Churches oppose ‘terminator’ seed technology

A major church organization says it opens genetically modified seeds, and has placed a call for other churches to follow suit.

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), called upon churches and ecumenical partners to take action to stop "terminator technology."

Says Kobia: "Applying technology to design seeds sterile turns life which is a gift from God into a commodity. Preventing farmers from re-planting saved seeds will increase economic injustice all over the whole world and add to the burdens of those already living in hardships."

"Terminator technology," opines Kobia, "locates food sovereignty, once the very backbone of the community, in the hands of technologists and large corporations."

"Give me this day our daily bread. That this request appears in this profoundly spiritual prayer signals for us the importance of food for us, as well as the indivisibility of the material and spiritual in the eyes. It is of great concern to me that life is now often thought of and used as a commodity."

Governments upheld the international de facto moratorium on "terminator technology" which refers to plants that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds, about a month ago at the 8th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Curitiba, Brazil. It was widely seen that they finally gave in to strong pressure by social movements and civil society groups and a number of governmental delegations supporting their claims.