Canadian Position On Terminator Seeds Assailed

OTTAWA - Mar 20/06 - SNS -- Agriculture Canada has tried on several occasions to overturn an international ban on development of so-called terminator seeds, bit groups in favor of the ban hope the new Conservative government's Environment Minister Rona Ambrose will defend the moratorium at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) begins today in Curitiba, Brazil.

Terminator technology refers to the genetic engineering of seeds to produce plants with sterile seeds. The CBD enacted a de facto moratorium on Terminator technology in 2000, saying the technology poses threats to the environment, to global food security, and to the livelihoods of more than 1.4 billion people who depend on farm-saved seed around the world.

Canada first attempted to overturn the CBD moratorium on Terminator in February 2005 at a UN meeting in Bangkok. There are fears Canada will try again in Brazil. It is not known how much support there is in Canada's farming community for this stance because, as Giuliano Tolusso of Agriculture Canada said recently, "We haven't necessarily actively consulted farmers."

"The government of Canada saw how angry Canadians were at proposed legislation to take away Canadian farmers' ability to save, re-use, and exchange seeds. That's nothing compared to the reaction you will get if you try and impose sterile seeds on us," said Colleen Ross, Women's President of the National Farmers Union.

"These plants are engineered to grow dead seeds. This technology has zero benefit to farmers. It only serves one purpose: to force farmers to buy seeds every year from seed companies who will increase their profits at our expense. Terminator wheat alone will cost Canadian farmers an additional 100 million dollars per year."

The 44,000 farmers of Quebec's Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), the National Farmers Union, and the Canadian Organic Growers have all declared themselves opposed to Terminator. Last week, the 200,000 member Canadian Federation of Agriculture passed a resolution requesting an assessment of Terminator's impacts on farmers.