BC THE ORGANIC WAY

by Marya Skrypiczajko

For centuries, farmers around the world have saved the seed of one year's crop to plant the following year. Now there is pressure from large biotechnology firms and North American governments to allow a relatively new type of plant that produces sterile seed to be test grown in the outdoors, with the ultimate goal of making it available commercially. These trademarked terminator seeds are a serious threat to biodiversity, safe food and farmers' inherent right to grow their own seed.
In 1998, it was discovered that terminator patents had been granted to biotechnology firms in North America. The ensuing public outcry forced the large firms to announce that they would never commercialize the sterile seeds, and in 2000, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) adopted a de facto moratorium on terminator seeds. Environmental groups were appeased and many refocused their efforts on other causes until February 2005, when the Canadian government brought the issue back to the forefront by pushing to overturn the moratorium at another UNCBD. Then, in October 2005, both the Canadian and European Union governments granted new patents for terminator technology jointly to Delta & Pine Land, an American cotton and soybean seed breeder and producer, and the US Department of Agriculture.
Terminator seeds are currently being test-grown in greenhouses in the US. Fortunately, they have not yet made it into fields or the marketplace, but this March, the UNCBD will be in Brazil, and once again there will be pressure to overturn the moratorium.
Terminator seeds are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds for harvest. Multinational seed and agrochemical companies and the US government have developed them for one purpose: corporate control of agriculture. With plants producing sterile seed, farmers will be forced to buy new seed, year after year.
Since 1996, genetically engineered seed (not terminator) has been available commercially. While the large biotech seed companies have made a lot of money, they have also dealt with negative pressure from the public regarding the safety of their seed. They have also incurred lawsuits over genetic contamination from cross pollination of their seed with traditional seed varieties. Sterile terminator seeds would allow them to avoid such costly lawsuits. And to soften the current image, the GE industry claims that terminator technology would prevent further genetic contamination.
However, scientists do not agree. To be truly sterile, terminator technology must be 100 percent effective. Thus, the system consisting of many pieces of genetic material engineered into plants must work perfectly over generations of seed breeding. Scientists do not believe it is possible, and insufficient testing has been done to prove otherwise.
Secondly, even if the seed itself is sterile, the pollen from the terminator crops is not, and this could easily move to nearby crops or wild plants and contaminate related open-pollinating varieties. (Canola pollen travels 100 plus km.)
Depending on the crop, the tainted terminator seed could serve as food or feed. All grains and legumes we eat are seed. This means that we would be ingesting the genetic material necessary to render seeds sterile or that it would be fed to livestock that we may eventually consume.
The problems do not end here.
Sterile seeds will not be visibly identifiable; farmers will unwittingly plant sterile seeds, only realizing it when the seeds fail to germinate. By then, it may be too late to reseed a crop and the farmers' yields will fall. This could happen to Canadian farmers or those in developing countries who rely even more on their own seed.
Farmers and gardeners in the poorest areas of the world depend on their own seed for food and medicine. Terminator technology would decrease the availability of many of their necessary crops as they become genetically tainted. This would lead to the loss of their locally adapted crop varieties, their cultural knowledge, and their food sovereignty. Furthermore, it would change the role of women who have been the honoured seed keepers, and the relationships between people who once shared and traded food and seed.
Governments do not have to let this happen. They could and should protect our right to safe food. But since that is not happening, environmental groups and individual citizens are working to strengthen the moratorium on terminator technology. In Canada, the Ban Terminator campaign is the effort of several non-profit organizations to coordinate opposition to terminator technology. These organizations work together to educate organized groups and the public, forming a strong opposition to the companies and governments who are in favour of commercializing terminator technology. The people involved with Ban Terminator are doing their best to make their voices heard loud and clear at the upcoming UNCBD.
If you would like to get involved, visit www.banterminator.org for more information and write to your MP and the Canadian Minister of Agriculture with your views.

Marya Skrypiczajko is the author of BC the Organic Way – Where to Find Organic Food in British Columbia
www.bctheorganicway.com





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