Terminator Still on Track

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Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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New Terminator Patents Threaten Food Security

March 8, 2002

In a recent news release, the ETC Group* announced that the
biotechnology industry continues to aggressively pursue the
development of genetically modified seeds engineered for sterility.
The ETC Group uncovered two new patents on Terminator
technology--one held by Dupont (which owns the world's largest
seed company) and the other by Syngenta (the world's largest
agrochemical corporation). New Terminator patents underscore
the ongoing investment of the agrochemical industry in the goal
of genetic seed sterilization and the urgent need for governments
to ban these technologies before they are commercialized.

Terminator has been widely condemned as an immoral technology
that threatens global food security, especially for the 1.4 billion
people whose food supplies and livelihoods depend on seed saving.
If commercialized, the technology will prevent farmers from saving
seed from their harvest for planting the following season. In 1999,
due to widespread public opposition to Terminator seeds, both
Monsanto and AstraZeneca (now Syngenta) publicly vowed not
to commercialize genetic seed sterilization technology.

Syngenta holds the largest number of Terminator patents to date
(at least seven). In 1999, Zeneca's research and development
director wrote that Terminator was "one piece of technology we
did not want to take forward, and the project was stopped in
1992." However, the ETC group points out that the company
continued to file for and win Terminator patents since 1992.
The newest Syngenta patent was issued on May 8, 2001.
The application date was March 22, 1997, long after Zeneca
claims to have stopped the project.

The new Syngenta patent does not describe its technology as
a method to prevent farmers from saving seed, but as an approach
to prevent unwanted gene flow from transgenic varieties. In theory,
any seed that falls into unintended soil would die without the

application of a chemical inducer.

According to the patent, "[Terminator technology] would limit the
risk of transgene escape to non-crop species thus avoiding the
spreading of plants with [genetically engineered] invasiveness or
weediness." (US patent 6,228,643 )

The ETC group believes that it is irresponsible and unacceptable
to suggest that society must accept genetic seed sterilization as a
method for solving industry 's genetic pollution problem. Food
security for poor people must not be sacrificed to gain commercial
acceptance for an unsafe and unproven technology.

The biotech industry is reeling from the most recent debacles
involving genetic pollution from transgenic seed and pollen. The
Mexican Ministry of Environment confirmed in January 2002 that
indigenous farmers' maize varieties in Oaxaca and Puebla have
been contaminated with DNA from genetically engineered (GE) maize.
It is illegal to grow GE maize in Mexico precisely because of the
potential threat to the world's primary center of maize diversity.
In Canada, genetic pollution from GE canola pollen is a menace for
organic farmers who cannot certify their canola crops as GE-free.
On January 10, 2002, organic farmers in Saskatchewan filed a class
action suit against Aventis and Monsanto.

"It is particularly alarming that the Gene Giants (agrochemical/biotechnology
companies) and some governments are promoting Terminator under the
guise of biosafety," explains Julie Delahanty of ETC group. "The industry 's
primary goal is to gain market acceptance for seed sterility as a biosafety
tool, which will then give them carte blanche to use it as a monopoly tool for
maximizing seed industry profits," said Delahanty.

Terminator patents have been granted to multinational agrochemical and
seed corporations all over the world. Most notably, Terminator patents
exist in Australia, South Africa, South Korea, the U.S., Canada, and
most of Western Europe. Patents have been also been filed in Brazil,
Norway, Japan, Israel, New Zealand and the Slovak Republic.

Critics of Terminator are worried that unless governments move quickly
to ban the technology, the agrochemical industry will soon have patented
sterile seeds on the market. In the months leading up to Rio 10,
intergovernmental organizations have a critical role to play in raising
global awareness and recommending actions to ban the technology.

COP6: The Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity meets in The Hague, April 8-26, 2002. The
ETC Group hopes that after numerous studies on genetic trait control
technology, COP6 will ban Terminator as an anti-farmer technology that
threatens biodiversity and food sovereignty.

World Food Summit Five Years Later: When governments meet
June 10-13,2002 in Rome, the ETC Group hopes they will reaffirm the
findings of the FAO's** Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethics, which concluded
that Terminator seeds are unethical, and recommend that member
nations ban the technology.

World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio 10): Heads of State meeting
in South Africa August 26 to September 4, 2002 will have the opportunity
to call for a ban on Terminator technology as an immoral application of
genetic engineering that threatens biodiversity and food security.

The ETC Group has published a new brochure, "Terminate Terminator in
2002: Defend Food Sovereignty." It can be downloaded free at
http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/terminatorbrochure02.pdf.

*The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration,
formerly RAFI.

**The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

For more information, see
http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/
new_termpatent_jan2002.pdf.

Sources: ETC Group news release, January 31, 2002; ETC
Group brochure, Terminate Terminator in 2002, February 19, 2002.

Contact: The ETC Group International Office, P.O. Box 68016
RPO Osborne, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3L 2V9 Canada; phone (204) 453-5259;
fax (204) 284-7871; email etc@etcgroup.org; Web site http://
www.etcgroup.org.