Jambo Jandals

Both Liss and I are keen gardeners. She succeeds with all her crops, I try to keep my plants alive. My skills are probably likened to that of an doctor in an intensive care unit, caring for sick and dying BUT I am getting better. This week I read an article in a gardening magazine talking about "Terminator Technology" . Genetically modified seeds capable of destroying plant life as we know it. I have posted the article below and it is well worth a serious read.

What you need to know about terminator technology
The United States Government and GE companies have developed a patented technology "to create sterile seeds by selectively programming the plants DNA to kill its own embryos" Vandana Shiva. The USDA receives a 5% profit from the sales as a sort of policing action.
"Pea pods, tomatoes, peppers, heads of wheat, and ears of corn will essentially become seed morgues. Thus the system will force farmers to buy seeds from seed companies every year" The gradual spread of sterility in seeding plants would result in a global catastrophe that could eventually wipe out higher life forms including humans from the planet", Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest.

"Never before has man created an insidiously dangerous, far reaching, and potentially "perfect" plan to control the livelihoods, food supply and even survival of all humans on the planet".

Writer Gene Guidette says "In one broad, brazen stroke of his hand, man will have irretrievably broken the plant-to-seed-to-plant-to-seed cycle, the cycle that supports most life on the planet. No seed, no food, unless you buy more seed. The terminator technology has crossed the line, the tenacious line been genius and insanity. It is a dangerous, idea that should be banned. Period."

Monsanto and the USDA have patents that give them monopoly control for 20 years over GE technology. Terminator was developed according to the USDA scientist Melvin Oliver because" The need was there to come up with a system that allowed you to self-police your technology, other than trying to put on laws and legal barriers to farmers saving seeds and to try and stop foreign interests from stealing the technology. "
There are 1.4 billion indigenous people and peasant farmers whose whole livelihood revolves around selecting and saving seed for next years crop planting. They select and adapt local varieties to their unique needs. If Terminator were commercialised their livelihoods would be threatened for no other purpose than to transfer ownership and control of our publicly owned food crops to GE crop companies.

Monsanto breaks its promise
In 1999 Monsanto responding to global outrage said "We are making a public commitment not to commercialise sterile seed technologies such as the one dubbed "Terminator" but today it has revised this policy on a case-by-case basis".

Australian government backs Terminator
The Australian government which does not have an official public policy on Terminator is supporting Monsantos case-by-case approach. At the UN convention on Biological Diversity there is a global ban on Terminator which since 2005 the Australian, Canadian and NZ governments have sought to overturn.

What can we do? Here is a link to a petition to the Agriculute Miniter is a good way to start. Feel free to respond if you are interested. There is plenty of info avialble on the web about this product too.