As if Tim’s last post on oil wasn’t enough to worry you sick, I just picked this up from GRAIN, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people’s control over genetic resources and local knowledge.
CORPORATES GAIN CONTROL - TERMINATOR PATENT GRANTED
Amsterdam, 25 October 2005 — Greenpeace today exposed details that the patent for the controversial “Terminator technology” was granted in Europe on 5 October 2005. The Terminator patent (1) has been approved for all plants that are genetically engineered so that their seeds will not germinate. Further research by the “Ban Terminator Campaign”, a network of farmers’ unions and environmental organisations revealed that a patent was also granted in Canada on 11 October 2005.
Plants created using Terminator technology will produce sterile seeds, creating a monopoly and unnatural control of the seeds. Farmers will not be able to use seeds from such plants for the following season’s cultivation. The seeds will rot in the soil without producing new plants. If this technology is introduced in crops such as soya, wheat, canola and cotton it will force farmers to buy new seeds every year from the same company.
“Farmers should be aware that corporations all over the world are ready to take control of their seeds with genetic engineering (GE). These corporations will control the entire food chain with the help of monopoly patents and Terminator technology,” said Christoph Then, Greenpeace International GE campaigner. “We need a global ban on this technology and on any patents on seeds. These corporate instruments will disrupt the backbone of global food supply, making it impossible for the farmers to reuse their own harvest for planting.”
So far, the market introduction of the Terminator technology — which was already developed about ten years ago — was successfully prevented through worldwide protest of several groups and stakeholders. But many observers believe that the GE industry will drive towards the legalisation of this technology at the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in March next year. The grant of the patent could push even harder for market introduction.
One Response to “Got Seeds?”
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November 2nd, 2005 at 7:17 am
Free Trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA grant great latitude over “intellectual property rights.” For example, corporations can go into foreign countries and “patent” plants that yield important medicines, and even forbid local tribes who have traditionally used those plants (but who were too shortsighted to hire a team of high powered lawyers) from using their own native plants.
Corporations have patented much of the human genome. I suspect the only thing keeping them from demanding royalties from all of us is that it would not be a very good public relations move.
-Tim