Independent Scientists Object to Terminator Seeds

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15 Sep 2005 13:22:55 -0000

Independent Scientists Object to Terminator Seeds

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ISIS Press Release 15/09/05

 

September 9, 2005 Prof.

Joe Cummins The Independent Science Panel

 

The Independent Science Panel (ISP) is a panel of scientists

from many disciplines, committed to the Promotion of Science

for the Public Good. The panel's home is London UK

http://www.indsp.org

 

Ref: SCBD/STTM/DCO/va/48601 " Advice on the report of the Ad

Hoc Technical Expert Group on Genetic Use Restriction

Technologies

 

Hamdallah Zedan

Executive Secretary Convention on Biological Diversity

United Nations Environment Programme

World Trade Centre

413 Saint-Jacques Street

Suite 800 Montreal, Quebec

Canada H2Y 1N9

scretariat

 

" Genetic Use Restriction Technologies Should be Eliminated

and Use of Public Funds to Develop Use Restriction

Technologies Should be Prevented "

 

Dear. Dr. Zedan:

 

I am providing advice on Genetic Use Restriction

Technologies on behalf the Independent Science Panel. I am

appending a copy of my speech " Terminator Corporations'

Suicide Seeds " a lecture presented at Sustainable World

International Conference, 14-15 July 2005, London. That

speech report includes references to numerous articles

dealing with genetic use restriction technologies. Genetic

Use Restriction Technologies are commonly referred to as

" terminators " .

 

Terminator technologies serve little benefit to anyone other

than corporations who profit from the seed use restriction.

Corporations such as Monsanto have backed away from the

deployment of terminators for the time being while there has

been an explosion in the development of novel use

restriction technologies based on startling new discoveries

in plant molecular genetics that led to the identification

of homeotic genes that govern the pathways leading to cell

differentiation. Homeotic genes produce proteins that

recognize regulatory genes called MADS-boxes that control

genes for formation of reproductive tissue, leaves,

branches, etc. That discovery has led to a flood of

inventions that use MADS-box factors to control flowering or

gamete production to create terminators in trees and in

crops. Such techniques frequently use cell suicide toxins to

abort formation of gametes or flowers and those toxins

provide tangible hazards to those consuming food or feed.

From the plethora of patents and patent applications for

terminator technologies it seems likely that regulatory

agencies will soon be swamped with applications for

commercial release of such technologies. Many such

technologies may be presented to the public as obfuscations,

difficult for the layman or farmer to grasp, they will be,

in effect, hidden terminators. It is essential that a clear

principle should be established. That principle is that

terminators have no place in human agriculture. Their use

should be outlawed.

 

It is worth pointing out that the fundamental research and

development of terminator was done by the United States

Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a collaboration with

Delta and Pineland Corporation. The financial support for

the MADS-box family of terminators came from government

granting agencies and from the USDA-US forest service.

Government research granting agencies and departments fund

extensive research on terminator technologies that serve the

interests of corporations and not the taxpayers. Government

funding of terminator research should be stopped.

 

Family farmers and the public will both lose from the

widespread use of terminator technology. Indigenous farmers

will suffer from an inability to tap into crop improvements.

In Canada there was a government-funded study promoting the

distressing notion that essentially all seeds production be

placed in the hands of corporate seed producers. Saving

seed, when seeds are not terminated, would be outlawed.

Canada may be the first country to impose a draconian system

of corporate food production. Unfortunately, Canada may not

be the last country to impose the corporate agenda on the

public. The World should demand of the United Nations that

they at last stand up for the good of the people of the

world.

 

Appended Report

 

Terminator Corporations' Suicide Seeds

******************************

 

Joe Cummins Department of Biology, University of Western

Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada Lecture presented at

Sustainable World International Conference, 14-15 July 2005,

London.

 

Canada has become the world's leader in doing the wrong

thing in the area of genetically modified (GM) food and

feed. For example, Canada is the largest exporter of canola

in the World. The Canadian government has promoted

distribution and sale of GM canola and has encouraged open

field testing of canola modified with pharmaceuticals such

as the anticoagulant hirudin. There has been little effort

to limit pollution of non-GM canola, and there is clear

evidence that the canola of western Canada is extensively

polluted with transgenes from GM crops [1]. The Canadian

government has, in a sense, provided a welcome to GM

pollution in order to promote the growth and distribution

of GM crops. Nevertheless, corporations and their lackeys in

the Canadian bureaucracy crave complete control of the seed

and thus food and feed production. The government set up the

Seed Sector Review advisory committee, which issued a report

calling for changes to legislation to (a) collect royalties

on farm-saved seeds, (b) compel farmers to buy officially

certified seed, and © terminate the right of farmers to

sell common seed.

 

The report was financed by the Agriculture Ministry at a

cost of nearly a million dollars to the Canadian taxpayers

that essentially rubber-stamped the demands of multinational

agricultural corporations [2]. In this way, the onerous

licensing requirements of the biotechnology industry are to

be extended to all seeds, imposing a form of serfdom on any

remaining independent farmers.

 

The development of " terminator " technology goes hand in hand

with the corporate move to control use and production of

seeds. Terminator technology is the use of genetic

modification to produce seed that produce a crop with seed

that is infertile (produces seeds that commit suicide when

planted). In other words, terminator blocks viable seed

production, production of pollen or ovule or production of

flowers. The corporate gains complete control over

production of seeds needed to produce food and feed.

 

The first terminators were developed by the United Sates

Department of Agriculture (USDA) and corporate interests,

and that technology was patented jointly by the corporation

and USDA. As in Canada, the regulator of GM crops also acts

as an advocate and commercial developer of such crops (a

clear conflict of interest). The first terminator patent was

granted to USDA and The Delta and Pineland Corporation

(later joined to Monsanto Corporation) in 1999. That patent

provoked a flurry of opposition both on the basis of the

fundamental right of farmers to save seed, and on the

scientific ground that the genetic changes might harm those

consuming the crops. In response to those concerns, Monsanto

Corporation backed off from immediate production of

terminator seeds. But in spite of that action a great deal

of government sponsored research In US has focused on

development of terminator technology to provide financial

benefits for corporations. The government research granting

agencies have been lavishly providing taxpayer funds to

prestigious universities to develop new and more effective

means of producing terminator crops that primarily benefit

corporations and reduce independent farmers to serfdom.

 

Beginning in 1999, The Institute of Science in Society in

London, England has distributed a number of reports by Dr.

Mae-Wan Ho and myself. In those reports we described the

genetic technology of the original and later biotechnology

inventions [3-7]. The basic design of the constructions has

been to prevent reproductive tissue from developing in a way

that allows the seed-producer to maintain fertile lines in

order to produce commercial seeds that fails to produce

pollen, or produce seeds that will not germinate. The genes

used to produce such lines usually involve aborting

reproductive cells with cell-suicide genes producing toxins

such as barnase, a ribonuclease that digests cellular RNA,

diptheria toxin or excess phytohormone production in the

reproductive tissue. In some cases, anti-sense genes have

been used to block reproductive cells from maturing. Anti-

sense genes are complementary copies of the RNA gene

messages governing reproductive cell maturation forming

double stranded RNA that is recognized as an invading virus

by the plant cell and destroyed.

 

During the 1990s, a startling new discovery in plant

molecular genetics led to the identification of homeotic

genes that govern the pathways leading to cell

differentiation. The homeotic genes produce proteins that

recognize short stretches of DNA called MADS-boxes, regions

controlling transcription of the genes involved in formation

of reproductive tissue, leaves, roots branches, etc. that

govern plant development [9]. That discovery has led to a

flood of inventions employing the MADS-boxes transcription

factors to control flowering and gamete production as

terminators in trees and in crops. Steven Strauss of the US

Forest Service in Oregon has been field-testing poplar trees

modified with cell suicide genes to eliminate flowering and

plans to extend that system to shade trees. Finish

researchers at Sopanen University are developing sterile

silver birch [10]. Along with the cell suicide toxins and

their impact on animal life, the sterile trees must be

propagated asexually and thus lack genetic diversity

rendering them sensitive to attack by emerging pathogens and

without a reservoir of diversity to mitigate the attack of

the novel pathogen. A flood of patent applications has begun

to appear for control of flowering or sexual development in

both evergreen trees and crop plants [11].

 

I have described an armamentarium of evolving ways to

produce terminator trees and crops. The current array of

genetic tools has been added to a large array of genetic

tools for sterilizing or castrating crops and trees to

protect corporate control and profits. When the first

proposals to develop terminator plants were put forward,

response from independent farmers and the public was strong

and vocal. There was a resounding negative response. For the

time being corporations publicly moved back from the

project. But behind the scenes academic, corporate and

government laboratories connived to produce terminators with

new and more potent capability. It seems clear that copious

government funding is being squandered to promote the

interests of rich corporations against the expressed will of

the majority of people. The manner in which academe

willingly and unquestioningly promotes research which acts

against the rights of individual farmers should be brought

to the attention of the public. The people must find a way

to insure that that their governments act in their

interests, not the interests of corporations. As we proposed

four years ago Terminators must be terminated!

 

References

 

Cummins J. Transgenic contamination of seed certified seed

stock Science in Society 2003, 19, 48.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews.php

 

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada The report of the seed

sector advisory committee 2004

www.seedsectorreview.com

 

Ho MW and Cummins J. Chronicle of

an Ecological Disaster Foretold . ISIS Report, 20 February

2003; also Science in Society 2003, Spring, 18 , 26-27.

 

Ho MW. Terminator technologies in new guises. ISIS News 3 ,

December 1999, ISSN: 1474-1547 (print), ISSN: 1474-1814

(online)

 

Cummins J. Terminator gene product alert. ISIS News

6 , September 2000, ISSN: 1474-1547 (print), ISSN: 1474-1814

(online)

 

Ho MW, Cummins J and Bartlett J. Killing fields

near you. Terminator crops at large. ISIS News 7/8 ,

February 2001, ISSN: 1474-1547 (print), ISSN: 1474-1814

(online)

 

Ho MW and Cummins J. Terminator patents decoded.

ISIS News 11/12 , October 2001, ISSN: 1474-1547 (print),

ISSN: 1474-1814 (online)

 

Cummins J and Ho MW. New terminator

crops coming Science in Society 2003, 19, 48.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews.php

 

Cummins J. View from MADS house.

Science in Society 2005, 26, 22.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews.php

 

Cummins J and Ho MW. Terminator

Trees Science in Society 2005, 26, 16-18.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews.php

 

Cummins J. Lurking terminators 2005

in preparation

 

 

 

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