1.Goal to Approve Terminator is Now Clear

2.'Suicide Seeds' Could Spell Death of Peasant Agriculture, UN Meeting Told
3.TERMINATOR BAN UNDERMINED AT UN MEETING IN SPAIN
4.Maori Call to Ban Terminator Seeds
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1.UN Meeting Undermines Moratorium on Terminator: Goal to Approve Terminator is Now Clear January 28, 2006 http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/news_updates/un_meeting_undermines_moratorium_on_terminator_goal_to_approve_terminator_is_now_clear

ETC Group
Ban Terminator Campaign
News Release
27 January 2006
http://www.etcgroup.org
http://www.banterminator.org

Granada's Grim Sowers Plow up Moratorium on Terminator,  Clear the Path for its Approval at UN
Terminator Opponents Prepare for Battle at COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil March 20-31, 2006

Indigenous peoples were betrayed and Farmers' Rights trampled at a UN meeting this week when the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments - guided by the US government and a brazen cabal of corporate Gene Giants - took a major step to undermine the existing moratorium on Terminator technology (i.e., plants that are genetically modified to produce sterile seeds at harvest). The damaging recommendations from the meeting in Granada, Spain, now go to the upcoming 8th biennial meeting of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20-31.

The CBD's "Working Group on Article 8(j)" that met in Granada this week was established to protect the traditional knowledge, innovation and practices of Indigenous peoples and peasant farmers. Civil society groups and Indigenous peoples watched in disbelief however as governments ignored the profoundly negative social, economic and environmental impacts of "suicide seeds" highlighted in numerous CBD studies as well as in official submissions from Indigenous peoples and farmers' organizations. The outcome now threatens biodiversity and the future of seed-saving and locally adapted agriculture worldwide.

"Terminator poses a threat to our welfare and food sovereignty and constitutes a violation of our human right of self-determination," said Mariano Marcos Terena of Brazil on behalf of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity.

Although the meeting "reaffirmed" the fragile UN moratorium on Terminator, new recommendations adopted in Granada now may be used to block the CBD's precautionary approach when governments meet in March in Brazil. Not only did the meeting fail to condemn Terminator as immoral and anti-farmer, Australia and the United States falsely claimed that Terminator, which creates sterility, would "increase productivity."

With a US government official consulting at her side, the Australian negotiator insisted on deleting reference to the "precautionary approach" and used this as a bargaining chip to win controversial wording for a "case-by-case risk assessment" of Terminator. "The new reference to case-by-case assessment is shocking and extremely damaging because it suggests that national regulatory review of Terminator is possible - it undermines the CBD moratorium, opening the door to Terminator approval," warns Hope Shand of ETC Group.

"Australia's brazen move confirms that an alarming government-industry strategy is in play to overturn the UN moratorium on Terminator," said Lucy Sharratt of the Ban Terminator Campaign. "The process and outcome dismiss the contributions of Indigenous peoples and local communities."

Despite the unscrupulous push by a handful of rich countries to put industry profits before Farmers' Rights, the majority of governments at the meeting remain solidly opposed to Terminator technology and committed to the existing moratorium. In her welcoming address the Spanish Minister of the Environment acknowledged the dangers of Terminator technology. During the meeting, the African Group, Egypt and the Philippines made impassioned speeches about the potentially devastating impacts of Terminator on biodiversity and food security and the need for national bans. Norway, Pakistan, Kenya and the European Union defended the existing moratorium. India and Brazil both referred to their national laws prohibiting genetic seed sterilization technology. Despite this strong opposition to Terminator, Australia's extreme position and its determination to block consensus left governments little room to negotiate.

In the Halls of Shame: Despite public pledges not to develop Terminator technology, Gene Giants Syngenta and Monsanto lobbied aggressively on Terminator throughout the week. Harry Collins of Delta and Pine Land, the world's largest cotton seed company which is now testing Terminator plants in greenhouses, attended under the auspices of the International Seed Federation. Monsanto's Roger Krueger moonlighted as a representative from the International Chamber of Commerce. They were joined in the corridors by CropLife International, a pesticide lobby group representing the "plant science industry."

Outside the UN meeting Spanish people of all ages gathered to remind governments of the strong public resistance to Terminator technology. Ecologistas en Accion organized public events, street protests, and educational street displays throughout the week as part of the International Ban Terminator Campaign (http://www.banterminator.org). When news of the Granada outcome reached the plenary of the World Social Forum in Caracas Venezuela last night there were howls of anger from thousands of assembled farmers.

"Allowing 'case by case' approval of Terminator means a slow death for farmers 'coffin-by-coffin' " explained Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group speaking in Caracas.

The Ban Terminator Campaign will work with groups and movements across the world to strengthen the global resistance to stop Terminator. The fight now moves to the COP8 meeting in Brazil March 20-31.

A transcript of the Draft Recommendation submitted by the Working Group can be read on ETC Group's web site at:

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

8jWorkingGroupRecommendations.pdf

For more information:
Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Ban Terminator Campaign This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
mobile: +1 613 252-2147
Hope Shand and Veronica Villa, ETC Group
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ETC Headquarters, Ottawa
tel: +1 613 241 2267
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Pat Mooney and Silvia Ribeiro in Caracas
mobile: +1 613 261 0688
Hotel El Cid (+58212) 263 2611
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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2.'Suicide Seeds' Could Spell Death of Peasant Agriculture, UN Meeting Told
by Haider Rizvi
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0126-07.htm

UNITED NATIONS - Groups fighting for the rights of peasant communities are stepping up pressure on governments to ban the use of genetically modified ''suicide seeds'' at UN-sponsored talks on biodiversity in Spain this week.

''This technology is an assault on the traditional knowledge, innovation, and practices of local and indigenous communities,'' said Debra Harry, executive director of the U.S.-based Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism.

The group is among organizations urging United Nations experts to recommend that governments adopt tough laws against field testing and selling Terminator technology, which refers to plants that have had their genes altered so that they render sterile seeds at harvest. Because of this trait, some activists call Terminator products ''suicide seeds.''

Developed by multinational agribusinesses and the U.S. government, Terminator has the effect of preventing farmers from saving or replanting seeds from one growing season to the next.

The product is being tested in greenhouses throughout the United States. Opponents fear it is likely to be marketed soon unless governments impose a ban.

''Terminator seeds will become a commercial reality unless governments take action to prevent it,'' said Hope Shand of the Canada-based Action Group on Erosion, Technology, and Concentration (ETC Group).

If commercialized, activists said, Terminator would force farmers to return to the market for seeds every year, adding to their annual costs. This also would spell the end of locally adapted agriculture through seed selection, because most farmers in the world today routinely save seeds from their harvest for replanting.

''This seed technology is a fundamental violation of the human rights of indigenous people,'' Harry said of Terminator. ''It is a breach of the right of self-determination.''

Environmental and consumer advocates also have said that genetically modified crops--ranging from Terminator to ''Round Up Ready'' varieties designed to survive the heavy duty herbicide Round Up--offer the promise of fat profits for their developers, marketers, and political supporters while threatening farmers with lean times and consumers with ill-health.

''The promise of increased profit is too enticing for industry to give up on Terminator seeds,'' says Lucy Sharratt of the International Ban Terminator Campaign.

The issue has pitted some governments against their citizens. Canadian government officials at a UN meeting in Bangkok last year pushed for language allowing the field testing and sale of Terminator. But they backed down in response to strong public criticism at home.

For their part, biotech companies have enjoyed limited success in trying to influence governments' policies in favor of using Terminator seeds. Their main argument: that Terminator's higher cost is more than compensated for in improved crop yield and quality at harvest time.

Governments generally have distinguished between different types of genetic modification. Many--especially those in industrially developing regions of the world--have resisted pressure from the biotechnology industry and the U.S. government and maintain a strong stand against Terminator.

The government of Brazil--the world's fifth most populous country and a major agricultural producer--last year enacted a law that prohibits the use, registration, patenting, and licensing of genetically modified (GM) seeds. India, a predominantly agrarian nation and home to more than one billion people, has done the same.

However, a number of governments have agreed with industry statements that other genetic modifications can play a significant role in combating hunger at negligible risk to the environment.

Even so, a 100-page report released last week by Friends of the Earth (FoE), a leading international environmental group, concludes that only a handful of countries have introduced and increased the use of genetically modified crops--and then again, largely because of aggressive lobbying by the biotech industry.

Entitled ''Who Benefits from GM Crops?'' the report says that after 10 years of GM crop cultivation, more than 80 percent of the area cultivated with biotech crops is still concentrated in only three countries: the United States, Argentina, and Canada.

In other countries--including Paraguay and Brazil, GM crops were planted illegally and in Indonesia, they were planted after government officials were bribed, FoE said.

This week's UN talks in Madrid are scheduled to continue until Friday.

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3.FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, JANUARY 27, 2006

TERMINATOR BAN UNDERMINED AT UN MEETING IN SPAIN

The National Farmers Union (NFU) of Canada, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) in the United States, and other organizations are concerned that "suicide seeds" may be introduced into the environment through the back door.

A worldwide de-facto moratorium on Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs - popularly known as "Terminator" technology) was undermined this past week at a United Nations conference in Granada, Spain. Terminator technology is used to create genetically modified seeds which are rendered sterile at harvest.

A resolution adopted at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Granada, Spain January 27 recommends abandoning the precautionary principle and allows testing of Terminator plant varieties on a "case by case" basis under the guise of "risk management" and "capacity building." Government representatives from Australia, New Zealand and Canada were instrumental in forcing the change in policy at the UN forum.

Terry Boehm, NFU Vice-President and Chair of the Ban Terminator campaign in Canada, said officials from the Canadian Department of Environment tried to accomplish this objective last year at a similar meeting in Bangkok, but backed off following strong public opposition in Canada and worldwide.

"This time around, the Canadian delegation is involved in a supporting role, with the governments of Australia and New Zealand taking the lead in destroying the consensus against Terminator," said Boehm. "This flies in the face of any regard for farmers, citizens and the world's biosphere. Why would Canada help to unleash something as dangerous as Terminator on the world?"

Boehm said the Canadian delegation appears to be taking advantage of a change in government to push though an agenda that benefits large multinational seed and chemical companies.

Colleen Ross, NFU Women's President, said the CBD consultations in Spain were supposed to involve Indigenous peoples, "yet the bureaucrats repeatedly refused to consult with farmers or Indigenous groups on this issue." She said Terminator technology is all about who controls seeds - and ultimately who controls the food system.

"Terminator is the ultimate tool in controlling the world's food supply, because it forces farmers to buy seeds from the handful of seed companies which dominate the global market," she said.

Other citizens' groups supporting the stance of the NFU and NFFC in opposing Terminator include: The Council of Canadians, the ETC Group, Inter Pares, Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, Beyond Factory Farming, GenEthics of Australia, the National Council of Women of Canada, and others.

Contact: Terry Boehm, NFU Vice-President (306) 255-2880

Colleen Ross, NFU Women's President (613) 652-1552

Terry Pugh, NFU Executive-Secretary (306) 652-9465

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4.Community Backing for Maori Call to Ban Terminator Seeds

All political parties, especially the Labour government, should be taking a lead from the Maori Party's stand opposing so called "Terminator Seeds" which reflects the views of the wider community in New Zealand and around the world.

There is wide opposition to Terminator seeds and other "Genetic Use Restriction Technologies" across all sectors of the New Zealand community, including new New Zealanders from Asia and the Pacific, as well as people of European descent and amongst Maori.

"The Labour Party should stop supporting such developments and start reflecting the shared-values of New Zealanders. Both here and abroad, the idea of deliberately creating seeds to become infertile and forcing farmers to buy new seeds each year is seen as a crime against humanity," says Jon Carapiet from GE Free NZ in food and environment.

"Terminator seeds are a threat to food security, sustainabilty and the rights of billions of people around the world, and our govrnment should ban them, as countries like India have already done," Mr.Carapiet says.

"To keep faith and maintain its international standing for fairness, New Zealand must overturn the policy promoted by former- environment Minister Marian Hobbs which supported developing a 'case by case' approach to Terminator technology.The international social, ethical and environmental issues must be investigated first."

Referring to the Convention on Biological Diversity, where delegates have been shocked by New Zealand's backing for lifting an informal moratorium on development of Terminator technology and other forms of patent- protection sterility - Tariana Turia says the government's stand will be under close scrutiny at the next international meeting.

"These issues are uppermost in our minds with the United Nations meeting next week in Spain expected to discuss, again, the contentious issues around the so-called ‘Terminator Technology,’ she says.

"The Maori Party will be writing to the Government to encourage them to maintain the moratorium against Terminator Technology" stated Mrs Turia.

"The New Zealand Government and the Labour Party risk being on the wrong side of history if they do not respond to the particular case of Monsanto's Terminator Seed developments with an outright ban," says Mr Carapiet.

ENDS
Contact Jon Carapiet 0210 507 681

Maori Party Commends Initiative of the 'Guardians of the Kumara'
Tariana Turia, Co-leader, Maori Party; 20 January 2006

The Maori Party today congratulated Te Pu Hao Rangi Trust, guardians of the early kumara, for their joint venture with Tahuri Whenua Inc, the National Maori Vegetable Growers Collective, to explore the economic potential of the early kumara.

Technology New Zealand is funding a two year project, based on nine lines of early Maori kumara. The unique white-skinned, white-fleshed kumara are being studied to identify a early kumara line suitable for the market.

"I pay special tribute to the dedication of the kuia, Dell Wihongi [Te Rawawa, Hokianga] who I know will ensure that the intellectual property involved in this research will stay with tangata whenua" stated Tariana Turia, Co-leader of the Maori Party.

Dell Wihongi was Principal claimant for the WAI 262 claim, the Native Flora and Fauna claim; and is Chairperson of Te Pu Hao Rangi Trust.

The precedent for securing intellectual property rights has been established internationally, through an agreement with the International Potato Centre (which is part of the United Nations) and the Potato Park owned by the six Aymara/Quechua communities. The Centre signed a binding agreement that they would not assert intellectual property rights over any research results or products.

"This kind of research is exciting if it has the potential to reduce poverty amongst Maori whanau by encouraging more whanau to grow produce for their own consumption as well as for markets" said Mrs Turia.

"The Mäori Party welcomes any opportunity to share the benefits of our traditional foods" stated Mrs Turia. "Our hope will be that the outcomes of this research will not just produce food for the high-end boutique market, but will also create affordable food for all".

"The Maori Party also commends the initiative of Tahuri Whenua in their endeavours to produce taewa (potato), kaanga (corn), hue and kamokamo. "Re-introducing traditional staple foods such as these early kumara into whanau diets, can also have great promise in improving Maori health" said Mrs Turia.

Mrs Turia spoke about the cultivation of the early kumara in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

"These issues are uppermost in our minds with the United Nations meeting next week in Spain expected to discuss, again, the contentious issues around the so-called ‘Terminator Technology’.

Terminator (or GURTS - Genetic Use Restriction Technology) is a technology of genetic engineering that has been designed by the multi-national seed industry to render seeds sterile at harvest - thus forcing farmers to return to corporations to buy fresh seeds rather than saving and reusing their own.

"The Maori Party is aware that the multi-national seed companies have often campaigned long and hard to convince indigenous people that they have the answer to crop failure with the creation of their hybrid plants, when in fact crop failure is often the result of deforestation, chemical pollution and the ozone layer effect".

"The Maori Party will be writing to the Government to encourage them to maintain the moratorium against Terminator Technology" stated Mrs Turia.

"Maori organic food producers, small-holder farmers, and tangata whenua will be amongst other communities campaigning against genetic use restriction technologies" said Mrs Turia.

"We will be keeping a close eye on the Government delegates attending the Convention of Biological Diversity [CBD] and Agricultural Biological Diversity [ABD] meetings to protect traditional knowledge and food security, through opposing terminator technology".

Helen Leahy
Senior Advisor
Leaders' Unit, Maori Party
Parliament Buildings
WELLINGTON
Kawe Reo| Phone: +64 4 471 9170
Kawe Whakaahua | Facsimile: +64 4 499 7269
Kawe Reo Nekeneke | Mobile : +64 021 881 031
Karere Hiko | Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Paepae Tukutuku | Website: www.maoriparty.com