Traitor Technology:
"Damaged Goods" from the Gene Giants
The explosion of gene technology has given the giant seed and chemical companies the dazzling prospect of controlling world food production. Already Canada's Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) has uncovered details of over two dozen patents for a second generation of "Terminator" type seeds that permit farmers to save seed after each harvest but produce genetically weakened plants that cannot flourish or resist disease without the application of even more profitable (for the chemical companies) proprietary chemicals. A press release accompanying RAFI's latest report says that "Terminator science is snowballing into the corporate profit centre of the next decade and beyond. If the major seed and agrochemical multinationals have their way, Terminator and Traitor (negative trait) technologies will come on the heels of the new millennium to a farm near you." RAFI's Executive Director Pat Mooney declares, "With this report and our previous work on the Terminator, RAFI is sounding the alarm that without government action, these technologies will be commercialised within a few years with potentially disastrous consequences." Says RAFI Programme Officer Edward Hammond, "Since we discovered the original Terminator patent a year ago, even at our most pessimistic we never forecast negative trait genetic engineering to explode as quickly as it has." RAFI reports that every Gene Giant transnational has either patented, or admits it is working on, genetically-sterilised or chemically-dependent seeds. RAFI's report provides details and analysis on over two dozen such patents recently obtained by 12 institutions. The patents seek to disable critical plant functions governing reproduction, disease resistance, and seed viability. If commercialisation of such seeds proceeds, farmers worldwide will be tangled in an expensive web of chemicals, intellectual property rights and disabled germplasm. The result will be what RAFI calls "bioserfdom". The original "Terminator" patent was developed by the US Department of Agriculture and the Delta Pine and Land Corporation, shortly to become a subsidiary of agrichemical giant Monsanto. Seeds with the Terminator gene will germinate only once; the seeds produced by the crop they grow will not germinate, so there is no second generation. The technology, RAFI says, "spells disaster for farmers and global food security because over three quarters of the world's farmers — mainly poor farmers — depend on farm saved seed". These farmers will have no option but to go back to the seed company to purchase more seed for their next year's sowing. Farmers, especially women, also develop local varieties of seeds to meet local conditions. But genetically sterile seeds will end this, says RAFI. "The complete removal of farmers from the age-old process of plant breeding through sterilised seed could also signify a disastrous narrowing of the genepool on which everyone depends for food security." However, the new patents go far beyond Delta Pine's original concept. According to RAFI's Research Director Hope Shand, "The patents describe the use of external chemicals to turn on and off genetic traits in plants ... by spraying with proprietary herbicides or fertilisers. Others take us beyond crop plants to the use of Terminator-style tactics on insects and even possibly mammals." Killer genes Newly discovered patent claims, for example, refine AstraZeneca's "Verminator" technology that links plant growth and germination to repeated application of proprietary chemicals. Without specific patented chemicals, the plant doesn't grow. AstraZeneca says it will patent the technology in 77 countries. RAFI Director Pat Mooney explains the new approach of the agrichemical corporations: "AstraZeneca and the other Gene Giants don't want farmers to buy new seed every year so much as to force them to repurchase their old seed. "It will be vastly more profitable for multinationals to sell seeds programmed to commit suicide at harvest so that farmers must pay the company to obtain the chemicals to have them re-activated for the next planting — either through a seed conditioning process or through the purchase of specialised chemicals that bring saved seed back to life, Lazarus-style." In effect, this shifts all the seed costs to the farmers, and the companies won't have to multiply, ship, and warehouse massive seed stocks. Another dangerous side effect of this development is identified by RAFI: "As the seed oligopoly strengthens, companies will have less and less incentive to invest in plant breeding research. After all, they'll already have the farmers in a position of utter dependency." As Pat Mooney puts it, "the advertising investment will continue but the research investment will wither away." Genetic mutilation An especially disturbing feature of some of the new patents profiled in RAFI's report is the deliberate disabling of natural plant functions that help to fight disease. Swiss biotech giant Novartis is most advanced in this aspect of Traitor technology. Thus, Novartis has patented techniques to create plants with natural healthy functions, such as those critical to the plant's ability to fight off infections from many viruses and bacteria, turned off. The only way to turn them back on and fix these "damaged goods" is the application of a proprietary chemical. Will Terminator work? RAFI notes that some plant scientists are sceptical that Traitor Technology will work successfully in the field. Monsanto, which intends to patent its Traitor technology in a whopping 89 countries, is encouraging this view. There is no doubt that Traitor Tech will be continually refined as it moves toward the market; but terminator plants are already in the greenhouse and profit estimates are being calculated. "It's only a matter of time" says Shand. "Every major pesticide-producing Gene Giant is hard at work perfecting the technology." Shand adds, "Companies don't patent for the fun of the paperwork and paying lawyer's fees. Those who think corporations will drop the Terminator — or think it won't make it to market — are living in Fantasyland. "There's too much money to be made. Unless it is banned by governments, Terminator is going to happen, and probably sooner rather than later." Will farmers buy it? Delta & Pine Land and Monsanto insist that no one will force farmers to buy Terminator seed. The real question is, will farmers have a choice? The commercial seed industry is imploding, and a handful of Gene Giants already control a rapidly expanding share of major seed markets. After DuPont announced earlier this month that it would buy Pioneer Hi- Bred, the world's largest seed company, the Wall Street Journal concluded that the deal "effectively divides" most of the US seed industry between DuPont and Monsanto. With the disappearance of public sector plant breeders, farmers are becoming increasingly vulnerable and have fewer choices in the marketplace. Terminating the Terminator RAFI and its partners around the world are contacting governments asking them to declare all of the Terminator-style patent claims as contrary to ordre public. In January, Global Response (a US-based non-profit organisation) encouraged its 4,000 members in 40 countries to write to the Director-General of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) asking him to oppose the Terminator as a matter of world food security. Further, concerned individuals from 71 countries have sent almost 7,000 letters to US Agriculture Secretary Glickman asking him to ban the Terminator. RAFI will be lobbying governments during the meeting of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Rome April 19 to 23. Although global opposition is mounting, RAFI worries that the UN's Biodiversity Convention may go "soft" on the environmental and social implications of the technology. When the Convention meets in Montreal in June, it is to receive a scientific study on Terminator. "We will read and respond to that study very quickly", Pat Mooney advises.* * * Acknowledgements: Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)