Dear RightOnCanada Supporter, I want to share with you a message I received a few days ago from Doug Storey, an organic farmer in Grandview, Manitoba: “Thank you for helping in the fight against Terminator seed. I am a farmer and my farm’s future depends on saving my own seed.” Doug’s thanks go to each of you who sent the letters. And your letters are having an effect. Alex Atamanenko, the NDP’s Agriculture critic, raised the issue in the House of Commons (see below), saying that his office has been flooded with letters. He intends to introduce a bill to ban Terminator seed technology. To keep the momentum growing, we are now calling on Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion to show his environmental leadership. Go to our action centre to send your message Thank you, Kathleen Kathleen Ruff
Senior Advisor to the Rideau Institute Terminator Seed Technology terminator is a technology that is being developed by multinational seed companies to make seeds sterile after first harvest. The goal is to prevent farmers from saving and reusing their own seeds, thereby forcing them to buy seed from corporations every year. Currently there is an international moratorium being upheld on terminator at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Incredibly, we have a government, like the Liberal government before it that is seeking to undermine this moratorium by considering approval of this technology on a case by case basis.Despite the fact that leading scientists condemn taking this completely irresponsible position, they are willing to take this enormous risk. My office is flooded with letters every day, over 700 so far, from Canadians expressing deep concern about the dangers of this technology which cannot be prevented from cross-pollinating with other plants. I have personally written to each of these people and informed them that I will be forwarding their letters to the minister’s office and asking him to justify his position to them directly. I urge each of my colleagues to forward each and every letter they get. |
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May 4th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Council of Canadians, Cdn Catholic Org for Development & Peace, have much done much research & awareness on this issue. Hope you are all networking together. Biopatenting is an agriculture nightmare & no evidence that it feeds the world’s hungry.
shalom Bonnie