For over a decade, Monsanto and other corporations have
reluctantly acknowledged an international moratorium on what are known as
“terminator” seeds. These make crops die off after one harvest, forcing farmers
to buy new seeds for planting. All that could be about to change as a result of
pressure from Brazilian landowners.
A massive movement of farmers and biodiversity groups in the
1990s put Monsanto on the back foot and the corporation froze plans to market
terminator seeds. Campaigners pointed out that the seeds could also be used to
introduce traits crucial to plant growth, which would be triggered only if
proprietary chemicals were applied. Naturally, Monsanto, Syngenta and the other
seed corporations would sell those too.
In 2000, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
effectively blocked genetic use restriction technologies, which is the polite
term for what many refer to as suicide seeds. Nearly 200 countries signed up to
the moratorium. But Monsanto’s lobbyists kept up the pressure.
They found support in Brazil, where major landowners have
repeatedly tried to get the government to drop the ban. They failed to have the
moratorium lifted in 2007 after the UN Convention reaffirmed its policy. Now landowners
have forced the issue back on the agenda of a key Congressional committee where
support for allowing the use of terminator seeds is gathering pace.
One of the more bizarre arguments deployed is that the
terminator seeds are safer than other genetically-modified products because
they allegedly eliminate the risk of contamination of neighbouring land. The
landowners want to plant fast growing trees and non-food crops to cash in on
the global demand for biofuels.
The ETC campaign group,
which monitors the ecological consequences of new technologies, totally rejects
these spurious arguments. It points out that the sterility trait will “inevitably
bleed into neighbouring fields and crops meaning that farmers will unwittingly
plant seeds that they will never be able to harvest”. A
petition signed by tens of thousands of people across Brazil warns that if
the law is changed in favour of terminator seeds, it will threaten “farmers and
food security and agricultural biodiversity worldwide”.
At the heart of the terminator technology is what ETC
describes as “a ground-shifting market strategy”. Suicide seeds can produce
anywhere from two to four times the profitability of non-terminator seeds and
if introduced would reinforce the stranglehold that a handful of transnationals
already have. Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Dow, Monsanto and DuPont together dominate
the seed market as well as the agrochemical market.
A key judgement in the United States Supreme Court earlier
this year reinforced Monsanto’s position while a new European Union draft law
will also strengthen the hand of the major corporations. In the US, the court
ruled that farmers must pay Monsanto each time they plant its GM soybeans.
Judges rejected the argument of farmer Vernon Bowman that because
the company’s herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready soybeans replicate themselves,
he was not violating the company’s patent by planting progeny seeds he bought
elsewhere. Their
ruling was essentially a defence of patent law, which protects corporate
products from being copied.
Meanwhile, a draft EU law on plant reproductive material
would stop the exchange and distribution of traditional seeds. Ben Raskin, head
of horticulture for the Soil Association, warns:
“If this regulation is passed, not only will we lose a huge number of plant
varieties, we will lose the amazing diversity of appearance, taste, and
potential benefits such as disease resistance and nutritional content.”
The effect of the proposal is to introduce a costly
licensing system that only the corporations will be able to afford. Now there’s
a surprise! From Brazil to Washington and on to Brussels, corporate power has
effectively terminated what remains of the democratic process.
Paul Feldman
Communications editor
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