Kerry Smith
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a de facto moratorium on "Terminator" technologies in 2000. Terminator technology sterilises crop seeds, preventing the ancient practice of seed saving and giving patent owners monopoly control over seed fertility. At the next CBD meeting, in Brazil on March 20-31, the Australian government delegation appears set to push for a lifting of the global Terminator ban.
"It's outrageous that the Australian government is backing Terminator seeds on behalf of the gene technology industry and the US government, which cannot vote as it is not a party to the CBD", said GeneEthics Network director Bob Phelps. "The Australian government would undermine food security and ... is doing the dirty work for Monsanto and the US government, which are hostile to biodiversity conservation."
Terminator technology was developed to prevent farmers from saving and re-using harvested seed, forcing them to buy new seeds each season. After global protests, in 1999 Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro said, "We are making a public commitment not to commercialise sterile seed technologies, such as the one dubbed Terminator".
But now Monsanto says it will only keep Terminator out of food crops, opening the door to Terminator cotton, tobacco, pharmaceutical crops and pastures. It said: "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 the Australian, Canadian and NZ delegations, which are promoting Terminator at the United Nations on a case-by-case basis, Phelps said.
The International Ban Terminator Campaign announced on March 22 that more than 300 diverse civil society organisations worldwide are demanding a permanent ban on Terminator technology.
"The gene technology companies want nothing to be grown without a licence, making them the masters of sterility and reproduction", said Greenpeace International's Benny Haerlin. "They are pursuing a step by step strategy — tagged 'case by case' — to gain control of the global food supply and undermine the integrity and fertility of nature."
The technology could destroy food production for the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved seed. Alejandro Argumedo from Asociacion ANDES said, "Monsanto's broken promise is a deadly betrayal because indigenous peoples and farmers depend on seed saving for food security and self-determination".
Chukki Nanjundaswamy of La Via Campesina in India, which represents tens of millions of peasant farmers worldwide, added, "If Australia and Monsanto bully the UN into allowing 'case by case' acceptance of Terminator, developing world farmers will be carried off the land coffin by coffin".
For more information, and to sign a petition opposing any move by the Australian government to lift the ban on Terminator, visit <http://www.banterminator.org>.
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.