Anonymous
Damed if you do, Damed if you don't!
Sat Jul 26 14:40:27 2003
208.152.73.187

Damed if you do, Damed if you don't!

What's you gonna do!
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The seed terminator campaign ....

http://home.earthlink.net/~lamaga/global.html

There have been times in human history when the line between genius
and insanity was so fine that it was barely perceptible. In the world
of biotechnology and food, that line has just been obliterated.
Announcements made over the past 90 days suggest that an ingenious
scientific achievement and subsequent, related business developments
threaten to terminate the natural and original human ability of people
everywhere to freely grow food to feed themselves and others.

Never before has man created such an insidiously dangerous, far-
reaching and potentially "perfect" plan to control the livelihoods,
food supply and even survival of all humans on the planet.

Is this an overstatement? Read below, investigate the claims made,
call the people involved and judge for yourself.

from: The Ark Institute, August 1998 Copyright © 1998, by Geri
Guidetti

http://home.earthlink.net/~lamaga/seeds.htm

On March 3, 1998, (5 months ago) the U. S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) and the Delta and Pine Land Company, a Mississippi firm and the
largest cotton seed company in the world, announced that they had
jointly developed and received a patent (US patent number 5,723,765)
on a new agricultural biotechnology.

Benignly titled, "Control of Plant Gene Expression", the new patent
will permit its owners and licensees to create sterile seed by
cleverly and selectively programming a plant's DNA to kill its own
embryos.

The patent applies to plants and seeds of all species. The result? If
saved at harvest for future crops, the seed produced by these plants
will not grow. Pea pods, tomatoes, peppers, heads of wheat and ears of
corn will essentially become seed morgues. In one broad, brazen stroke
of his hand, man will have irretrievably broken the plant - to -seed -
to - plant - to - seed - cycle.

THE cycle that supports most life on the planet.

No seed, no food - unless - you buy more seed. This is obviously good
for seed companies. As it turns out, it is also good for the US
Department of Agriculture. In a recent interview with RAFI (the
Canada-based Rural Advancement Foundation International) the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesman, Willard Phelps, without
embarrassment explained that the USDA wants this technology to be
"widely licensed and made expeditiously available to many seed
companies."

The goal, he said, is "to increase the value of proprietary seed owned
by US seed companies and to open up new markets in Second and Third
World countries." The Delta & Pine Land Co. has over the summer
applied for patents on the terminator technology in at least 78
countries!

Once the technology is commercialized, the USDA will earn royalties of
about 5% of net sales. "I think it will be profitable for USDA,"
Phelps said.

(Royalties? Profits? For a Department of the US Federal
Government?... What's wrong with this picture?)

The Terminator Technology was created to prevent farmers from saving
non-hybrid, open-pollinated or genetically altered seed sold by seed
companies. Open-pollinated varieties of crops like wheat and rice -
staples for most of the world's population - are typical examples.

The stated logic for Terminator Technology is simple. A seed ompany
invests money to develop and produce new varieties of seed. It hopes
to sell a lot of that seed to earn back investments in crop research
and seed development, and then to realize a profit on their
investment.

Fair enough, it would seem, but there are BIG concerns around the
world about how much profit, how much control many of these
multinational seed companies actually seek. Many of their proprietary
seeds are no more than genetically altered versions of older,
reliable, conventionally bred strains that have been in the public
domain for many, many years. Change a gene to give a seed resistance
to some new strain of disease, the logic goes, and the seed no longer
belongs to the people to grow and save as they like, the seed now
belongs to the seed company.

In the past several years the world community has seen some
multinational seed companies brazenly try to claim ownership of whole
species of food plants based on the logic that since they altered a
gene in a member of that species, they now own its whole genome!

This is no joke.

In a world of burgeoning population growth and, hence, demand for
food, giant, multinational seed companies hope to sell a lot of
proprietary, genetically engineered seed. Food is a BIG business that
will only get bigger, and they want farmers around the world to need
to come back to them, year after year, to buy the seed and, in most
cases, the chemicals to grow it.

Plant patents, gene licensing agreements, intellectual property laws,
investigations and lawsuits brought against farm families for
infringing on a seed company's monopoly on seed varieties are some of
the means now used to protect their interests.

The new Terminator Technology could render even these modern, legal
measures of control obsolete, as it is potentially so powerful, so
effective and so flawless in its applicability that its corporate
owners and licensees will literally have complete biological control
over the food crops in which it is applied. Seed companies have been
working hard to prevent farmers around the world from saving their own
seed from plants originally grown with seed purchased from these
companies.

They are also trying to find ways to encourage farmers around the
world - in the U.S., Europe and especially the huge market represented
by farmers in South America, Mexico and Asia, to switch to genetically
engineered, proprietary seed instead of relying on the ancient
practice of saving their own locally produced and conventionally bred
seed. If the seed company can produce and offer their "improved" seed
cheaply enough to convince developing country farmers to switch, they
will have captured much of the global market. The Terminator will
ensure that this market-these farmers and the communities and
countries they feed-will be completely dependent on the company in
order to continue to eat.

There is another potential dark side to the Terminator biotechnology.
Molecular biologists reviewing the technology suspect there is a risk
of the Terminator function escaping the genome of the crops into which
it has been intentionally incorporated and moving into surrounding
open-pollinated crops or wild, related plants in fields nearby.

The means of this "infection" would be via pollen from Terminator-
altered plants. Given Nature's incredible adaptability, and the fact
that the technology has never been tested on a large scale, the
possibility that the Terminator may spread to surrounding food crops
or to the natural environment MUST be taken seriously.

The gradual spread of sterility in seeding plants would result in a
global catastrophe that borders on the unspeakable. According to USDA
researchers, they have spent about $190,000 over four years working on
the joint project. For its share, the Delta & Pine Land Company has
reportedly devoted $275,000 of in-house expenses, plus an additional
$255,000.

According to USDA's Willard Phelps, the Delta & Pine Land Co. retains
the option to exclusively license the jointly-developed technology. In
its March 3rd press release, the company claimed that the new
technology has "the prospect of opening significant worldwide seed
markets to the sale of transgenic technology for crops in which seed
currently is saved and used in subsequent plantings."

In a recent communique, RAFI states: "If the Terminator Technology is
widely utilized, it will give the multinational seed and agrochemical
industry an unprecedented and extremely dangerous capacity to control
the world's food supply."

That fear may be realized much sooner than anyone could have imagined
... At the time of the March 3 announcement of the US government-
supported technology, it was common knowledge that multinational seed
and pesticides giant, Monsanto, was a minor (8%) shareholder in the
Delta & Pine Land Co. The two jointly have a cotton seed venture in
China. On May 11th, a nine (9) weeks after the announcement of the
Terminator Technology, Monsanto bought the Delta & Pine Land Co. and,
with it, the complete control of the Terminator Technology.

For an even bigger picture of the implications of this acquisition,
here's a summary of some published information on Monsanto's current
agricultural holdings and activities:

The purchase of Delta & Pine now gives Monsanto an overwhelming 85%
share of the US cotton seed market and a dominant global position in
this crop.


* On May 11th, Monsanto also announced the take-over of Dekalb,
the second largest maize (corn) company in the US.

* In January of 1997, Monsanto acquired Holden's Foundation
Seeds. A company spokesman said at the time that its goal
was to get its bioengineered seed on at least half of the
then 40 million acres that Monsanto had access to via its
acquisitions.

It is estimated that 25-35% of US corn acreage is planted with
Holden's products.

The Holden and Dekalb acquisitions make Monsanto the dominant
player in the corn market.

* In November, Monsanto acquired Brazilian seed company,
Sementes Agroceres. This acquisition gave Monsanto 30%
of the Brazilian corn seed business. Brazilian farmers
who have been breeding and saving their own seed for
centuries are considered primary targets for terminator
and apomictic (below) corn seed products.

* On January 20th, the USDA won another patent-no. 5,710,367-
covering "apomictic maize". This corn trait speeds hybrid
seed production by allowing the plant to produce hybrid
clones, lowering the price of hybrid seed. Third World
farmers unable to afford more expensive hybrid seed could
potentially buy these less expensive clones. Unlike other
hybrids, apomictic corn can be regrown but its genetic
uniformity (remember, clones) would make it more likely
to lose its disease resistance more frequently, forcing
farmers to buy seed more often. There are fears that
Monsanto will obtain these license rights from the USDA.
Monsanto's recent corn company acquisitions and, now, near
monopoly in corn, make this a critical concern.

* A Washington connection, according to RAFI: "In the past
two years, a number of high-ranking White House and USDA
officials have left Washington for the allure of Monsanto's
headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri."

* "In October 1997, Monsanto and Millennium Pharmaceuticals
(another US-based genomics company) announced a 5 year
collaborative agreement worth over US $118 million,
including the creation of a new Monsanto subsidiary with
about 100 scientists to work exclusively with Millennium
to use genomic technologies. The exclusive agreement is
not limited to a single crop or geographic location - it
covers all crop plants in all countries. Monsanto considers
the new subsidiary 'an integral part of its life sciences
strategy' and hopes to gain a competitive edge in the search
for patentable - and likely 'Terminator-able' crop genes."

* Monsanto has pioneered enforcement strategies for protection
of its plant patents. Much of this pioneering has been
centered on its genetically altered soybeans which have the
ability to withstand spraying with the company's leading
herbicide, Roundup. (Weeds and other native plants die,
beans live.) In 1996 the company set a new precedent
requiring farmers buying its genetically engineered
"Roundup Ready Soybeans" to sign and adhere to the terms
of its "1996 Roundup Ready Gene Agreement."

The Terms:

The farmer must pay a $5 per bag "technology fee"; the farmer must
give Monsanto the right to inspect, monitor and test his/her
fields for up to 3 years; the farmer must use only Monsanto's
brand of the glyphosate herbicide it calls Roundup; the farmer
must give up his/her right to save and replant the patented seed;
the farmer must agree not to sell or otherwise supply the seed to
"any other person or entity." The farmer must also agree, in
writing, to pay Monsanto "...100 times the then applicable fee for
the Roundup Ready gene, times the number of units of transferred
seed, plus reasonable attorney's fees and expenses..." should he
violate any portion of the agreement. A farmers' outcry against
the stringent inspection and monitoring of their private property
caused Monsanto to modify that part of the agreement in 1997.

The company has used a similar licensing agreement for its
genetically engineered cotton and, according to a spokeswoman,
plans to introduce licensing agreements with ALL genetically
engineered seeds Monsanto brings to market. These will include
Roundup Ready canola (canola oil), corn, sugarbeets, etc. (Keep in
mind that now Monsanto has Terminator Technology to license, as
well. It is applicable to all food crops according to its primary
inventor.)

Four months ago, the scope of the potential impact of the
Terminator Technology on global agriculture broadened explosively
with the announcement that American Home Products Corporation
(AHP) had agreed to buy Monsanto Co. for $33.9 billion in stock.

"AHP," according to its press release, "is one of the world's
largest research-based pharmaceutical and health care products
companies....It is also a global leader in vaccines,
biotechnology, agricultural products and animal health care."
Reuters reports that the acquisition will create "a powerful
pharmaceutical company with a massive presence in the growing
market for genetically engineered agricultural products."

Actually, AHP is a family of companies including American
Cyanamid, Cyamid Agricultural Products Group, Wyeth Ayerst, and
others.

It is the third largest in the US in herbicides, insecticides and
fungicides but, with its acquisition of Monsanto, it is now
estimated that the combined companies will become the largest
agrochemical/life industries company in the world, beating Swiss
global giant, Novartis.

It does not take a giant mental leap to see the massive potential
for the application and marketing of Monsanto's Roundup Ready seed
and licensing agreements and the Terminator Technology to an
increasing number of companies and food crops. If the Terminator
technology is not globally banned, its eventual incorporation into
all genetically engineered and open-pollinated, non-hybrid food
crops is predictable.

The widespread global adoption of the newly patented Terminator
Technology will ensure absolute dependence of farmers, and the
people they feed, on multinational corporations for their seed and
food.

Dependence does not foster freedom. On the contrary, dependence
fosters a loss of freedom. Dependence does not enable personal
power, it diminishes it. When you are dependent, you relinquish
your control. History is full of examples of peoples and cultures
who lost fundamental freedoms-who were controlled-by their need
for food. This shouldn't happen to Second and Third World farmers.
It shouldn't happen in any of the 78 countries in which the patent
has been applied for. It shouldn't happen anywhere.

The Terminator Technology is brilliant science and arguably "good
business", but it has crossed the line-the tenuous line between
genius and insanity. It is a dangerously bad idea conceived for
the purpose of making money. It and the entities promoting it
should be banned and dismantled.


The Ark Institute

PO Box 1