada and its seed industry allies had drafted text
that included language promoting Terminator field trials,
capacity building for the use of Terminator in the developing
world and specifically invited the research participation
of "private sector entities."
"The draft text on Terminator released Thursday
morning was appalling - it looked like it was written
by the multinational seed industry," said Jim Thomas
of ETC Group, speaking from Bangkok. "It strongly
reflected the Canadian government’s pro-Terminator
position as revealed earlier this week in the leaked
document."
Suicide seed squad
Canada hasn't been working alone in Bangkok. The UN
meeting was crawling with representatives from the biotech
industry and related trade groups - including Monsanto,
Delta & Pine Land, Crop Life International, PHARMA
(pharmaceutical manufacturers), the International Seed
Federation and more - who lobbied against current restrictions
on the development of suicide seeds. New Zealand and
Australia also backed the position of industry and Canada,
while a fleet of US government representatives observed
from the sidelines. (The US government is not a Party
to the Biodiversity Convention.)
Objections by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Austria,
the European Community, Cuba, Peru and Liberia, on behalf
of the African Group succeeded in deleting the most
offensive wording. The final text and recommendations
reaffirm earlier decisions, amounting to a continuing,
but fragile, de facto moratorium on Terminator. The
issue now bounces to another CBD advisory body (the
Working Group on 8(j)) in March 2006.
Anti-Terminator advocates can not rest yet as decisions
made in Bangkok will allow the issue of Terminator to
be re-examined and re-studied interminably and agressively.
"The international community needs to know that
Terminator technology is a real and present danger.
The biotech industry is chomping on the bit to commercialize
suicide seeds. Nothing short of an all-out ban on Terminator
will stop it from being unleashed in farmer's fields,"
said Hope Shand of ETC Group.
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