fPcN interCultural:

defenders of free tribal life

Dear Friends,

Please consider signing up on this urgent petition sent by The Grail. There is a petition attached. Organisations can also endorse by going to www.banterminator.org Further information below. URGENT: Petition - Terminator Technology

The next meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity is March 21 -312006 so we need to submit as many signatures as possible by March 15.
Below is a media release on Terminator and find more background info at: http://www.banterminator.org

News Release, 22 February 2006

Australian Government backs Terminator technology - ancient practice of seed-saving under threat

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a de facto moratorium on Terminator (sterile seed) technologies, in 2000. Terminator technology, sterilises crop seeds, prevents the ancient practice of seed saving and gives patent owners monopoly control of seed fertility.At the next CBD meeting in Brazil (20-31 March 2006) the Australian Government delegation appears set to lift a global Terminator ban.

"It's outrageous that the Australian Government is backing Terminator seedson behalf of the gene technology industry, and the US government which cannot vote as it is not a party to the CBD," says GeneEthics Network Director, Bob Phelps.

"The Australian government would undermine food security and the biodiversity on which all life depends, for interests which act in bad faith by not even joining the Convention," he says.

"Australia is doing the dirty work for Monsanto and the US government which are hostile to biodiversity conservation and have no place at CBD meetings," he says.

Terminator technology was developed to prevent farmers from saving and re-using harvested seed, forcing them to buy new seeds each season. After global protests, in 1999 Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro said, "We are making a public commitment not to commercialise sterile seed technologies, such as the one dubbed 'Terminator'."

But now, Monsanto says it will only keep Terminator out of food crops -opening the door to Terminator cotton, tobacco, pharmaceutical crops and pastures - and 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 the Australian, Canadian and N Z delegations that are promoting Terminator at the UN on a case-by-case basis, says Bob Phelps.

"It appears Australia will again back an end the Terminator ban, by echoing the language of Monsanto's weak new promise on suicide seed technology," he says.

The International Ban Terminator campaign today announces that over 300 diverse civil society organisations worldwide demand a permanent ban on Terminator technology, which sterilises crop seeds and prevents the ancient practice of seed saving. See: http://www.banterminator.org/endorsements

"A total and permanent ban on Terminator is needed so we urge all governments to dismiss Monsanto's watered down case-by-case approach when the CBD meets in Brazil next month," says Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Ban Terminator Campaign.

"The gene technology companies want nothing to be grown without a licence making them the masters of sterility and reproduction," says Greenpeace International's Benny Haerlin. "They are pursuing a step by step strategy - tagged 'case by case' to gain control of the global food supply and undermine the integrity and fertility of nature." The technology threatens agricultural biodiversity and could destroy food production for the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved seed.

"The world's farmers and Indigenous peoples cannot trust Monsanto," says Alejandro Argumedo from Asociación 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 is a direct assault on farmers, Indigenous cultures and on the food sovereignty and well-being of all rural people, especially the poorest," said Chukki Nanjundaswamy of La Via Campesina in India, which represents tens of millions of peasant farmers worldwide. "If Australia and Monsanto bully the UN into allowing 'case by case' acceptance of Terminator, developing world farmers will be carried off the land coffin by coffin."

For more information contact:

Canada: Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Ban Terminator Campaign Pat Mooney, ETC Group Jim Thomas, ETC Group T: +1 613 241 2267 lucy@banterminator.org jim@etcgroup.org www.banterminator.org

USA: Hope Shand, ETC Group T: +1 919 9605767 hope@etcgroup.org
www.etcgroup.org

Peru: Alejandro Argumedo, Asociación ANDES. T: +51 84 245021 andes@andes.org.pe
www.andes.org.pe

Malaysia: Chee Yoke Ling, Third World Network. T: + 60 4 226 6159 twnet@po.jaring.my
www.twnside.org.sg

India: Chukki Nanjundaswamy, La Via Campesina. T: +91 80 860 4640 chukki_krrs@yahoo.co.in, www.viacampesina.org 1. Monsanto's new pledge on Terminator and GURTs is online at http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/media/pubs/2005/pledgereport.pd....

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" http://www.etcgroup.org/article.asp?newsid=542

Topic

• Conservation