EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Eight, Number Three March/April 1999 Call to Action: Join the Protest Against Terminator Seeds The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. (Mark 4:28) But only once? Over a billion farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America depend on farm-saved seeds as their primary seed source for the following year's planting, and for exchanging with other farmers to adapt crops to their own environment. Last year a new genetic engineering patent was developed jointly by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Delta & Pine Land, a subsidiary of Monsanto, to develop sterile seeds that cannot reproduce. Use of these "Terminator" seeds forces farmers to buy commercial seed every year from a few large seed companies. Nearby crops have no protection from pollination by Terminator genes which can make them sterile also, resulting in a drastic reduction of biodiversity and threatening economic disaster for local farmers. New genetic devices to control agriculture world wide are being developed by major transnational corporations (e.g. Novartis, Monsanto, Zeneca/Astra, Dupont, Bayer, Dow). Fighting this technology is the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a global network of 16 international agricultural research centers which collectively form the world's largest public plant breeding effort for resource-poor farmers. In October 1998 the CGIAR, meeting at the World Bank in Washington, banned the Terminator and genetic seed sterilization technology from their crop breeding programs because of its negative impact on food security, genetic diversity, sustainable agriculture and plant breeding. Member organization Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), working with NGOs and peoples' organizations world wide, is pursuing multiple strategies aimed at terminating the Terminator. RAFI and partners are approaching governments to exercise their right, under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights agreement (part of GATT), to ban the Terminator patent and Terminator seeds, on the grounds of Public Morality. In the United States, the strategy is to keep the heat on the Department of Agriculture until it: Ceases negotiations to license the US government's interest in the Terminator to Monsanto; Abandons all patents and patent applications on the technology, in up to 87 countries; Bans use of the technology in the US and ensures that the US does not interfere with foreign governments who do the same; Adopts an official policy saying that NO PUBLIC FUNDS will be used to pursue the dangerous goal of genetic seed sterilization. People concerned with public morality in the USA should write, fax, or e-mail the USDA. They should express their concerns about the Terminator technology to: Secretary Dan Glickman, USDA,1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20250; 202/ 720-3631; 202/ 720-2166; agsec@usda.gov They should also contact Senator Richard Lugar, Chair, US Senate Agriculture Committee, and their own elected officials in Washington. The USDA may respond sooner if they are getting pressure from Congress. Information from Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), 110 Osborne St., Ste. 202, Winnipeg MB R3L 1Y5, Canada; 204/ 453-5259; rafi@rafi.org More information on websites :www.rafi.org; www.rafi.org/usda.html; www.cgiar.org. Home     Table of Contents