>Comments: Authenticated sender is <[log in to unmask]>
>From: "Peter Goodwin" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
>Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 21:39:50 +0000
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Subject: (Fwd) RAFI report on Monsanto and Terminator Technology (fwd)
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>Priority: normal
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>Martin and David,
>
>I thought this would interest you both. If you've heard it already,
>sorry about that...
>
>Pete
>
>------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
>Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 06:10:11 -0700 (PDT)
>From: MichaelP <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-to: MichaelP <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: RAFI report on Monsanto and Terminator Technology (fwd)
>
>
>-----Forwarded message from Stephen Emmott <[log in to unmask]>-----
>
>MAY 14 -
> [See RAFI: Welcome to the Rural Advancement Foundation International
> URL: http://www.rafi.ca/]
>
>Its Now or Never for Agricultural Biodiversity in Bratislava
>
>
>Monsanto Takes Terminator
>
>
>After a week of silence on the subject, the USA (a country that is not a Party
>to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity) is lobbying hard to re-write the
>"Friends of the Chair" report on the Termspurt of behind the scenes activity?
>On May 11th, the g
>iant Monsanto Corporation - a company with close White House connections and
>major multinational muscle - bought control of the Terminator paten
>Monsanto, the world's second largest pesticides corporation, has vaulted from
>nowhere to become the world's fourth largest seed company. Between mid-1996
>and the end of 1997, Monsanto spent roughly Ucomparison, if Monsanto's Monday
>splurge were spent on
>public sector research, it would fully fund the entire CGIAR system at 1998
>levels for over 12 years. But it is not who Monsanto is buying - but
>Monsanto's Cotton is King: Less than 24 hours after the take over
>announcement, US anti-trust authorities were already admitting concern over
>Monsanto's control of the US cotton seed market. SometimeMaize Monopoly: There
>is no less unease over Monsanto's
> maize seed activity. The take-over of Dekalb - the second largest maize seed
>enterprise in the USA - for a stunning US $2.5 billion is hard on market.
>Monsanto's major domestic competitor is the DuPont - Pioneer Hi-Bred alliance
>that formed in 1997 when
> DuPont took a 20% position in Pioneer - the undisputed world leader in maize
>seed sales.11th announcement, rumours were rife that DuPont and Monsanto would
>merge. Some observers still regard this as a possibility. The US firms have to
>face off the in th
>e global marketplace against Novarnumber three in pharmaceuticals, and number
>nine in veterinary medicines. In related deliberations in Bratislava, the
>Swiss government is actively pushing a proposal elaborated in consultation
>with Ngene
>tic resources. Critics fear the proposal may be used to derail national
>legislation in developing countries seeking to implement the principal of
>equitable sharing of biodiversity benefits called
>Patent Power: The Monsanto patent monopolies are worrying delegations in
>Bratislava. While pundits and politicians are expressing concern about market
>share, they have overlooked Delta and Pine Land'the US patent issued to the
>company and to the US Depar
>tment of Agriculture (USDA) just two months ago for the Terminator Technology.
>The patent on the seed-sterilising technology has been applied foglobally must
>have had a fearful night. Monsanto has a well-earned reputation of being an
>aggressive "enforcer
>" when it comes to proprietary interests.
>
>Monsanto may also have its eye on a Terminator technology of another sort. The
>maize market paradigm shifted perceptibly last January 20th when the USDA
>(again) won patent #5,710,367 covering "apomicWorld farmers were not a viable
>market for maize compan
>ies since they couldn't afford to buy essentially sterile hybrid seed every
>year. Apomictic maize can be regrown but because it is a clone, its will be
>forced to buy seed more frequently. Observers fear that Monsanto will pick up
>license rights from the
>USDA (as with the Terminator Technology) and target the South.
>
>White House Connection: Concern about the Terminator Technology - and the
>security of agricultural biodiversity imperilled by the technology - surfaced
>early last week in the Bratislava Convention mebomb of agriculture arguing
>that it would destroy farme
>r-based plant breeding; jeopardise the food security of at least 1.4 billion
>people dependent on the food grown by farmers who save their own semove to
>call for a ban on the Terminator in the Convention, Mooney adds, "it made some
>phone calls. The result
> is a country that is an observer to the Convention is throwing its bilateral
>weight arousquelch concerns and amend the CBD's conclusions!"
>
>Lord of the Life Industry: Monsanto's appetite for mergers quickened in
>January 1997 when Monsanto took a giant bite out of the hybrid maize seed
>market with the US $1.2 billion acquisition of Holdena major tropical
>germplasm base with the acquisition of
> Brazil's Sementes Agroceres - giving Monsanto an estimated 30% market share
>in the Brazilian maize seed business. Brazilian farmers are seen as
>Monsanto has moved beyond transgenic maize and cotton research. In 1996 the
>company initiated a plant genomic partnership with a leading human genomic
>company, California-based Incyte "to generate seexpression data from certain
>plant species, including [
>maize]". In October 1997, Monsanto and Millenium Pharmaceuticals (another
>US-based genomics company) announced a 5 year collaborative agreement US $118
>million, including the creation of a new Monsanto subsidiary with about 100
>scientists to work exclusi
>vely with Millenium to use genomic technologies. The exclusive agreement is
>not limited tits life sciences strategy" and hopes to gain a competitive edge
>in the search for patentable - and likely "Terminator-able" crop genes.
>
>Need for Action in Bratislava: "Let's be absolutely clear," says RAFI's Edward
>Hammond from Bratislava, "This is a technology that deliberately sterilises
>farmers' fields, that offers zero agronomic follow through on the plan. If the
>CBD does not act and
> the Terminator is widely deployed, we will be facing a crisis for small
>farmers and in-situ conservation."
>
>*
>
>For More Information:
>
>Edward Hammond, Programme Officer, RAFI c/o Hotel Echo (until May 15),
>Bratislava, Slovak Republic Tel: 421-7-566-9170, Fax: 421-7-566-9174
>
>Pat Mooney, Executive Director, RAFI, 110 Osborne St, Suite 202,
>Winnipeg MB R3L 1Y5 CANADA. Tel +1 204-453-5259, Fax: +1 204-925-8034,
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>Hope Shand, Research Director, RAFI-USA, P.O. Box 640, Pittsboro NC
>27312 USA, Tel: +1 919-542-1396, Fax +1 919 542 0069, E-mail:
>[log in to unmask]
>================
>
>Supplement added by MichaelP also from
>RAFI:
> URL: http://www.rafi.ca/ communique/
>
> March/April 1998
>
> The Terminator Technology
>
> New Genetic Technology Aims to Prevent Farmers from Saving Seed
>
> ISSUE: On March 3, 1998 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and an
> American cotton seed company, Delta & Pine Land Co., received a US
> patent on a technique that genetically alters seed so that it will not
> germinate if re-planted a second time. The technology aims to prevent
> farmers from saving seed from their harvest to re-plant the following
> season. Because it is a potentially "lethal" technology, RAFI has
> dubbed it the "Terminator Technology."
>
> IMPACT: If commercially viable, the Terminator technology will have
> profound implications for agriculture. It is a global threat to
> farmers, biodiversity and food security. The seed-sterilizing
> technology threatens to eliminate the age-old right of farmers to save
> seed from their harvest and it jeopardizes the food security of 1.4
> billion people - resource poor farmers in the South - who depend on
> farm-saved seed. The developers of the technology say that it will be
> targeted for use primarily in the South as a means of preventing
> farmers from saving proprietary seeds marketed by American seed
> corporations. Delta & Pine Land Co. and USDA have applied for patents
> on the Terminator technology in at least 78 countries. 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 world's food supply.
>
> PARTICIPANTS: Although the USDA and Delta & Pine Land (D&PL) jointly
> hold the patent on the Terminator technology, Delta & Pine Land has
> exclusive licensing rights. D&PL is the largest cotton seed company in
> the world. With 1997 annual sales of $183 million, D & PL holds 73% of
> the US cotton seed market and is a major soybean breeder. Monsanto
> (US-based agrochemical and seed giant) is a minor shareholder in D&PL;
> the two companies jointly own a cotton seed venture in China (D&M
> Intl. LLC).
>
> POLICY IMPLICATIONS: RAFI and other NGOs are calling for a global ban
> on the use of the Terminator technology. Both the patent and the
> technology should be rejected on the basis of public morality. NGOs
> will call on the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
> Research (CGIAR) to publicly denounce the technology as a threat to
> food security in the South. The Fourth Conference of the Parties to
> the Convention on Biological Diversity will have an opportunity to
> address the issue when it meets May 4-15 in Bratislava, Slovakia. The
> FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture will meet
> in Rome, 8-12 June. NGOs will urge both intergovernmental bodies to
> pass resolutions condemning the Terminator technology as a threat to
> world food security and to Farmer's Rights. In the United States,
> farmers and farm advocacy groups are expected to protest USDA's
> anti-farmer research and urge immediate reforms of policies governing
> the department's research agenda.
>
>===============================
>
>
>--
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>
>
David Wood
PhD Student ('The Rural Peace Dividend')
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel: 0191 222 6615
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