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USDA Betrays Public Trust with Two New Terminator Patents

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>RAFI
>Rural Advancement Foundation International
>www.rafi.org  |  rafi@rafi.org
>
>News Release - 24 March 2000
>
>USDA Betrays Public Trust with 
>Two New Terminator Patents 
>
>Will USDA's Biotech Advisory Board Demand Accountability?
>
>
>The Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), an international
civil society organization based in Canada, announced today that the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) holds two new patents on the controversial
Terminator technology, the genetic engineering of plants to render their
seeds sterile. If commercialized, Terminator would make it impossible for
farmers to save seeds from their harvest, forcing them to return to the
commercial seed market every year.
>
>"The US government is advancing research and squandering taxpayer dollars
on a technology that has been universally condemned because it is bad for
farmers, food security, and biodiversity," says Pat Mooney, Executive
Director of RAFI. "It's an egregious misallocation of public resources for
the sole purpose of maximizing seed industry profits," adds Mooney. 
>
>"It's disgraceful," says Hope Shand, RAFI's Research Director. "We were
shocked to discover USDA's new patents because when we met with US Deputy
Secretary of Agriculture Richard Rominger on two separate occasions last
year, his staff assured us in no uncertain terms that there were no more
patents in the works. Why didn't we get the straight story?" asks Shand. 
>
>"Despite mounting opposition from national governments, United Nations'
agencies, farmers, scientists, and civil society organizations around the
world, USDA continues to ignore the public outcry at home and abroad," adds
Silvia Ribeiro, RAFI Programme Officer. Last month for example, the
Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
declared FAO's opposition to Terminator. Earlier this month, the state of
Maryland (US) introduced a bill to ban Terminator seeds. (See RAFI
Communique, "Suicide Seeds on the Fast Track," Feb./March,
2000,http://www.rafi.org). 
>
>According to RAFI, the new patents on genetic seed sterilization were
issued in 1999 (US Patent No. 5,925,808 issued on July 20, 1999 and US
Patent No. 5,977,441 issued on November 2, 1999). The patents are jointly
owned by USDA and Delta & Pine Land (the world's largest cotton seed
company), the owners of the original 1998 patent. The USDA's new patents
share the same titles, inventors, and abstracts as the earlier patent, but
they describe new innovations and demonstrate that USDA scientists are
continuing to refine the technology and advance the research.
>
>On October 28, 1999 representatives from a broad base of civil society
organizations (CSOs) met with US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman to
demand that his agency abandon research and development of genetic seed
sterilization. Participants included the American Corn Growers Association,
Consumers Union, National Family Farm Coalition, Ralph Nader of Public
Citizen, International Center for Technology Assessment, Mothers and Others
for a Livable Planet, Consumer Federation, Sustainable Agriculture
Coalition, RAFI, and RAFI-USA. Less than five days later, USDA won a new
patent on Terminator. 
>
>Duped and Betrayed:  "We feel duped and betrayed," says Gary Goldberg, CEO
of the American Corn Growers Association.  "We demand to know why the USDA
continues to invest taxpayer dollars on anti-farmer research that, if
commercialized, will hold farmers hostage to giant agribusiness
corporations," said Goldberg. 
>
>Destroying National Seed Sovereignty: USDA's growing portfolio of
Terminator patents sends an ominous message to the rest of the world, says
Rafael Alegria, General Coordinator of Via Campesina, the largest
confederation of peasants' and small farmers' organizations in Africa,
Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America. "It amounts to a
declaration of war against the 1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved
seeds - mainly poor people - and it's an assault on global food security,"
explains Alegria. 
>
>Neth Dano, Executive Director of SEARICE, the Southeast Asian Regional
Institute for Community Education, agrees, "This technology goes far beyond
intellectual property. A patent expires after 20 years, but if Terminator
seeds are commercialized it will give a handful of multinational Gene
Giants a monopoly with no expiration date. This technology aims to
eliminate the right of farmers to save seeds and do local plant breeding,
and it will destroy the concept of national seed sovereignty."
>
>Litmus Test for USDA's Biotech Advisory Board: USDA's newly-appointed
Biotech Advisory Board will hold its first meeting on March 29-30. "It's a
litmus test for the USDA advisory board," explains RAFI's Shand. Will they
or won't they demand accountability from USDA? There's no doubt that the
biotech advisory board has a full plate and it's loaded with controversial
GMO (genetically modified organisms) issues, but Terminator must be the
number one priority," stresses Shand.
> 
>Launching Pad for Bioserfdom: Without effective action by civil society
and governments to ban Terminator seeds, RAFI concludes that suicide seeds
will be commercialized, with potentially disastrous consequences for
farmers, food security and the environment. 
>
>"Terminator has grabbed the spotlight, but we are equally concerned about
the closely related genetic trait control technologies (Traitor Tech) which
enables a plant's genetic traits to be turned on or off with the
application of an external chemical - the company's proprietary chemical,"
adds Ribeiro. "Although the USDA and Delta & Pine Land are the high-profile
crusaders, the goal of genetic trait control is industry-wide," concludes
Ribeiro.
>
>Coming Soon: In May, 2000 RAFI will release a status report on Terminator
and Traitor patents, which will examine the current goals of private and
public sector institutions that are promoting bioserfdom with genetic trait
control technology.
>
>
>For more information:
>
>Hope Shand, RAFI
>Tel: 919 960-5223  
>Email: hope@rafi.org
>
>Silvia Ribeiro, RAFI
>Email: silvia@rafi.org 
>
>
>Julie Delahanty, RAFI
>Tel: 819 827-9949
>Email:julie@rafi.org 
>
>
>Rafael Alegria 
>General Coordinator, 
>Via Campesina 
>Tegucigalpa, Honduras, C.A.
>email: viacam@gbm.hn
>
>Neth Dano 
>Executive Director, 
>SEARICE
>The Philippines
>Tel:  63-2-922-6710
>Email:	searice@philonline.com.ph
>
>Gary Goldberg
>CEO, 
>American Corn Growers Association, 
>Tel: 918 488-1829    
>http://www.acga.org
>
>
>Action Needed:
>
>1. USDA should cease negotiations with Delta & Pine Land on the licensing
of it's jointly held patents, and abandon all research and patents on
genetic seed sterilization.
>
>2. USDA should adopt a strict policy prohibiting the use of taxpayer
dollars to support genetic seed sterilization. 
>
>3. USDA should terminate all research on Terminator seed technology as
well as the closely related genetic trait control technologies. Remote
control of a plant's genetic traits, triggered by proprietary chemicals, is
grim news for farmers and the environment because, if commercialized,
farmers will become more dependent on chemical inputs manufactured by the
agrochemical/seed industry. 
>
>4. USDA should use public research dollars to re-invigorate public plant
breeding for family farmers and sustainable agriculture. Instead of
engineering seeds for sterility, USDA should boost breeding programs that
will lessen farmers' dependency on chemicals, fertilizers, and other
expensive inputs. 
>
>Send a Message of Protest to US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman:
>
>A sample letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman can be found
on RAFI's web site:
>
>http://www.rafi.org
>
>Secretary Dan Glickman
>USDA
>200-A Whitten Bldg.
>1400 Independence Ave., SW
>Washington, DC 20250
>USA
>Email: agsec@usda.gov   
>Tel: 202 720-3631     
>Fax: 202 720-2166
>
>RAFI (the Rural Advancement Foundation International) is an international
civil society organization based in Canada.  RAFI is dedicated to the
conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and to the socially
responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies.  RAFI is
concerned about the loss of agricultural biodiversity, and the impact of
intellectual property on farmers and food security. 
>
>
>


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