[Gen-Streitfall] Fw: Monsanto May Commercialize Terminator

[Wolfgang Wiebecke]

Hallo zusammen,
diese Nachricht bekam ich soeben und sende sie Euch/Ihnen umgehend weiter.
Es geht um gravierende Neuigkeiten zu Monsanto und Terminatortechnologie.
Mit friedlichem Gruß
Dr. Wolfgang Wiebecke
Agrargruppe von attac-Wtal
Meckelstr. 9
42285 Wuppertal

> Title : Monsanto May Commercialize Terminator
> Date : 22 February 2006
> Contents: Ban Terminator
> www.BanTerminator.org
> News Release
> 21 February 2006
>
> Monsanto May Commercialize Terminator
> Biotech Giant Revises Pledge on Sterile Seed Technology as Global
> Alliance Calls for a Ban.
>
> Monsanto, the world's largest seed and agbiotech company, made a 
> public promise in 1999 not to commercialize 'Terminator Technology' - 
> plants that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds. Now 
> Monsanto says it may develop or use the so-called 'suicide seeds' 
> after all. The revised pledge from Monsanto now suggests that it would 
> use Terminator seeds in non-food crops and does not rule out other 
> uses of Terminator in the future. (1) Monsanto's modified stance comes 
> to light as the biotech and seed industry confront peasant and farmer 
> movements, Indigenous peoples and their allies in an escalating battle 
> at the United Nations over the future of Terminator.
>
> In 2000 the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 
> adopted a de facto moratorium on sterile seed technologies, also known 
> as Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs). But at next month's 
> high-level meeting of the CBD in Curitiba, Brazil (20-31 March 2006) 
> the biotechnology industry will intensify its push to undermine the 
> six-year old de facto moratorium.
>
> In response, over 300 organizations today declared their support for a 
> global ban on Terminator Technology, asserting that sterile seeds 
> threaten biodiversity and will destroy the livelihoods and cultures of 
> the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved seed.
>
> "The world's farmers and Indigenous peoples cannot trust Monsanto," 
> said Alejandro Argumedo from Asociacion ANDES - Potato Park in Cusco, 
> Peru "Monsanto's broken promise is a deadly betrayal because 
> Indigenous peoples and farmers depend on seed saving for food security 
> and self-determination."
>
> Terminator technology was first developed by the United States 
> Department of Agriculture and US seed company Delta & Pine Land to 
> prevent farmers from saving and re-using harvested seed, forcing them 
> to buy new seeds each season. (2)
>
> In October 1999, in response to worldwide opposition, Monsanto 
> publicly pledged not to commercialize Terminator seeds. Then-CEO, 
> Robert Shapiro, wrote an open letter to the Rockefeller Foundation, 
> stating, "I am writing to let you know that we are making a public 
> commitment not to commercialize sterile seed technologies, such as the 
> one dubbed 'Terminator.'"
>
> Now, Monsanto has revised its commitment, pledging to keep Terminator 
> only out of food crops - opening the door to the use of Terminator in 
> cotton, tobacco, pharmaceutical crops and grass with sterility genes.
>
> Referring to new versions of GURTs, Monsanto's 'pledge' now says, 
> "Monsanto does not rule out the potential development and use of one 
> of these technologies in the future. The company will continue to 
> study the risks and benefits of this technology on a case-by-case basis."
>
> "Monsanto's revised pledge resonates closely with the actions of a few 
> rich governments that have been promoting Terminator at the UN 
> recently," points out Chee Yoke Ling of Third World Network. "It looks 
> like Monsanto and other corporations are behind the strategy to 
> unleash Terminator at the upcoming meetings of the CBD".
>
> Monsanto's new stance on Terminator is part of an industry-wide 
> attempt to undermine the de facto moratorium. In the past year, 
> government delegates from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, working 
> hand in hand with the biotech industry, have used UN meetings to 
> introduce new text that will be considered at next month's CBD meeting 
> in Brazil. (3) This text recommends Terminator technologies be 
> approached on a "case by case risk assessment" basis - echoing the 
> language of Monsanto's new 'pledge.' The intention behind the 'case by 
> case' approach is to regulate Terminator just like any other 
> genetically modified crop. This would ignore the uniquely devastating 
> societal impacts of genetic seed sterility.
>
> "Terminator is a direct assault on farmers, Indigenous cultures and on 
> the food sovereignty and well-being of all rural people, primarily the 
> very poorest," said Chukki Nanjundaswamy of India from La Via 
> Campesina, an organization representing tens of millions of peasant 
> farmers worldwide. "If Monsanto bullies the UN into allowing 'case by 
> case' assessment of Terminator, it means farmers will be carried off 
> the land coffin by coffin."
>
> "These companies have a clear and simple vision that nothing should be 
> grown without a license from Monsanto and a few other masters of 
> sterility and reproduction," explains Benny Haerlin of Greenpeace 
> International. "They pursue this strategy step by step or 'case by 
> case' as they now call it. If governments at the CBD give in to 
> Monsanto and erode the Terminator moratorium we will all have to pay 
> the bill tomorrow and the collateral damage will be the integrity and 
> fertility of nature."
>
> The Ban Terminator campaign today announces the names of over 300 
> organizations worldwide that are demanding a ban on Terminator 
> technology. The list of organizations is available at 
> http://www.banterminator.org/endorsements These organizations are from 
> every region of the world and include peasant farmer movements and 
> farm organizations, Indigenous peoples organizations, civil society 
> and environmental groups, unions, faith communities, international 
> development organizations, women's movements, consumer organizations 
> and youth networks.
>
> "We are particularly alarmed that Monsanto's edited pledge no longer 
> rejects commercialization of this dangerous technology." said Lucy 
> Sharratt of the international Ban Terminator Campaign. "We are calling 
> on national governments to dismiss Monsanto's tactic in favour of an 
> all-out ban on Terminator. We invite all civil society
> and social movements to join with us for the battle against Terminator 
> next month in Brazil."
>
> For more information contact:
>
> Canada:
> Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator,
> Ban Terminator Campaign
> +1 613 252 2147 mobile
> + 1 613 241 2267
> Pat Mooney, ETC Group
> Jim Thomas, ETC Group
> +1 613 241 2267
> lucy at banterminator.org
> jim at etcgroup.org
> www.banterminator.org
>
> USA:
> Hope Shand, ETC Group.
> +1 919 9605767
> hope at etcgroup.org
> www.etcgroup.org
>
> Peru:
> Alejandro Argumedo,
> Asociacion ANDES.
> +51 84 245021
> andes at andes.org.pe
> www.andes.org.pe
>
> Malaysia:
> Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network
> Lim Li Lin, Third World Network.
> +603 23002585
> twnet at po.jaring.my
> www.twnside.org.sg
>
> India:
> Chukki Nanjundaswamy,
> La Via Campesina.
> +91 80 28604737
> chukki_krrs at yahoo.co.in
> www.viacampesina.org
>
> Greenpeace International:
> Benedict Haerlin,
> Greenpeace International.
> bhaerlin at extra.greenpeace.org
> www.greenpeace.or
>
> Notes to editors:
> 1. Monsanto's new pledge on Terminator and GURTs is online at http://
> www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/media/pubs/2005/pledgereport.pdf. A
> full copy of their new and old pledges is available at 
> www.banterminator.org
>
> 2. Delta and Pine Land refer to Terminator as Technology Protection 
> System (TPS). Terminator is currently being tested in greenhouses and 
> Delta and Pine Land vowed to commercialize it within the next few years.
>
> 3. In February 2005 at a meeting of the CBD's Subsidiary Body on 
> Scientific, Technical and Technological Assessment (SBSTTA) in 
> Bangkok, Canadian government delegates made a surprise attempt to 
> overturn the moratorium by allowing Terminator to be field tested and 
> commercialized. Last month, at another preparatory meeting in Granada, 
> Spain (known as the Working Group on 8j), the Australian government, 
> coached by a US State Department representative, also attacked the 
> moratorium. See ETC Group news release on 27th January 2006: 
> "Granada's Grim Sowers Plow up the moratorium on Terminator"
> available at http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=542
>
>
> Author :