New Terminator Patents Threaten Food Security

March 8, 2002

In a recent news release, the ETC Group* announced that the 
biotechnology industry continues to aggressively pursue the development 
of genetically modified seeds engineered for sterility. The ETC Group 
uncovered two new patents on Terminator technology--one held by Dupont 
(which owns the world's largest seed company) and the other by Syngenta 
(the world's largest agrochemical corporation). New Terminator patents 
underscore the ongoing investment of the agrochemical industry in the 
goal of genetic seed sterilization and the urgent need for governments 
to ban these technologies before they are commercialized. 

Terminator has been widely condemned as an immoral technology that 
threatens global food security, especially for the 1.4 billion people 
whose food supplies and livelihoods depend on seed saving. If 
commercialized, the technology will prevent farmers from saving seed 
from their harvest for planting the following season. In 1999, due to 
widespread public opposition to Terminator seeds, both Monsanto and 
AstraZeneca (now Syngenta) publicly vowed not to commercialize genetic 
seed sterilization technology. 

Syngenta holds the largest number of Terminator patents to date (at 
least seven). In 1999, Zeneca's research and development director wrote 
that Terminator was "one piece of technology we did not want to take 
forward, and the project was stopped in 1992." However, the ETC group 
points out that the company continued to file for and win Terminator 
patents since 1992. The newest Syngenta patent was issued on May 8, 
2001. The application date was March 22, 1997, long after Zeneca claims 
to have stopped the project.

The new Syngenta patent does not describe its technology as a method to 
prevent farmers from saving seed, but as an approach to prevent unwanted 
gene flow from transgenic varieties. In theory, any seed that falls into 
unintended soil would die without the application of a chemical inducer. 
According to the patent, "[Terminator technology] would limit the risk 
of transgene escape to non-crop species thus avoiding the spreading of 
plants with [genetically engineered] invasiveness or weediness." (US 
patent 6,228,643 )

The ETC group believes that it is irresponsible and unacceptable to 
suggest that society must accept genetic seed sterilization as a method 
for solving industry 's genetic pollution problem. Food security for 
poor people must not be sacrificed to gain commercial acceptance for an 
unsafe and unproven technology. 

The biotech industry is reeling from the most recent debacles involving 
genetic pollution from transgenic seed and pollen. The Mexican Ministry 
of Environment confirmed in January 2002 that indigenous farmers' maize 
varieties in Oaxaca and Puebla have been contaminated with DNA from 
genetically engineered (GE) maize. It is illegal to grow GE maize in 
Mexico precisely because of the potential threat to the world's primary 
center of maize diversity. In Canada, genetic pollution from GE canola 
pollen is a menace for organic farmers who cannot certify their canola 
crops as GE-free. On January 10, 2002, organic farmers in Saskatchewan 
filed a class action suit against Aventis and Monsanto. 

"It is particularly alarming that the Gene Giants 
(agrochemical/biotechnology companies) and some governments are 
promoting Terminator under the guise of biosafety," explains Julie 
Delahanty of ETC group. "The industry 's primary goal is to gain market 
acceptance for seed sterility as a biosafety tool, which will then give 
them carte blanche to use it as a monopoly tool for maximizing seed 
industry profits," said Delahanty. 

Terminator patents have been granted to multinational agrochemical and 
seed corporations all over the world. Most notably, Terminator patents 
exist in Australia, South Africa, South Korea, the U.S., Canada, and 
most of Western Europe. Patents have been also been filed in Brazil, 
Norway, Japan, Israel, New Zealand and the Slovak Republic. 

Critics of Terminator are worried that unless governments move quickly 
to ban the technology, the agrochemical industry will soon have patented 
sterile seeds on the market. In the months leading up to Rio+10, 
intergovernmental organizations have a critical role to play in raising 
global awareness and recommending actions to ban the technology. 

COP6: The Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on 
Biological Diversity meets in The Hague, April 8-26, 2002. The ETC Group 
hopes that after numerous studies on genetic trait control technology, 
COP6 will ban Terminator as an anti-farmer technology that threatens 
biodiversity and food sovereignty.

World Food Summit Five Years Later: When governments meet June 10-13, 
2002 in Rome, the ETC Group hopes they will reaffirm the findings of the 
FAO's** Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethics, which concluded that 
Terminator seeds are unethical, and recommend that member nations ban 
the technology.

World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10): Heads of State meeting 
in South Africa August 26 to September 4, 2002 will have the opportunity 
to call for a ban on Terminator technology as an immoral application of 
genetic engineering that threatens biodiversity and food security.

The ETC Group has published a new brochure, "Terminate Terminator in 
2002: Defend Food Sovereignty." It can be downloaded free at 
http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/terminatorbrochure02.pdf. 

*The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, formerly 
RAFI.
**The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
 
 

For more information, see 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67878/the-future-of-food 8/1/09

http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/new_termpatent_jan2002.pdf. 

Sources: ETC Group news release, January 31, 2002; ETC Group brochure, 
Terminate Terminator in 2002, February 19, 2002. 

Contact: The ETC Group International Office, P.O. Box 68016 RPO Osborne, 
Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3L 2V9 Canada; phone (204) 453-5259; fax (204) 
284-7871; email etc@etcgroup.org; Web site http://www.etcgroup.org. 

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