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Unidentified subject!

Apologies if y'all have seen this particular post - I must have missed it.
It describes invention which sets the stage for re-colonization of the 2nd
and 3rd world, but with economic, not military force.

 MichaelP

   Corporate Watch Homepage
   
         Seed Terminator and Mega-Merger Threaten Food and Freedom
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Food Supply Update: June 5, 1998
   
   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 plants
   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
   foodunlessunless 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? Whats 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
   ricestaples for most of the worlds populationare 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 companys
   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 worldin 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 marketthese
   farmers and the communities and countries they feedwill 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 Natures 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 USDAs 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 worlds 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, heres a
   summary of some published information on Monsantos 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 Holdens 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 Holdens
   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 patentno. 5,710,367covering
   "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. Monsantos 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 Monsantos 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 companys 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 Monsantos 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 attorneys 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 worlds 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 Monsantos 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
   seedsseeds that let you retain the means of growing your own food if
   you want or need toseeds that ensure protective biodiversityseeds that
   may provide personal food security in insecure times. Now the
   Terminator threatens even these.
   
   Make no mistake about it - 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 controlledby their need
   for food. This shouldnt happen to Second and Third World farmers. It
   shouldnt happen in any of the 78 countries in which the patent has
   been applied for. It shouldnt happen here.
   
   The Terminator Technology is brilliant science and arguably "good
   business", but it has crossed the tenuous line between genius
   and insanity. It is a dangerous, bad idea that should be banned.
   Period.
   
   Geri Guidetti, The Ark Institute
   =====================
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