Blinded by Profits
The invention of a patented process to make seeds that do not reproduce themselves but terminate after one season poses many dangers, not the least of which is a threat to life on earth as we know it. The so-called Terminator technology is a bio-engineered method of seed sterilization that builds sterility into seeds so that they cannot produce a second generation. This will be an additional mechanism introduced into genetically engineered crops which will build in a biological lock on the crops, preventing the saving and second sowing that is currently done by most of the world's farmers, who cannot afford to buy seed every season..

A triumph of greed over common sense, this development reveals the incredible new heights of arrogance reached by scientists who foolishly bring to market dangerous untested ideas in order to stay on the payrolls of ever-greedier corporations. Obviously nothing is sacred, not even the most basic laws of nature that maintain life on the planet.

Economic Servitude
Seed companies are taking material developed by farmers over centuries and claiming it all for themselves. As things stand, small farmers worldwide cannot afford to buy the expensive "designer" seeds that are the cash cows of the top seed corporations. The small farmers are about to be penalized for not being good customers, as the corps "penetrate the third-world market" by forcing them to buy or die (or probably both). [Note that in Canada one farmer won a case in which Monsanto sued him for re-sowing some of Monsanto's licensed (but non-terminated) "Roundup-Ready" seed, on the basis that it was a form of slavery.]

Threat to Global Food Security
As industry consolidation narrows the sources of seed, the potential for mass starvation looms. (Those dizzying agribusiness profits will come at the price of great suffering and death.) Because the terminating seeds will be the most profitable type, it is obvious that they will become the only kind that seed companies will sell. It will be agribusiness selling seeds to the only customer that will be able to afford them: agribusiness. One example of the human victims in line to be most rapidly "terminated" would be third-world farmers living in hard-to-farm areas whose livelihood depends on the ability to occasionally bring in some commercial seed to cross with local varieties and breed improved crops that are adapted specifically to their difficult local conditions and micro-climates. After the Terminator takes over the market, there will be no viable seed available for cross-breeding.

Genetic erosion, the loss of biological diversity, threatens world food and livelihood security: The Terminator would, by eradicating sustainable agriculture -- particularly in the "gene rich" countries of the third world -- destroy the world's genetic heritage, destroying choices for the future and robbing people of a key resource base for survival. Genetic erosion is more than just the loss of genes, it is also the loss of options for development.

Threat to Life on Earth
The Terminator is another step in the plan to create huge profits from genetic engineering, by making the whole world dependent on genetically engineered crops. The widespread testing of genetically engineered food is only now beginning as the unlabeled crops infiltrate the marketplace. The uncharted dangers of genetic engineering include physical reactions/allergies from eating genetically altered foods and long-term effects that could result in human and animal diseases of great power.

As for threats to life, the Terminator would increase crop vulnerability due to uniformity -- disease or disaster could easily wipe out a whole variety. As one horrendous possibility, the self-sterilizing trait is likely to spread to wild plants and other domestic plants through cross-pollination, thereby destroying the food chain and ending life on the planet as it currently exists.

Our Government in Action
This patent is brought to us courtesy of our old friend the USDA (whose employees revolve in and out of jobs with Monsanto and other agribusiness concerns): USDA researchers, working in tandem with the US seed industry, have spent $190,000 to support research on the terminator technology. As its incentive, the USDA is looking forward to earning royalties of 5 percent on net sales.

What to Do
Visit the links below to read more and send letters, then talk about this, protest, and watch for further developments on this critical issue!

***

Officially called the Technology Protection System, Terminator Technology has as its declared goal to promulgate plants that will produce self-terminating offspring -- suicide seeds. Terminator Technology epitomizes what the genetic engineering of food crops is all about and gives an insight into the driving forces behind the corporate campaign to control and own life.

The Terminator rides to the rescue of long-suffering multinationals who have been unable to hold farmers back from their 12,000 year tradition of saving and breeding seeds... Small farming communities of the Third World especially, rely upon their own plant breeding since neither corporate nor public breeders show much interest or aptitude in breeding for their often difficult environments.

--above lifted from "Terminator Technology, The Threat to World Food Security" by Ricarda A. Steinbrecher and Pat Roy Mooney, printed in the Sept/Oct 1998 issue of The Ecologist which Monsanto sabotaged (see story).

This issue (cover story "The Monsanto Files: Can we survice genetic engineering?") is worth seeking out, as it is packed with amazing and disgusting news and history. The Ecologist is a British magazine, but you can call the Society for Ecology and Culture in Berkeley, CA (510) 548-4915, and ask them to mail you a copy (it's $6.00 plus shipping).

Terminator Terminated?
10/5/99

Monsanto surrenders 'suicide seeds' but continues work on other Traitor Technologies

Terminator Mulitplying
5/14/99

Terminator belongs to two rapidly growing "gangs": the Suicide Seeds and the Traitor Technologies (engineered seeds that will not perform unless exposed to certain expensive chemicals).

A setback for the Terminator! 11/2/98:

CGIAR's policy statement, as presented by the Genetic Resources Policy Committee:

"The CGIAR will not incorporate into its breeding materials any genetic systems designed to prevent seed germination. This is in recognition of (a) concerns over potential risks of its inadvertent or unintended spread through pollen; (b) the possibilities of sale or exchange of inviable seed for planting; (c) the importance of farm-saved seed, particularly to resource-poor farmers; (d) potential negative impacts on genetic diversity and (e) the importance of farmer selection and breeding for sustainable agriculture."

Hurray! Now, how will The Terminator fight back?? Can he take this lying down?

(Be Ever Vigilant.
They Never Sleep...)

what's next?

More EVIL from Monsanto

...and its demon-child, Roundup

...A close call, 12/98....

Don't drink the milk!

Why EPA/USDA love Biotech

Check the organic page for more updates.

THE TERMINATOR ARTICLES and LINKS:
(original page created 8/98)

This one says it all, plus many links to articles: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/terminatorTech.html

Concise commentary: http://www.rainyside.com/features/peeves/smart.html

Monsanto Goes Shopping, 9/98 from "Natural Life": http://www.life.ca/nl/63/monsanto.html

RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International), send a protest message to USDA re Terminator technology: http://www.rafi.org/usda.html

Sign anti genetic-engineering petition from Mothers for Natural Law, download action kits: http://www.safe-food.org

Monsanto Vigil ("Watching Monsanto"), check the links page too: http://monsanto.vigil.net

"India Government on Alert for Terminator Gene" http://www.purefood.org/ge/indiaGene.htm

"Genetically Engineered Food Dangers": http://www.holisticmed.com/ge/

From the "Progressive Farmer": http://www.progressivefarmer.com/today/farmtech/terminator.html

From the Ark Institute: "Threat to Food and Freedom": http://www.king.igs.net/~wacoppin/seeds.htm

Agribusiness consolidation (includes "Drawbacks of Biotechnology"): http://www.ix.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2385/1.html

Greenpeace GE page, includes "Terminator" info and links: http://www.greenpeace.org/~geneng/main.html

Terminator technology will deal a death blow to farmers in the South": http://agrolink.moa.my/moa1/newspaper/pertanian/sa981013c.html

The End, from "New Scientist": http://www.newscientist.com/ns/980328/nseeds.html

"Mother Jones" article, 4/98: http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/broydo.html

UK AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY COALITION: http://ds.dial.pipex.com/ukfg/ukabc.htm

Vegetarian, Buddhist viewpoint: http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9810/WD11-2344.html

The "Verminator": http://csf.colorado.edu/hypermail/elan/sep98/0010.html

Terminator technology article by professor of biology (IU): http://www.bio.indiana.edu/people/terminator.html

A TRIUMPH! (11/10/98 from RAFI): http://www.rafi.org/genotypes/latest.html

The list goes on!:

GRAIN, an international NGO acting against genetic erosion: http://www.grain.org/about.htm

http://hills.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~jinouy01/freeterminator.html

Pure Foods Campaign:
http://www.purefood.org/index.htm

"Genetic Engineering and Its Dangers" by SFSU Prof.: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~rone/gedanger.htm