Fwd: ETC: Terminator Debate Hijacked

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ETC: Terminator Debate Hijacked

 

News Release

November 14, 2003

www.etcgroup.org

 

Terminator Technology Debate

Hijacked in Montreal

 

Terminator - or genetic seed sterilization - has been on the agenda of the

United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for five years. If the

Gene Giants and governments get their way, the CBD will be conducting studies on

Terminator for years to come - long after suicide seeds are commercialized and

show up in farmers' fields.

 

 

At the ninth meeting of the CBD's scientific advisory body (SBSTTA 9)(1) held

November 10-14 in Montreal, four governments - Canada, New Zealand, Argentina

and Brazil - were allowed to highjack debate and stall action on Terminator by

insisting that the CBD postpone consideration of an expert technical report on

the impacts of genetic seed sterilization, arguing that the report lacks

scientific rigor.(2) While the report will be forwarded to next February's

Conference of the Parties (COP7) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it will go with a

recommendation that COP7 forego action and re-direct the report to the next

meeting of the scientific body (SBSTTA10) - in late 2004 or 2005 - with the aim

of providing advice to COP8 in 2006!

 

" It's an appalling tactic to delay action against Terminator seeds, " said Yoke

Ling Chee of the Malaysia-based Third World Network. " The Gene Giants know that

CBD has already accepted a weak and partial moratorium on GURTs [the CBD refers

to Terminator as GURTs - genetic use restriction technology] and this is an

underhanded maneuver to prevent debate from moving forward at COP7. "

 

The move to discredit the Expert Group's report is especially disingenuous

because the explicit mandate of the Group was not to conduct a scientific

assessment of Terminator - which was done several years ago - but to examine the

impacts of Terminator on smallholder farmers, indigenous peoples and local

communities. Accordingly, the Expert Group included representation from

indigenous peoples' and farmers' organizations, as well as civil society,

scientists, industry and governments.

 

" SBSTTA9's decision is wrong and dangerous, " said Alejandro Argumedo of the

Indigenous Peoples Biodiversity Network. " Giving four governments the right to

derail a report on the impact of Terminator on indigenous peoples and local

communities is like saying that the voices of these communities are not

important, and that the social and economic impacts of Terminator can be

dismissed, " said Argumedo.

 

Seed Industry Coup at SBSTTA9: The presence of Monsanto and Delta & Pine Land at

SBSTTA9 may very well have something to do with the surprise objection by four

governments to the Expert Group's report on Terminator. A Monsanto employee

attended SBSTTA9 as the representative of the Biotechnology Industry

Organization and Delta & Pine Land's Vice-President for Technology Transfer

represented the International Seed Federation. Earlier this year, these industry

representatives co-authored a paper defending GURTS and extolling the

theoretical virtues of Terminator for small farmers and indigenous peoples.(3)

Both Monsanto and Delta & Pine Land have vested interests in Terminator

technology. (Delta and Pine Land jointly holds three patents on genetic seed

sterilization with the US government. Although in 1999 Monsanto's then-CEO

publicly pledged not to develop Terminator seeds, there is growing evidence -

including the championing of Terminator by one of its employees - that the Gene

Giant

is changing its tune.)

 

Sterile Harvest Coming Soon:

" While CBD is chasing paper and conducting endless studies, multinational Gene

Giants are winning new patents and planning to field test sterile seed

technology soon. If delays such as the one we just saw in Montreal continue,

we'll have sterile harvests in farmers' fields within a year or two. If CBD

fails to take decisive action to prevent commercialization of Terminator seeds,

it will be a profound betrayal of its mandate to protect biodiversity, " said

Hope Shand of ETC Group.

 

The governments gathering in Kuala Lumpur at COP7 need to muster the political

will to put an end to delays and to take decisive action to stop Terminator.

 

 

For further information, contact:

Hope Shand, ETC Group (USA) hope tel: 919 9605223

Pat Mooney, ETC Group (Canada) etc tel: 204 4535259

 

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

 

 

Endnotes:

(1) Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice. For more

information on the meeting, see

http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?mtg=SBSTTA-09

(2) The " Report of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group Meeting on the Potential

Impacts of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies on Smallholder Farmers,

Indigenous and Local Communities and Farmers' Rights, is available on the

Internet:

http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/sbstta/sbstta-09/information/sbstta-09-inf-06\

-en.pdf

(3) The full text of the paper is available here:

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

 

 

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