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ETC News: Monsanto Promotes Terminator

 

 

 

News Release

23 April 2003

www.etcgroup.org

 

 

Broken Promise?

Monsanto Promotes Terminator Seed Technology

 

 

At its annual meeting on Thursday, April 24th, Monsanto's top brass will greet

shareholders with a dismal financial report, (a 15% drop in annual sales - $4.7

billion in 2002, down from $5.5 billion in 2001) and a shareholder resolution

that urges the company to re-think the safety of genetically engineered seeds -

now the company's flagship product. But there's potentially more troubling news

- a little known position paper that could rattle shareholders, irk investors

and erode public confidence still further in the biotech behemoth: Despite its

1999 pledge not to commercialize Terminator technology, Monsanto has recently

adopted a positive stance on genetic seed sterilization, a technology that has

been condemned by civil society and some governments as an immoral application

of genetic engineering.

 

" If Monsanto is reversing its public pledge on Terminator, it will be perceived

as a colossal corporate betrayal of the public good - just one more example of

corporate greed and fickle governance, " explains Hope Shand, Research Director

of ETC Group, " Market confidence in biotech is already low - it could evaporate

if Monsanto violates its public pledge on Terminator seeds. " ETC Group, formerly

known as RAFI, is one of hundreds of civil society, farmers and indigenous

peoples organizations worldwide that has called for a ban on Terminator as an

anti-farmer, anti-diversity technology that, if commercialized, would prevent

farmers from saving seed from their harvest.

 

Monsanto's new pro-Terminator position came to public light when the Lyon-based

International Seed Federation (ISF) released a position paper on Terminator or

GURTs (genetic use restriction technology - the scientific name for Terminator)

that defends the potential benefits of genetic seed sterilization and extols the

theoretical virtues of Terminator for small farmers and indigenous peoples.

Co-authored by Monsanto's Roger Krueger and Harry Collins of Delta & Pine Land

(D & PL), the ISF position paper on Terminator was prepared for a February 19-21

meeting of an Expert Panel convened by the United Nations' Convention on

Biological Diversity (CBD) that met to discuss the implications of Terminator

technology for small farmers, indigenous peoples and local communities.

 

The full text of ISF's position paper on Terminator is available here:

http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/collins_kreugerISF.pdf

 

Both Krueger and Collins attended the Montreal meeting and served on the Expert

Panel. (Harry Collins of D & PL represented the International Seed Federation at

the meeting, and Roger Krueger of Monsanto represented the Biotechnology

Industry Organization.)

 

Corporate Amnesia? " It's not surprising that the International Seed Federation

is coming out in favor of a technology that is designed to maximize seed

industry profits, " said Jim Thomas, Programme Officer of ETC Group, " but it's

alarming that one of the authors of the paper is an employee of Monsanto - the

multinational Gene Giant that, in response to overwhelming public opposition,

pledged in 1999 not to develop genetic seed sterilization. "

 

In October 1999, Gordon Conway, President of the Rockefeller Foundation

addressed the Monsanto Board of Directors and urged them to abandon pursuit of

Terminator seeds. Then-Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro responded in an open letter

to Rockefeller, in which the company pledged " not to commercialize gene

protection systems that render seed sterile. " (1) Since Monsanto made that

pledge, the company was acquired by pharma giant Pharmacia, and then spun-off

again as a separate company. Shapiro is long gone, Monsanto's new CEO resigned

in December 2002, and there appears to be a total loss of corporate memory on

Terminator.

 

The ETC Group has learned that there were dissenting views amongst the Gene

Giants regarding the pro-Terminator position taken by the seed industry trade

group. Apparently some of the Gene Giants thought that the pro-Terminator paper,

" The Benefits of GURTs, " was too risky - but the pro-Terminator faction won the

day. The International Seed Federation's final position paper is unmistakably

pro-Terminator:

 

" The International Seed Federation (ISF) believes that GURTs have the potential

to benefit farmers and others in all size, economic and geographical areas...In

reality, the potential effects of the GURTs may be beneficial to small farmers

and quite positive for the environment and biodiversity.(2)

 

" It is the strong belief and position of the ISF that GURTs would potentially

provide more choice, to the farmers, rather than less choice. " (3)

 

Silvia Ribeiro responds to the ISF position, " It's difficult to understand how

Terminator could offer more choice to farmers, especially given the fact that

Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds already account over 90% of all biotech

seeds planted worldwide. That's not more choice, that's oligopoly! "

 

Testing the Waters? Now that Monsanto is publicly spearheading the seed

industry's pro-Terminator campaign, will it resurrect a program to develop

Terminator seeds? Or is Monsanto simply hoping to pave the way for other

companies to take the first step in commercializing the controversial,

anti-farmer technology? D & PL, the company that co-authored the ISF paper with

Monsanto, has publicly vowed to commercialize Terminator technology, and jointly

owns three Terminator patents with the US Department of Agriculture. Is Monsanto

testing the waters for a future acquisition of Delta & Pine Land? The first

attempt was botched at the end of 1998, when Monsanto pulled out of its

announced merger deal with D & PL, in large part due to the Terminator seed

controversy.

 

Biotech's Trojan Seeds: The Gene Giants are hoping that public opinion has

softened because of a campaign to " greenwash " Terminator as a biosafety tool.

They are eagerly endorsing Terminator as a technology that will contain gene

flow from GM plants. According to the ISF paper:

 

" It is believed that in the improbable event of transgenes in GURT crop plants

escaping, through pollen, to related wild species, the resulting seed from these

pollinations will not express the new trait or will be unable to form a viable

seed, thus preventing the possibility of undesirable gene flow. " (4)

 

" If Terminator is commercialized under the guise of biosafety, we know that it

will be incorporated in all genetically engineered seeds, " explains Silvia

Ribeiro of ETC Group, " Seed sterility is the ultimate monopoly-maker. With

sterile seeds, the Gene Giants have limitless control over plant germplasm, with

no expiration date, without patents or lawyers. "

 

Ultimately, Monsanto's position on Terminator is of paramount importance to

world food security, particularly for over 1.4 billion people who depend on

farm-saved seed. In 2002, Monsanto's genetically engineered seed traits were

grown on 56 million hectares (138.3 million acres) worldwide.(5)

 

Mayday for Monsanto? With Monsanto's annual meeting taking place on April 24th,

shareholders should demand corporate accountability for Monsanto's public

promises. Where does Monsanto really stand on Terminator? Will Monsanto's

shareholders get the straight story on the company's position? Following a

frosty reception in the heartland of the US for Monsanto's genetically

engineered wheat, and a tough-sell for GM seeds worldwide, Terminator could be

the seed that breaks the Mammoth's back.

 

For more information:

 

Hope Shand, ETC Group (USA) hope

Jim Thomas, ETC Group (UK) jim

Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group (Mexico) silvia

 

The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, formerly RAFI, is an

international civil society organization headquartered in Canada. The ETC group

is dedicated to the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human

rights. www.etcgroup.org. The ETC group is also a member of the Community

Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme (CBDC). The CBDC is a

collaborative experimental initiative involving civil society organizations and

public research institutions in 14 countries. The CBDC is dedicated to the

exploration of community-directed programmes to strengthen the conservation and

enhancement of agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC website is

www.cbdcprogram.org .

 

 

1 Monsanto's open letter to Rockefeller is available at:

http://www.biotech-info.net/monsanto_letter.pdf (We were not able to locate the

open letter on Monsanto's web site.)

2 Harry B. Collins and Roger W. Krueger, " Potential Impact of GURTs on

Smallholder Farmers, Indigenous & Local Communities and Farmers Rights: The

Benefits of GURTs, " p. 1. Paper made available to the CBD's Ad Hoc Technical

Expert Group on the Impact of GURTs on Smallholder Farmers, Indigenous People

and Local Communities, February 19-21, 2003. The paper is presented as the

official position paper of the International Seed Federation.

3 Ibid., p. 3.

4 Ibid., p. 3-4.

5 Monsanto web site:

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/NYS/MON/reports/4Q02Acreage.pdf

 

 

For more recent news and analysis related to Terminator, please see:

 

ETC Communique, " Terminator Five Years Later, " released April, 2003:

http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=389

 

ETC Genotype, " Who Calls the Shots at UPOV? US Govt. and Multinational Seed

Industry Force UPOV to Abandon Critique of Terminator, " 17 April 2003

http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=393

 

 

 

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