From khiltsley@iatp.org Tue Oct 27 10:21:23 1998 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW98.06) with ESMTP id KAA60486 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:21:22 -0800 Received: from mail.iatp.org (iatp-2.InnovSoftD.com [208.141.36.66]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.1+UW98.09/8.9.1+UW98.09) with ESMTP id KAA04076 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:21:21 -0800 Received: from Kathybert.iatp.org ([208.141.36.84]) by mail.iatp.org (Netscape Messaging Server 3.56) with SMTP id 530; Tue, 27 Oct 1998 12:33:20 -0600 Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19981027122826.007f7a90@iatp.org> X-Sender: khiltsley@iatp.org X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 12:28:26 -0600 To: kathy@iatp.org From: "Kathleen Hiltsley" Subject: Terminator Technology - letter sent to Secretary of Agriculture - Dan Glickman Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello Friends, I am enclosing a copy of a letter that was sent by us to The Secretary of Agriculture through Rafis home page. Please take the time if you are on line to access this (information is on the bottom of this email) and send your own letter to the Department of Agriculture. Thank you. Kristin Dawkins October 14, 1998 The Honorable Dan Glickman Secretary of Agriculture 200-A Whitten Bldg. 1400 Independence Ave., SW Washington DC 20250 FROM: Mark Ritchie (mailto:mritchie@iatp.org) Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Minneapolis Minnesota USA Dear Secretary Glickman, I am writing in regards to the Terminator technology. There are so many unanswered questions to this new technology and to move forward with it at the speed that the USDA is, without understanding the full implications of it to the farmers, who are an integral part of our society is a dangerous way to take care of our country. The Terminator technology (US patent #5,723,765) is a genetic technology that renders farm-saved seed sterile. The Terminator seed was produced by a corporation that is looking at the bottom line, not at the people that this country works for and protects. The Terminator violates Farmers' Rights and threatens agricultural biodiversity. Do you completely understand the implications of the Terminator seed? If you do then just as the tobacco industry has been protected for decades while it lied to the American people or just as women had to die before the government saw fit to intervene to stop the use of damaging silicone breast implants are you again going to await for a crisis of enormous proportions before regretting your part in the promotion of questionable and all to powerful new technologies? This is about sterilizing seeds, wresting control of seeds and plant breeding from farmers, and fattening Monsanto's profits. According to Delta and Pine Land, Monsanto stands to make as much as US $1.5 billion per year using the Terminator to force farmers to return to the commercial seed market every year. What kind of logical thinking is this? This is not progress, it is a threat to global food security and using the taxpayers money to fund corporate piracy. As a public agency dedicated to promoting agriculture, USDA should take steps to safeguard the rights of farmers to save seed, not destroy their rights by designing new technologies for corporations to profit. I urge the USDA to launch a public inquiry into the impacts of seed industry consolidation on farmers and food security, protect your farmers, don’t destroy them. Scientists warn that, under certain conditions, the trait for seed sterility will flow, via pollen, from Terminator crops to surrounding plants, making the seeds of neighboring plants sterile. Given the profound risks to food security and the environment, especially in biodiversity-rich South, the Terminator patent embodies the kind of threat to public morality described in Article 27 (2) of the WTO TRIPS agreement. Please, take the time to listen to those around you that are stating the problems, do not shut them out from this process. To move forward for the sake of Monsanto and Delta and Pine Land without listening to the scientists and farmers who see the dangers is not the democratic way at all. Live up to the standards America was built on, not on corporations and money, the very people who you are paid to protect are at the heart of this matter. Sincerely, Mark Ritchie cc: admars@ars.usda.gov bob.smith@mail.house.gov senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov Mark Ritchie President Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy 2105 1st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 612.870.3400 / 612.870.4846 (fax) Use this page http://www.rafi.org/usda.html to tell the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) what you think about its plan to license USDA's interest in the seed sterilizing Terminator Technology to Monsanto (background). Add your thoughts about USDA's expenditure of public money to develop this anti-farmer, anti-biodiversity technology, and USDA and Monsanto's intent to seek patents in at least 87 countries. This page generates a customized e-mail built to your specifications and sends it on its way. The simple four step process will take about 5 minutes. Click here to see a sample letter. After you've sent the letter, you'll have an opportunity to see a list of others who have done the same. Leave with the satisfaction of having added your voice to the global oppostion to the Terminator and having helped the USDA find its research focus: farmers, not corporate profits. Check back with the RAFI home page for updates. Thank you! Kathy Hiltsley Program Assistant Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy 2105 1st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 Direct Phone: 612-870-3455 IATP Ph. 612-870-0453 IATP fax. 612-870-4846 http://www.iatp.org email:khiltsley@iatp.org .