Fwd to all interested
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----- Original Message -----
From: aterra
To: Earthclan
Cc: White Oak
Sent: Friday, April 02, 1999 3:34 PM
Subject: (earthclan) FWD: Terminator Seeds site with
links
Shown below are a few exerpts from an article
from http://www.ratical.org/ratville/terminatorTech.html
For the full story, please review the full material. Tell those who might actually do something. Thank You.
For the full story, please review the full material. Tell those who might actually do something. Thank You.
<<<<<beginning of quoted
material>>>>>
June 1998: We have at best two years, and at
worst six months
to safeguard the right of farmers as seed-savers and breeders.
See the summary listing of ongoing UPDATES (last updated:
3/7/99) from the
Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) at the bottom
of this file.
---------------------------------------------------------------
This file is RICH with hyper-links. Find it at
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/terminatorTech.html
---------------------------------------------------------------
TERMINATOR UNLEASHED
patenting life -- patenting death
---------------------------------------------------------------
by Mary Jo Olsen
The only thing that can keep pace with the rate of agricultural
biotechnological change these days is the speed with which the
transnational Life Industry is eating itself. In the last
couple of years, Monsanto has spent more than $6.7 billion
buying seed and other agbiotech companies. Now, American Home
Products is merging with Monsanto for another $33 billion.
Other massive mergers are inevitable with the next few months.
That transnational agri-business wants to stop farmers from
savings seeds and conducting their own plant breeding is hardly
news. That the battle over Farmers' Rights has come so abruptly
to a crisis is news that governments and the scientific
community are trying to ignore. We have at best two years, and
at worst six months to safeguard the right of farmers as
seed-savers and breeders. Rather than coming to their defence,
public sector institutions are keeping silent or joining in the
attack. Either way, public researchers could be contributing to
the destruction of agricultural biodiversity. Who's interests
are being served? The 12 thousand year-old right of farmers to
save and improve seed could be coming to an end -- now.
Terminator Trends: The Silent Spring of Farmers' Rights
Seed Saving, the Public Sector, and Terminator Transnationals
(PDF format), RAFI, Occasional Paper Series, June, 1998
On March 3, 1998 the USDA (United States Department of
Agriculture) and Delta & Pine Land Company of Mississippi
announced a new patent (US # 5,723,765) which uses genetic
engineering to program a mature plant's seed to sterilize
itself by destroying its own embryos. If a farmer or gardener
saves seed from these plants, it will not grow. If you want
another tomato plant or crop of soybeans, you must go back to
the company for their seeds. This patent (which they have now
applied for world-wide) applies to all plants and seeds.
"With this patent announcement, the world's two most critical
food crops -- rice and wheat -- which are staple crops for
three-quarters of the world's poor, potentially enter the realm
of private monopoly." ("RAFI Communique," March/April 1998)
to safeguard the right of farmers as seed-savers and breeders.
See the summary listing of ongoing UPDATES (last updated:
3/7/99) from the
Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) at the bottom
of this file.
---------------------------------------------------------------
This file is RICH with hyper-links. Find it at
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/terminatorTech.html
---------------------------------------------------------------
TERMINATOR UNLEASHED
patenting life -- patenting death
---------------------------------------------------------------
by Mary Jo Olsen
The only thing that can keep pace with the rate of agricultural
biotechnological change these days is the speed with which the
transnational Life Industry is eating itself. In the last
couple of years, Monsanto has spent more than $6.7 billion
buying seed and other agbiotech companies. Now, American Home
Products is merging with Monsanto for another $33 billion.
Other massive mergers are inevitable with the next few months.
That transnational agri-business wants to stop farmers from
savings seeds and conducting their own plant breeding is hardly
news. That the battle over Farmers' Rights has come so abruptly
to a crisis is news that governments and the scientific
community are trying to ignore. We have at best two years, and
at worst six months to safeguard the right of farmers as
seed-savers and breeders. Rather than coming to their defence,
public sector institutions are keeping silent or joining in the
attack. Either way, public researchers could be contributing to
the destruction of agricultural biodiversity. Who's interests
are being served? The 12 thousand year-old right of farmers to
save and improve seed could be coming to an end -- now.
Terminator Trends: The Silent Spring of Farmers' Rights
Seed Saving, the Public Sector, and Terminator Transnationals
(PDF format), RAFI, Occasional Paper Series, June, 1998
On March 3, 1998 the USDA (United States Department of
Agriculture) and Delta & Pine Land Company of Mississippi
announced a new patent (US # 5,723,765) which uses genetic
engineering to program a mature plant's seed to sterilize
itself by destroying its own embryos. If a farmer or gardener
saves seed from these plants, it will not grow. If you want
another tomato plant or crop of soybeans, you must go back to
the company for their seeds. This patent (which they have now
applied for world-wide) applies to all plants and seeds.
"With this patent announcement, the world's two most critical
food crops -- rice and wheat -- which are staple crops for
three-quarters of the world's poor, potentially enter the realm
of private monopoly." ("RAFI Communique," March/April 1998)
And it seems that is exactly why it was
developed. According to
inventor Melvin Oliver of the USDA ("End of the germ line", New
Scientist, 3/28/98) "Our system is a way of self-policing the
unauthorised use of American technology. It's similar to
copyright protection." That analogy will be accurate when
copyright protection means your tapes and CDs erase themselves
after one play and your books are printed with light-activated
disappearing ink.
inventor Melvin Oliver of the USDA ("End of the germ line", New
Scientist, 3/28/98) "Our system is a way of self-policing the
unauthorised use of American technology. It's similar to
copyright protection." That analogy will be accurate when
copyright protection means your tapes and CDs erase themselves
after one play and your books are printed with light-activated
disappearing ink.
India's Devinder Sharma, coordinator of the
Forum for
Biotechnology and Food Security says, "For some time now the US
has viewed farmer's rights [to save, cross, and replant seed]
as incompatible with intellectual property rights that
emphasises private monopolies. . . . Having been thwarted at
international fora by world opinion, the US has now developed a
biotechnological solution." ("AGRICULTURE-INDIA: Biotech Firms
Sow Seeds of Discord", InterPress Service (IPS) News Report,
7/15/98)
Biotechnology and Food Security says, "For some time now the US
has viewed farmer's rights [to save, cross, and replant seed]
as incompatible with intellectual property rights that
emphasises private monopolies. . . . Having been thwarted at
international fora by world opinion, the US has now developed a
biotechnological solution." ("AGRICULTURE-INDIA: Biotech Firms
Sow Seeds of Discord", InterPress Service (IPS) News Report,
7/15/98)
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research
(ICAR) is trying to
ban imports of Terminator seeds, because "farmers could be
enslaved to the seed market and indigenous crops could be
destroyed by cross-pollination." But Dr. R.S. Paroda,
director-general of ICAR has admitted that there is no reliable
way of ensuring that Terminator seeds can't be sneaked past the
inspectors. (Ibid.)
Shown below are a few excerpts from an article from . For the full story, please review the full material. Tell those who might actually do something. Thank You.
ban imports of Terminator seeds, because "farmers could be
enslaved to the seed market and indigenous crops could be
destroyed by cross-pollination." But Dr. R.S. Paroda,
director-general of ICAR has admitted that there is no reliable
way of ensuring that Terminator seeds can't be sneaked past the
inspectors. (Ibid.)
Shown below are a few excerpts from an article from . For the full story, please review the full material. Tell those who might actually do something. Thank You.
....
To reiterate:
This technology offers no agronomic benefit.
This technology offers no agronomic benefit.
It deliberately sterilizes farmers
fields.
The Terminator (like other genetically
engineered plants)
presents us with unprecedented dangers. These range from the
known (e.g. spread of genetically engineered characteristics
through cross-pollenation to nearby `natural' plants) to the
predicted (there will be no way to protect oneself against
unexpected and possibly life-threatening allergic reactions) to
the completely unforseen. We are all to accept these risks for
a technology whose only benefit is the enrichment of
multinational agribusiness.
presents us with unprecedented dangers. These range from the
known (e.g. spread of genetically engineered characteristics
through cross-pollenation to nearby `natural' plants) to the
predicted (there will be no way to protect oneself against
unexpected and possibly life-threatening allergic reactions) to
the completely unforseen. We are all to accept these risks for
a technology whose only benefit is the enrichment of
multinational agribusiness.
It is the human food supply which is put at
risk.
The openly-stated intended purpose of the
Terminator technology
is to bring the remainder of the `third world' into the global
market economy. This will, in effect, remove the subsistence
safety-net from an estimated 1.4 billion people.
is to bring the remainder of the `third world' into the global
market economy. This will, in effect, remove the subsistence
safety-net from an estimated 1.4 billion people.
Concerned scientists and grass-roots groups from
around the
world have called for a ban on Terminator seed technology, its
patent, and its applications. Dr. Vandana Shiva is the Director
of The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.
world have called for a ban on Terminator seed technology, its
patent, and its applications. Dr. Vandana Shiva is the Director
of The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.
In a paper she contributed to the Women in
Agriculture
Conference held in Washington this summer, she spoke to the
profoundly significant and disturbing implications and meaning
of this situation with great human intelligence :
Termination of germination is a means for capital accumulation
and market expansion. However, abundance in nature and for
farmers shrinks as markets grow for Monsanto. When we sow seed
we pray "May this seed be exhaustless!" Monsanto and the USDA
on the other hand are stating "Let this seed be terminated so
that our profits and monopoly is exhaustless."
Conference held in Washington this summer, she spoke to the
profoundly significant and disturbing implications and meaning
of this situation with great human intelligence :
Termination of germination is a means for capital accumulation
and market expansion. However, abundance in nature and for
farmers shrinks as markets grow for Monsanto. When we sow seed
we pray "May this seed be exhaustless!" Monsanto and the USDA
on the other hand are stating "Let this seed be terminated so
that our profits and monopoly is exhaustless."
There can be no partnership between the
terminator logic which
destroys nature's renewability and regeneration
and the
commitment to continuity of life held by women
farmers of the
Third World. The two worldviews do not merely
clash -- they
are mutually exclusive. There can be no partnership between a
logic of death on which Monsanto bases its expanding empire and
the logic of life on which women farmers in the Third World
base their partnership with the earth to provide food security
to their families and communities.
are mutually exclusive. There can be no partnership between a
logic of death on which Monsanto bases its expanding empire and
the logic of life on which women farmers in the Third World
base their partnership with the earth to provide food security
to their families and communities.
<<<<end of quoted
material>>>>>
--
* NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
