The right of farmers to save seeds is crucial to the survival of 1.4 billion people around the world and crucial to the biodiversity of the planet.<\/p>\n
Terminator technology, which renders seeds sterile after one harvest, threatens this right.<\/p>\n
At a UN meeting in January 2006 the Canadian government supported the successful move by Australia to allow Terminator to be researched and studied on a \u201ccase by case risk assessment basis\u201d. This would have lead to field trials of Terminator and an end to the existing international moratorium. Strong protest from farmers, indigenous peoples and citizens\u2019 groups in Canada and around the world forced the Canadian Government to back down from this position. Consequently, at the major UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in March 2006, the moratorium was upheld and even slightly strengthened. But the moratorium only exists as long as all governments want it to. The biotechnology industry is continuing to push genetic sterile seed technology as a tool for greater corporate control and profits. “Terminator will rear its ugly head at the next UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in 2008.<\/p>\n
“The only solution is a total ban on the technology once and for all,\u201d says Pat Mooney of ETC Group. “Now all national governments must enact national bans on Terminator as Brazil and India have done.” “Terminator directly threatens our life, our culture and our identity as Indigenous peoples”, said Viviana Figueroa of the Ocumazo indigenous community in Argentina on behalf of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, who are calling for a world ban on Terminator technology.It’s time for Canada to support a national and international ban on Terminator seeds to make sure they are never field tested or commercialized.<\/p>\n