- 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 ingenius scientific achievement and subsequent, related business developments
threaten to terminate the natural, God-given right and 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. Overstatement? Judge for yourself.
-
- On March 3, 1998, 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 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, US Department
of Agriculture (USDA) spokesman, Willard Phelps, 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 USDA
and Delta & Pine Land Co. have 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, really.
A seed company invests money to develop and produce new varieties of seed.
It hopes to sell a lot of that seed to recoup monies spent on 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,
but to the seed company. In the past several years the world community
has been outraged as some multinational seed companies have brazenly tried
to claim ownership of whole species of food plants based on the logic that
they had altered a gene in a member of that species and,hence, now owned
its whole genome!
-
- In a world of burgeoning population growth
and, hence, demand for food, giant, multi-national 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
some cases, even 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 eons-old practice of saving
their own locally produced and conventionally bred seed. If they can produce
and offer their "improved" seed cheaply enough to convince even
poorer, Second and Third World 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. Molecular biologists reviewing the technology are divided
on whether or not 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
could eventually wipe out higher life forms, including humans, from the
planet.
-
- According to USDA researchers, they have
spent about $190,000 over four years working on the joint project. (Yes,
you and I supported this research.) For its share, the Delta & Pine
Land Company has reportedly devoted $275,000 of in-house expenses, plus
an additional $255,000. Combined, these dollars are a mere drop in the
bucket compared to the potential profitability of the technology to its
owners.
-
- 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 mere nine 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 Washngton for the allure of Monsanto's headquarters
in St. Louis, Missouri."
-
- "In October 1997, Monsanto and Millenium
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 Millenium 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." 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.
The 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 days 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 engieered 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.
-
- As most of you are aware, I have often
fretted in these pages about the vulnerabilities of our increasingly centralized,
computer-based, bottom-line driven, large corporation-dominated food production,
processing and distribution system. Extreme weather patterns, toxic waste-contaminated
fertilizers, epidemic bacterial contamination of food and the year-2000
crash of computers responsible for keeping the whole, complex system running
have been big concerns. I have warned you of the planned disappearance
of non-hybrid, open-pollinated seeds. Seeds that let you retain the means
of growing your own food if you want or need to. Seeds that ensure protective
biodiversity. Seeds that may provide personal food security in insecure
times. Now the Terminator threatens even these.
-
- Make no mistake about it's 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 increase personal power, it diminishes it. When you are dependent,
you relinquish 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 here.
-
- 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 dangerous,
bad idea that should be banned. Period..........Geri Guidetti, The Ark
Institute
-
- Visit The Ark Institute's web site @
http://www.arkinstitute.com for archived Food and Grain Supply Updates. To
be placed on Geri Guidetti's free Food Supply Update email list, send an
email with "list" in the subject box to: [email protected]
-
- To receive a free email catalog, write
"catalog" in the subject box.
-
- Mailing address: The Ark Institute, PO
Box 142, Oxford, Ohio 45064
|