A warm embrace to many recent new-comers to our network, from all of us!
And many, many thanks for the insights and input others of you have provided. It is woven into the information base and gave me the conviction to, as Zeb recommended, “use the phone more”!
UPDATE:
March 14 I talked by telephone with Bob McLean, head of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations meetings on Terminator Technology in Brazil that start next week (March 20).
We had a good talk. I won’t go into the arguments I presented in the conversation and the counter-arguments.
I did not say, but I understand that there is only so much that can be done by one person in the system. Bob can do his work to the best of his ability, but we have to do our part, if there is to be a satisfactory outcome on Terminator Technology – herbicide-tolerant seeds with another design feature added: they’re now sterile, too. (This is the path our food supply is taking.)
This morning I sent the letter below to ALL the parties who have played a role in terminator technology, for the purpose of bringing them together in effective problem-solving. The letter places terminator technology in context. When you understand what has happened, you better understand “their” perceived need to proceed with terminator technology, and you can see that “they” think they are acting in our best interests. That has to be unveiled. Terminator is not in the public interest. The problem is the development of herbicide-tolerant seeds. If we stop the development of those seeds, there is no need for terminator technology and whatever ghoulish inventions will be necessary to deal with the unforeseen problems created by it.
Hopefully the letter and attachment will provide newcomers with enough background to understand what is going on. Terminator Technology, if allowed to proceed, will further entrench governance that serves transnational corporate interests. There are severe implications for our health (the food supply) and for the environment.
In my mind, the best people to lobby are: (INSERT: outdated contact info has been removed)
(1) Chuck Strahl, Minister Responsible for Dept Agriculture New Westminster, BC
(2) Parliamentary Secretary to Chuck Strahl David L. Anderson, from Frontier, Saskatchewan Cypress Hills – Grasslands
(3) Leonard Edwards, Deputy Minister Agriculture
(4) Rona Ambrose, Minister Responsible for Dept Environment Edmonton-Spruce Grove (Alberta)
(5) Mark Warawa, Parliamentary Secretary, Environment, Langley, BC
(6) Your own Member of Parliament
A phone call is best, email second best.
Effective messages are short (unlike mine!). Something like:
“Terminator Technology is taking us further down a wrong pathway. Please support the United Nations Moratorium on terminator technology. And remove all licensing for these seeds in Canada. Herbicide-tolerant seeds are the problem to be addressed. The licensing of these seeds needs to be stopped.”
Your participation brings no results if I don’t join my hand to yours. My letter will bear no fruit, if others don’t join their hand to mine.
Together we are powerful.
Cheers!
Sandra
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LETTER SENT: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 AM:
———
SENT TO: list at bottom
PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION:
To connect people who have responsibilities for terminator technology for the purpose of problem-solving.
The office of Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture is the most obvious candidate to co-ordinate the problem-solving.
Dear All,
(1) I understand that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Dept of Agriculture, has already licensed terminator seeds.
Request: François Guimont (613 225 2342), President of the CFIA, responsible for the licensing of crops: will you please confirm this with me?
——-
(2) RE: Government of Canada negotiating Terminator Technology UN Meetings start next week, March 20, Brazil (Bob McLean, Dept of Environment, is Head of the Canadian Delegation)
INPUT TO PARTIES:
Terminator Technology was a response, the wrong response, to a mistake made by credentialed, influential authorities and the Governments – public investment in herbicide tolerant crops. The chemical/pharmaceutical/biotech corporations are also paying dearly as angry farmers demand they come and pull the plants (weeds) that are resistant to chemicals, out of their fields. The public is screaming.
Rather than admit the mistake and back out, another gene manipulation is being made to try and correct the problem: the seeds designed to be tolerant of chemical applications now also carry a “suicide” trait.
The re-design is supposed to correct the earlier design which quickly spread and became a pollutant that is very costly to control – not to mention that citizens are not anxious to have a food supply developed according to the criteria that it be resistant to chemicals (and now it has also to be sterile). … Our Governments and Universities invested in the development of herbicide-tolerant seeds. They’re in a hole; instead of climbing out, they are digging in deeper (We have a Problem? … well then, we’ll make the seeds sterile! Ha! Aren’t we brilliant!).
“Correct” responses address the actual problem. Inappropriate responses to problems are band-aids that temporarily cover over the problem. Under the band-aid, the wound festers and grows larger.
Terminator Technology is a wrong response to the pollution caused by herbicide-tolerant crops:
– It will not arrest the development and licensing of seeds designed to be tolerant of herbicide applications. Alfalfa, grasses, lentils, wheat, canola … the list of herbicide-tolerant plants developed, licensed, in use and waiting to be introduced is long.
– Nor does Terminator Technology address the problem that due to partnerships between the corporations, the Government, and the Universities, we are totally without effective regulation (protection of the commons).
Seeds are a vital part of the commons, to be carefully guarded and protected to serve the public interest. With seed development, we have completely lost that function in the Canadian democracy. The Government is a collaborator in serving corporate interests, to the detriment of the public interest.
And then there are the fish (Canadian) that have had growth genes from other species inserted into them, and the pigs (American) with growth genes from human beings. The fish grow to 6 times the size of normal fish within a year’s time. Government regulation? Aaah! but these fish, too, are designed to be sterile. “Life Running Out of Control” by Germandocumentary-maker Bertram Verhaag, who I met while he was in Saskatchewan collecting the footage on our experience with gene-altered canola, is an excellent source of information – I recommend it to you. I myself, might have titled the documentary “Man playing God”.
This is our food supply, guys. And always it comes back to the fundamental question: in whose interests?
The industry propaganda extols the virtues of seeds that are resistant to chemicals. And now the virtue of chemical-resistant, sterile seeds. The irrefutable evidence is that herbicide-tolerant seeds lead to higher levels of chemical use. A simple person can figure it out: more and more plants are resistant to glyphosate (roundup). You can kill off unwanted plants with an application of glyphosate, but there has to be a follow-up application of 2,4-D to kill the resistant plants. Is terminator technology the solution?
Terminator Technology is a classic example of the functioning of dynamic systems. You have a system that is out-of-balance (use herbicide-tolerant canola to illustrate). In order to bring canola back to equilibrium, as with any dynamic system, you have to:
a. respond to the feedback that something is wrong by taking the APPROPRIATE corrective action to bring the system back to equilibrium, and b. do it “in time”.
If you fail on either account, the system falls into further disintegration and eventual collapse. The classic case used to illustrate this by Jane Jacobs is the Atlantic cod fishery: the feedback was declining catches.
The response was more money which both maintained and attracted more people to the fishery, which allowed bigger vessels that could go further to sea.
It was the wrong response to the feedback; the cod fishery collapsed, with severe repercussions. The last time I checked, a number of years ago, the collapse was permanent. That is characteristic of dynamic systems: once they go past a certain level of disintegration, they are not retrievable.
Seeds are the basis of our food supply. First the seeds were engineered so they can be sprayed with chemicals and survive. Now those seeds have another modification to make them sterile. Meanwhile the production of herbicide-tolerant plants moves forward – more and more of them are released into the environment. The base problem is not addressed. And in whose interests?
Much of the nutrient value is in the germ of a seed; sterile seeds mean what?
People buy wheat germ to add to their breakfast cereal to compensate for nutrients removed in the milling process (cereal typically has the wheat germ removed to increase the shelf life of the product. The “germ” of the seed will go rancid if not refrigerated.)
What has happened to the germ of the seed, if the seed is sterile? The health of the population is dependent upon the quality of the available foods.
Do sterile seeds produce pollen?
The problem with answering the question is that most of the research has transnational corporate interest behind it. They expected people to believe the silly things about herbicide tolerant seeds (they can “co-exist” in nature). Such lies have been held forth until they became untenable in an informed and guffawing public. Public trust in “the science” and the reassurances have been completely undermined. … The corporations and their collaborators….
I ask you to put your heads together. Back out of the hole. Terminator Technology will not correct the actual problems because in no way does it address the problems. We are on the wrong path. Your reputations will be saved if you have the courage to acknowledge and address the problem. I challenge you to find the APPROPRIATE response in a TIMELY fashion.
Many of you have inherited the dilemma from your predecessors. You don’t have face to save. You are in a position to assert the public interest.
The CFIA, Department of Agriculture should withdraw all licensing of seeds that have been designed to be resistant to chemical applications and all seeds that have built-in Terminator Technology, also known as
– Technology Protection System (TPS)
– “Suicide seeds”
– genetic seed sterilisation technology (GSST)
– GURTS, Genetic Use Restriction Technologies.
That will address the root of the problem. Also, the Patent Act needs to be updated. It applies to mechanical devices. It was never intended for application to life forms. To subscribe to the idea that a person or a corporation can legitimately claim ownership over life forms is nuts.
———-
The United Nations negotiations on Terminator Technology are through
– the Department of the Environment.
But the people and institutions behind terminator technology are
– the Departments of Agriculture and
– Health,
– the universities where the biotechnology research is being carried out through partnerships between the Government, the Universities and
– the corrupt chemical/pharmaceutical/biotech complex of companies.
(I have a long list from the public record of the court convictions, etc. against these corporations if people question the choice of words, “corrupt”.)
I am sending this communication to many of the people/institutions that have played a role along the path that led to terminator technology. (recipients are listed below.) We all share responsibility for arriving at this place.
It is unfair to target the Department of Environment over Terminator Technology. It is a shared responsibility. May we all do our part. This is mine.
Thanks.
Sandra Finley
————
TO:
Bob McLean
Dept of Environment
Head of the Canadian Delegation
negotiating Terminator Technology
UN Meetings next week, start March 20, Brazil
(819) 997-1303; Robert.Mclean AT ec.gc.ca;
(Bob was also head of delegation at the Bangkok round of negotiations)
John Karau
Dept of Environment
(John was head at the round of negotiations in Spain.) Biodiversity Convention office john.karau AT ec.gc.ca; Phone 819 953 9669
Rona Ambrose, Minister Responsible for Dept Environment Edmonton-Spruce Grove (Alberta) (contact info removed)
Deputy Minister, Dept Environment
(Justice Gomery recommended that deputy ministers bear more responsibility for their actions. Hence their inclusion in this communication.)
Mark Warawa, Parliamentary Secretary, Environment Langley, BC (contact info removed)
——-
NOTE: I have asked the University of Saskatchewan to re-visit its partnerships with corporations, because of the corruption they create. My case is well documented, from external sources and from personal experience.
My submission to the Board of Governors is attached.)
———————
University of Saskatchewan
Board of Governors
c/o Lea Pennock, University Secretary
Lea.Pennock AT usask.ca; alex.hockley AT usask.ca;
Ernie Barber, Dean of Agriculture, U of S ernie.barber AT usask.ca;
François Guimont (613 225 2342), President of the CFIA, (Cdn Food Inspection Agency) responsible for the licensing of crops that are the basis of our food supply. The CFIA is part of Agriculture Canada. guimontf AT inspection.gc.ca;
Stephen Yarrow, director of CFIA’s plant bio-safety office syarrow AT inspection.gc.ca;
Chuck Strahl, Minister Responsible for Dept Agriculture New Westminster, BC
Parliamentary Secretary to Chuck Strahl, David L. Anderson, from Frontier, Saskatchewan Cypress Hills – Grasslands
Leonard Edwards, Deputy Minister Agriculture edwardslj AT agr.gc.ca; (613) 759 1101
the United Nations moratorium on Terminator c/o Dr. Tewolde (Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Ethiopia) African biosafety negotiator esid AT ethionet.et;
Dr. Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the CBD Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety secretariat AT biodiv.org;
My Member of Parliament
(The University of Saskatchewan is also in his riding) Brad Trost Saskatoon Humboldt
———————–
UN Meeting in Brazil (20-31 March 2006) on Terminator Technology. This matter requires prompt attention.
Best wishes,
Sandra Finley