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USDA says ‘yes’ to Terminator by RAFI, Rural Advancement Foundation International
(Aug. 5, 2001 – CropChoice opinion) -- It's official. The US Department of Agriculture announced this week that it
has concluded negotiations to license the notorious Terminator technology to
its seed industry partner, Delta & Pine Land (D&PL). As a result of joint
research, the USDA and D&PL are co-owners of three patents on the
controversial technology that genetically modifies plants to produce sterile
seeds, preventing farmers from re-using harvested
seed. A licensing agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which
a party can use a patented technology. Although many of the Gene Giants hold
patents on Terminator technology, D&PL is the only company that has publicly
declared its intention to commercialize Terminator seeds. (for details, see
"2001: A Seed Odyssey" RAFI Communique, January/February 2001, www.rafi.org)
"USDA's decision to license Terminator flies in the face of international
public opinion and betrays the public trust," said Hope Shand, Research
Director of RAFI. "Terminator technology has been universally condemned by
civil society; banned by international
agricultural research institutes, censured by United Nations bodies, even
shunned by Monsanto, and yet the US government has officially sanctioned
commercialization of the technology by licensing it to one of the world's
largest seed companies," explains Shand.
"USDA's role in developing Terminator seeds is a disgraceful example of
corporate welfare involving a technology that is bad for farmers, dangerous
for the environment and disastrous for world food security," adds Silvia
Ribeiro of RAFI. Terminator has been universally opposed as an immoral
technology because over 1.4 billion people, primarily poor farmers, depend
on farm-saved seeds as their primary seed source.
Michael Schechtman, Executive Secretary to USDA's Advisory Committee on
Agricultural Biotechnology, made the official announcement regarding the
licensing of Terminator at the Committee's August 1 meeting. The 38-member
Advisory Committee, established during the Clinton administration, was
created to advise the Secretary of Agriculture on issues related to growing
public controversy over GM technology. Because of overwhelming public
opposition to USDA's involvement with Terminator, the issue became a top
priority for the Advisory Committee. USDA
officials admitted last year that the Agency had the option of abandoning
patents on Terminator, but chose not to do so. Although many members of the
Biotech Advisory Committee urged the USDA to abandon its patents and forsake
all further research on genetic seed sterilization, the USDA steadfastly
declined. The official statement released by USDA this week states that the
Agency "had a legal obligation" to license the
technology to D&PL.
In a lackluster attempt to quell its critics, the USDA pledged to negotiate
licensing restrictions on how the Terminator technology could be deployed
by Delta & Pine Land. "In the end, the restrictions negotiated by USDA are
meaningless," concludes Michael Sligh, RAFI-USA's Director of Sustainable
Agriculture, and member of the Biotech Advisory Committee. According to
Sligh, "USDA's promotion of Terminator
technology puts private profits above public good and the rights of farmers
everywhere." Sligh spearheaded efforts amongst Advisory Board members who
urged the USDA to abandon Terminator.
USDA places the following conditions on D&PL's deployment of Terminator:
_ The licensed Terminator technology will not be used in any heirloom
varieties of garden flowers and vegetables and it will not be used in any
variety of plant available in the marketplace before January 1, 2003.
(RAFI's comment: In other words, Terminator will not be commercialized, at
the earliest, until 2003 - only 17 months from now.
To suggest that USDA is protecting heirloom varieties from genetic seed
sterilization technology is ludicrous. There's no money to be made on
genetic modification of heirloom vegetables and flowers. The seed industry
aims to engineer seed sterility in major crop commodities - especially those
crops that have not been successfully hybridized on a commercial scale such
as soybeans, rice and wheat.)
_ USDA scientists will be involved in safety testing of new varieties
incorporating the GM trait for seed sterility, and a full and public process
of safety evaluation must be completed prior to regulatory sign-off by
USDA.(RAFI's comment: Can USDA play a role in both developing and regulating
this technology? Is it a blatant conflict of interest for the agency to
conduct a biosafety review of a product in which it holds a financial
interest?)
_ All royalties accruing to USDA from the use of Terminator will be
earmarked to technology transfer efforts for USDA's Agricultural Research
Service innovations that will be made widely available to the public.
(RAFI's comment: "Technology transfer" is a very broad concept. Terminator
seeds in every foreign aid package? More paper clips for ARS patent
lawyers?)
USDA concludes that Terminator "is a valuable technology." Ironically, the
agency promotes Terminator as a "green" technology that will prevent gene
flow from transgenic plants.
"We reject the notion that Terminator is a biosafety bandage for GM crops
with leaky genes, but even if it were, biosafety at the expense of food
security is unacceptable," concludes RAFI's Silvia Ribeiro.
Last year the FAO's Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethics in Food and
Agriculture concluded that Terminator seeds are unethical. When heads of
state meet at FAO's World Food Summit Five Years Later in Rome, 9-15
November, they will have the opportunity to re-affirm that finding, and
recommend that member nations ban the technology. In keeping with its image
as a rogue, isolationist state in international treaty negotiations on
global warming and biological weapons, the US also
appears to stand alone on Terminator.
RAFI is the the Rural Advancement Foundation International; www.rafi.org | |
