Canadian Government to Unleash Terminator Bombshell at UN Meeting

Press Release from ETC Group.  Date: 7 February 2005
www.etcgroup.org

All-out push for commercialisation of Sterile Seed Technology.

A confidential document leaked today to ETC Group reveals that the Canadian
Government,  at a United Nations meeting in Bangkok (Feb 7-11), will attempt
to overturn an international moratorium on genetic seed sterilisation
technology, (known  universally as Terminator).  Even worse,  the Canadian
government has instructed its negotiators to "block consensus" on any other
option.

"Canada is about to launch a devastating kick in the stomach to the world's
most vulnerable farmers - the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm saved
seed, " said ETC Group Executive Director Pat Mooney speaking from Ottawa.
"The Canadian government is doing the dirty work for the multinational gene
giants and the US government.  Even Monsanto wasnt prepared to be this
upfront and nasty. Canada is betraying Farmers' Rights and food sovereignty
everywhere. "

Terminator technology was first developed by the US government and the seed
industry to prevent farmers from re-planting saved seed and is considered
the most controversial and immoral agricultural application of genetic
engineering so far.  When first made public in 1998, "suicide seeds"
triggered an avalanche of  public opposition,  forcing Monsanto to abandon
the technology and prompting the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
to impose a de facto moratorium on its further development.

According to the leaked instructions to Canadian negotiators at SBSTTA 10 (a
scientific advisory body to the CBD) Canada will insist on Wednesday (9 Feb)
that governments  accept  the field testing and commercialization  of
Terminator varieties (referred to as GURTS - Genetic Use Restriction
Technologies). Canada will also attack an official UN report, prepared by an
international  expert group, which is critical of the potential impacts of
Terminator seeds on small farmers and Indigenous Peoples. In stark contrast
to Canadas position, the expert report recommends that governments seek
prohibitions on the technology.
 

In Bangkok, civil society and Indigenous Peoples are calling on the Canadian
government to abandon its endorsement of Terminator and to join with other
governments  to prohibit the technology once and for all.  Many African and
Asian governments have called for Terminator to be banned and the European
Union has also been supportive of the existing moratorium.

"It is outrageous that Canada is backing an anti-farmer technology and
shameful that it will "block consensus" on any other outcome. Governments
from around the world must not accept this bullying tactic - says ETC
Group's Hope Shand from the negotiations in Bangkok. "If Canada blocks
decision making on this issue, the moratorium will be in jeopardy and
terminator seeds will be commercialized  ending up in the fields of small
farmers."

The full leaked text of the Canadian government's instructions to its
negotiators on Terminator/GURTS follows below.

Hope Shand and Jim Thomas of ETC Group can be contacted  at SBSTTA
negotiations in Bangkok on cell phone +44 (0) 7752 106806 or by email
jim@etcgroup.org or hope@etcgroup.org

Pat Mooney (in Ottawa)  +1 613 241 2267 etc@etcgroup.org
Kathy Jo Wetter (USA) +1 919 9605223  kjo@etcgroup.org
The Head of the Canadian Delegation in Bangkok is Robert McLean, Environment
Canada, Robert.Mclean@ec.gc.ca   tel +1 (819) 9971303