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Written by Wally Richards.

Gardening Articles for week ending 19 th FEBRUARY 2005
Written by Wally Richards. [Photo]
SEEDS OF THE FUTURE?
When is a seed not a seed? When it is sterile and will not germinate. It still looks like a seed but the embryo inside is dead. Ever since mankind stopped their nomadic wanderings and collected the seeds from wild crops, to settle and plant those seeds. There was been a historical right, for one to save the seeds from a harvest for sowing the following year. Even the Bible gives instructions in this, to pick the best plants to save the seeds from. If one takes seeds from the inferior plants then they will grow an inferior crop the following year. This religious statement has even been used to cover moral actions of people in sayings such as ‘You Reap What You Sow’
Over thousands of years mankind has improved their food crops by selecting the best plants and those with new and desirable features (disease resistance etc) to plant the following spring. Even today untold farmers will save their own seed to plant again the following year and in many countries where farmers could not afford to buy new seeds this is the only way they can have seeds for the next planting. In fact if in a season the harvest was not good, still the best seeds are kept for growing the following year, even if the family has to virtually starve till the next harvest. The reason is obvious, it is better to have a shrunken belly till the next harvest than no belly at all.
In 1998 Monsanto and other multinational seed companies developed a genic engineering technology which prevented plants from producing viable seeds. These seeds were referred to as ‘Terminator’ or ‘Suicide’ Seeds and the process is commonly called ‘Terminator Technology’
When countries and people found out about this technology there was such an outcry that Monsanto etc started distancing themselves from it. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) imposed a de facto moratorium on its further development.(1998) In the meantime major international seed companies and various leading Universities have been developing and obtaining patent rights on Terminator Technology seeds. (Patents in over 90 countries)
On February 9th 2005 at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in
Bangkok (Feb 7-11), The Government of Canada sort to change an international moratorium on genetic seed sterilisation technology. The Canadian government instructed its negotiators to 'block consensus' on any other option. Canada was supported by two other countries only, in this, Australia and would you believe it, New Zealand! The Canadian government is doing the dirty work for the multinational
gene giants and the US government. Even Monsanto wasn't prepared to be this
upfront and nasty. What does this mean?
"Half the world's farmers are poor and can't afford to buy seed every growing season, yet poor farmers grow 15 to 20% of the world's food and they directly feed at least 1.4 billion people - 100 million in Latin America, 300 million in Africa, and 1 billion in Asia. These farmers depend upon saved seed and their own breeding skills in adapting other varieties for use on their (often marginal) lands." Do we want to see 1.4 billion people starve to death?
If Terminator Seeds of rice and wheat (the two main food crops in the world and these are already patented) were released it would mean that conventional seeds crops of the same species would likely be contaminated by cross pollination and when harvested would prove to be less viable. Some may germinate and the rest would not. Over time all of that species would become terminators as the the contamination spread outwards. According to a supposed leaked document from the creators of plant GE states, “Genetic engineering is especially vulnerable in three areas: dangers to the environment; dangers to human health; and the profit motivation of the industries.”
Why is our current Government so pro GE and why would it support a GE technology that would be devastating to all people on the planet Earth? I faxed Helen Clark, along with other key ministers of her Government, my views and condemnation on this senseless course. If this technology was released it could mean that pasture grasses and clovers also could be controlled meaning zero natural re-seeding on the farms which would cause farmers to have to buy seeds for re-seeding pasture. It would also put GE components into nearly all our food chain. It would destroy once and forever organic farming. It likely in time would mean that you, the home gardener, could not even keep your own seeds of your favourite plants. (Far fetched? Maybe, but do we want to risk it?)
What happened in Bangkok? “The draft text on Terminator released Thursday morning was appalling it looked like it was written by the multinational seed industry,” said Jim Thomas of ETC Group, speaking from Bangkok. “It strongly reflected the Canadian government ‘s pro-Terminator position as revealed earlier this week in the leaked document.” Suicide Seed Squad: Canada hasn’t been working alone in Bangkok. The UN meeting was crawling with representatives from the biotech industry and related trade groups including Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land, Crop Life International, PHARMA (pharmaceutical manufacturers), the International Seed Federation and more who lobbied against current restrictions on the development of suicide seeds. New Zealand and Australia also backed the
position of industry and Canada, while a fleet of US government representatives observed from the sidelines. (The US government is not a Party to the Biodiversity Convention.) Thankfully, disaster was averted due to key interventions by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Austria, the European Community, Cuba, Peru and Liberia, on behalf of the African Group. The good news is that these governments managed to delete the most offensive wording. The final text and recommendations reaffirm earlier decisions, amounting to a continuing, but fragile, de facto moratorium on Terminator. The issue now bounces to another CBD advisory body (the
Working Group on 8(j)) in March 2006. ...End.
Well gardeners how do you feel about your right to harvest your own seeds for next year, or for you farmers to do the same with your crops and pasture?
For further information just put Terminator Technology into a Internet search engine.
Problems ring me at 0800 466 464
Email wallyjr@manawatu.gen.nz
Web site www.gardenews.co.nz