GMW: Monsanto asserts rights over processed food, breaks word on Terminator

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GMW: Monsanto asserts rights over processed food, breaks word

on Terminator

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 20:52:50 GMT

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Seeds of dispute

2.Monsanto May Commercialize Terminator

 

EXCERPTS: If Monsanto is successful, campaigners fear, the company

could claim part-ownership rights on any product containing the Roundup

Ready gene. Given that most highly processed foods contain an element of

soy, such a list could potentially include everything from European

margarine to Chinese soy sauce.

 

" In the case of Argentina, Monsanto is really challenging its rights

over processed food, not just over the seeds. This is something new. It's

never happened before. " (item 1)

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1.Seeds of dispute

 

It's Argentina v Monsanto in the battle for control over GM soy

technology, writes Oliver Balch

 

The Guardian, February 22, 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/argentina/story/0,,1715330,00.html?gusrc=rss

 

Tensions between Monsanto and Argentina are escalating as the US

biotech company steps up its efforts to win back control over booming

Latin

American soy production.

Brazil and Argentina are, after the US, the two largest soy producers

in the world. Brazilian farmers planted 9.4m hectares of GM soy last

year, an increase of 88% on 2004.

 

But Monsanto's primary concern is Argentina, where 98% of soy

production is GM. Almost all of this is based on genetic technology

developed by

the Missouri-based seed giant and licensed to local manufacturers.

 

It is the story of a love spurned. When Monsanto introduced GM

technology in Argentina, 10 years ago, the country's farmers lapped it

up.

Cultivation of herbicide-resistant soybeans has since grown from six

million hectares in 1997 to present levels of around 16m hectares -

more than

half the country's total agricultural land.

The problem facing Monsanto is how to keep riding Argentina's soy

expansion, estimated to hit a record 42m tonnes for the 2005/2006 season.

 

Initially, most of Monsanto's profits were generated through the sale

of its Roundup herbicide, which kills weeds but not GM crops.

 

When Monsanto's worldwide patent on the herbicide technology came to an

end in 2000, cheaper equivalents began to enter the market and it had

to look elsewhere for returns.

 

The answer came in the shape of royalties on the sale of its Roundup

Ready soy seeds. This is a model Monsanto employs successfully in the US,

adding an additional " technology fee " to seed price to cover the use of

its intellectual property.

 

Argentinian farmers, however, are less keen than their US counterparts

to stump up the surcharge. Their position is strengthened by

Argentina's consistent refusal to register Monsanto's Roundup Ready

patent. In

2001, the issue got as far as the country's supreme court. For once,

Monsanto lost.

 

" Argentinian local seed companies are making their own seeds for a

lower price " , explains Juan Lopez, international coordinator of the

Friends

of the Earth GM campaign.

 

" Farmers are not ready to pay [the] extra percentage for the technology

royalty, because they can get it from the black market. They just don't

need Monsanto in Argentina. "

 

When Monsanto first entered the Argentinian market, it issued national

seed producers with technology transfer agreements to develop its

Roundup Ready soy strain. It is seeds from these companies that are

finding

their way on to the black market, now estimated to represent nearly

one-third of all seed sales.

 

The practice of farmers storing seeds from one harvest to the next also

dents Monsanto's profits.

 

Monsanto could not be contacted for comment on its strategy to regain

control of its property rights in Argentina. However, recent

developments suggest the US company is pursuing a two-pronged plan.

 

According to the Monsanto website, it is now concentrating on claiming

royalties when farmers come to sell their soy crop, rather than when

they buy the GM soy seeds.

 

Last year, Monsanto wrote a letter to all exporters and importers

explaining its intention to charge a fee of between $15 (GBP8.60) and

$18.75

on every tonne of Argentinian soy produced with its Roundup Ready

technology. Argentinian soy currently trades at around $178 a tonne.

 

" [Monsanto] reserves the right to begin legal actions, on the

assumption of uncovering imports from Latin America of unlicensed

Roundup Ready

soy, in countries where the said technology is protected by

intellectual property rights, " a statement by the company reads.

 

In keeping with the strategy, a ship carrying 5,900 tonnes of GM soy

grain, worth an estimated $1m, was detained in Liverpool earlier this

month. Monsanto tested the shipment for Roundup Ready technology in the

prelude to a lawsuit.

 

Over the past six months, Monsanto has also filed cases for patent

infringement in Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain.

 

If Monsanto is successful, campaigners fear, the company could claim

part-ownership rights on any product containing the Roundup Ready gene.

Given that most highly processed foods contain an element of soy, such a

list could potentially include everything from European margarine to

Chinese soy sauce.

 

" In the case of Argentina, Monsanto is really challenging its rights

over processed food, not just over the seeds. This is something new. It's

never happened before, " Mr López warns.

 

The news coincides with a ruling by the World Trade Organisation

earlier this month against EU import restrictions on GM crops and food.

 

The second string to the company's strategy is to try to block farmers

from storing seeds.

 

It is collaborating with the international biotech industry to remove a

de facto UN moratorium currently in place against genetic use

restriction technologies (Gurts).

 

Under these so-called " terminator " technologies, plants are genetically

programmed to become infertile after a set period of time.

 

" Monsanto is desperate to recapture royalties from its GM seeds, and

terminator is the perfect solution because it would be able to

biologically ensure that farmers have to return to the market every

year, " says

Lucy Sharratt, coordinator of the Ban Terminator campaign.

 

Following industry lobbying, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

is due to consider case-by-case testing of terminator technologies in

its annual meeting in Brazil on March 20.

 

The stakes are high. As Ms Sharratt explains: " Instead of suing farmers

- which is what Monsanto is doing in North America - for saving seed,

it will be able to take a technical solution to what is otherwise a huge

financial problem for Monsanto and threatens its future use of genetic

engineering. "

 

· Oliver Balch is a Buenos Aires-based journalist specialising in

sustainable development and Latin American affairs

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2.Monsanto May Commercialize Terminator

February 21, 2006

http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/news_updates/monsanto_may_commercializ\

e_terminator

 

Biotech Giant Revises Pledge on Sterile Seed Technology as Global

Alliance Calls for a Ban.

 

Monsanto, the world's largest seed and agbiotech company, made a public

promise in 1999 not to commercialize 'Terminator Technology' - plants

that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds. Now Monsanto

says it may develop or use the so-called 'suicide seeds' after all. The

revised pledge from Monsanto now suggests that it would use Terminator

seeds in non-food crops and does not rule out other uses of Terminator

in the future. (1) Monsanto's modified stance comes to light as the

biotech and seed industry confront peasant and farmer movements,

Indigenous peoples and their allies in an escalating battle at the United

Nations over the future of Terminator.

 

In 2000 the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

adopted a de facto moratorium on sterile seed technologies, also known as

Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs). But at next month's

high-level meeting of the CBD in Curitiba, Brazil (20-31 March 2006) the

biotechnology industry will intensify its push to undermine the six-year

old de facto moratorium.

 

In response, over 300 organizations today declared their support for a

global ban on Terminator Technology, asserting that sterile seeds

threaten biodiversity and will destroy the livelihoods and cultures of

the

1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved seed.

 

" The world's farmers and Indigenous peoples cannot trust Monsanto, "

said Alejandro Argumedo from Asociación ANDES - Potato Park in Cusco,

Peru

" Monsanto's broken promise is a deadly betrayal because Indigenous

peoples and farmers depend on seed saving for food security and

self-determination. "

 

Terminator technology was first developed by the United States

Department of Agriculture and US seed company Delta & Pine Land to

prevent

farmers from saving and re-using harvested seed, forcing them to buy new

seeds each season. (2)

 

In October 1999, in response to worldwide opposition, Monsanto publicly

pledged not to commercialize Terminator seeds. Then-CEO, Robert

Shapiro, wrote an open letter to the Rockefeller Foundation, stating,

" I am

writing to let you know that we are making a public commitment not to

commercialize sterile seed technologies, such as the one dubbed

`Terminator.' "

 

Now, Monsanto has revised its commitment, pledging to keep Terminator

only out of food crops – opening the door to the use of Terminator in

cotton, tobacco, pharmaceutical crops and grass with sterility genes.

Referring to new versions of GURTs, Monsanto's `pledge' now says,

" 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 a few

rich governments that have been promoting Terminator at the UN

recently, " points out Chee Yoke Ling of Third World Network. " It looks

like

Monsanto and other corporations are behind the strategy to unleash

Terminator at the upcoming meetings of the CBD " .

 

Monsanto's new stance on Terminator is part of an industry-wide attempt

to undermine the de facto moratorium. In the past year, government

delegates from Canada, Australia and New Zealand , working hand in hand

with the biotech industry, have used UN meetings to introduce new text

that will be considered at next month's CBD meeting in Brazil. (3) This

text recommends Terminator technologies be approached on a " case by case

risk assessment " basis – echoing the language of Monsanto's new

`pledge.' The intention behind the `case by case' approach is to regulate

Terminator just like any other genetically modified crop. This would

ignore

the uniquely devastating societal impacts of genetic seed sterility.

 

" Terminator is a direct assault on farmers, Indigenous cultures and on

the food sovereignty and well-being of all rural people, primarily the

very poorest, " said Chukki Nanjundaswamy of India from La Via

Campesina, an organization representing hundreds of millions of

peasant farmers

worldwide. " If Monsanto bullies the UN into allowing `case by case'

assessment of Terminator, it means farmers will be carried off the land

coffin by coffin. "

 

" These companies have a clear and simple vision that nothing should be

grown without a license from Monsanto and a few other masters of

sterility and reproduction, " explains Benny Haerlin of Greenpeace

International. " They pursue this strategy step by step or `case by

case' as they

now call it. If governments at the CBD give in to Monsanto and erode the

Terminator moratorium we will all have to pay the bill tomorrow and the

collateral damage will be the integrity and fertility of nature. "

 

The Ban Terminator campaign today announces the names of over 300

organizations worldwide that are demanding a ban on Terminator

technology.

The list of organizations is available at

www.banterminator.org/endorsements These organizations are from every

region of the world and include

peasant farmer movements and farm organizations, Indigenous peoples

organizations, civil society and environmental groups, unions, faith

communities, international development organizations, women's movements,

consumer organizations and youth networks.

 

" We are particularly alarmed that Monsanto's edited pledge no longer

rejects commercialization of this dangerous technology. " said Lucy

Sharratt of the international Ban Terminator Campaign. " We are calling on

national governments to dismiss Monsanto's tactic in favour of an all-out

ban on Terminator. We invite all civil society and social movements to

join with us for the battle against Terminator next month in Brazil. "

 

Ends

 

Canada:

Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Ban Terminator Campaign

+1 613 252 2147 mobile,

+ 1 613 241 2267

Pat Mooney, ETC Group

Jim Thomas, ETC Group

+1 613 241 2267

lucy

jim

www.banterminator.org

 

USA:

Hope Shand, ETC Group.

+1 919 9605767

hope

www.etcgroup.org

 

Peru:

Alejandro Argumedo, Asociación ANDES.

+51 84 245021

andes

www.andes.org.pe

 

Malaysia:

Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network

Lim Li Lin, Third World Network.

+603 23002585

twnet

www.twnside.org.sg

 

India:

Chukki Nanjundaswamy, La Via Campesina.

+91 80 28604737

+91-94482 41401 mobile

chukki_krrs

www.viacampesina.org

 

Greenpeace International:

Benedict Haerlin, Greenpeace International.

bhaerlin

www.greenpeace.org

 

Notes to editors:

 

1.Monsanto's new pledge on Terminator and GURTs is online (Monsanto's

2005 Pledge Report).

Click here to see relevant quotes from Monsanto.

 

2.Delta and Pine Land refer to Terminator as Technology Protection

System (TPS). Terminator is currently being tested in greenhouses and

Delta

and Pine Land vowed to commercialize it within the next few years.

Click here for more information on Delta & Pine Land.

 

3.In February 2005 at a meeting of the CBD's Subsidiary Body on

Scientific, Technical and Technological Assessment (SBSTTA) in Bangkok,

Canadian government delegates made a surprise attempt to overturn the

moratorium by allowing Terminator to be field tested and

commercialized. Last

month, at another preparatory meeting in Granada, Spain (known as the

Working Group on 8j), the Australian government, coached by a US State

Department representative, also attacked the moratorium. See news

release on 27th January 2006: " Granada's Grim Sowers Plow up the

moratorium

on Terminator "

 

 

 

 

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