UN body upholds moratorium on ‘suicide seeds’

It’s official. Governments at the United Nations Conventions on Biological Diversity (CBD) have unanimously upheld the international de facto moratorium on terminator technology — plants that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds at harvest — during the 8th meeting held recently in Curtiba, Brazil .

The CBD has soundly rejected the efforts of Canada, Australia , and New Zealand — soundly supported by US government and the biotechnology industry – to undermine the moratorium on "suicide seeds," said Maria Jose Guazzelli of Centro Eologico, a Brazil-based agro-ecological organization.

"By consensus decision, all governments have re-affirmed the moratorium on genetic engineering technology that threatens the lives and livehoods of 1.4 billion people who depend on farmer—saved seeds," said Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group.

The call of a ban on sterile-seed technology took center stage at the UN meeting in Brazil. Thousands of peasant farmers, including those from Brazil Landless Workers Movement (Moviemento Sem Terra) protested daily outside the UN meeting while the women of the International Via Campesina movement of peasant farmers held a powerful silent protest inside the meeting on March 23.

"Terminator seeds are genocide seeds, said Francisca Rodriguez from Via Campesina. "We have pride in being one more step forward in our struggle."

The CBD’s moratorium on Terminator adopted six years ago was under attack by three governments – Australia, Canada, and New Zealand – that insisted on a "case—by-case risk assessment" of the technology. A broad coalition of farmers, social movements, indigenous peoples and civil society organizations pressed governments meeting in Brazil to reject the controversial text because it threatened to open the door to national — level field testing of Terminator, without regard for its devastating social impacts.