ОПЯТЬ ГМО СКОРО СКОРО ИЛИ-ИЛИ

http://www.vesti.ru/only_video.html?vid=560209

Dear Friends,

We are sorry that the petition from our friends in Brazil "Say no to seed
exterminators! Protest the Bill 287/2007 in Brazil" is only available in
Portuguese. The letter itself concludes "We demand this Committee reject PL
268/07, and abide by the international moratorium of which Brazil is a
signatory, because of the clear threat that this technology represents to
our agriculture, economy, biodiversity and, most importantly, to our
national sovereignty."

Please see here that this link to the petition includes English fields to
enter your name and contact if you feel comfortable doing so. The petition
will be presented tomorrow morning in Brazil:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/diga-n%C3%A3o-aos-exterminadores-de-sementes-contra-o-projeto-de-lei-268-2007-no-brasil

Please see here, today's press release "Brazilian Commission to ``Terminate''
Seeds This Week" from ETC Group
http://www.etcgroup.org/content/brazilian-commission-%E2%80%9Cterminate%E2%80%9D-seeds-week

We will have to continue to work to enforce the UN (Convention on Biological
Diversity) moratorium on GM Terminator seeds (established in 2000 and
strengthened in 2006) - Brazil is about to violate this international
agreement. Please read the background below.

Thank you for your action and assistance, Best regards, Lucy Sharratt,
Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

Urgent Action Alert: Stop Terminator Seeds in Brazil (GM Sterile Seeds)
Deadline: Wednesday AM, December 11, 2013
Action Alert issued by ETC Group www.etcgroup.org

Brazil Member of Parliament De'cio Lima violates agreement with civil society
and intends to put on the agenda for voting bill that proposes release of GM
suicide seeds (called Terminator seeds).

On World Food Day, during the Commission of Constitution and Justice
meeting, representatives of organizations and social movements gave the
President of the CCJC, De'cio Lima, a document with more than 18,000
signatures from across Brazil and other countries calling for the withdrawal
of the bill. On that occasion, the President pledged to not let Bill
268/2007 be voted while he was the president of the Commission.

However, MP De'cio Lima, under the pressure from the seed exterminators, is
about to disregard the agreement and have the bill voted even this week,
probably on Wednesday Dec.11th.So THIS TUESDAY is still time to retake the
mobilization with full force. Who has not signed can subscribe now and also
collect more signatures! They will be delivered to the Commission at the
meeting on Wednesday, December 11th in the morning.

Please sign and share the petition - on the petition, the fields are Name,
Surname, Address, City, Postal Code, Comment and Send - :
http://www.change.org/pt-BR/peti%C3%A7%C3%B5es/diga-n%C3%A3o-aos-exterminadores-de-sementes-contra-o-projeto-de-lei-268-2007-no-brasil

For more information on Terminator seeds and to view details about the bill
in English please visit http://banterminator.org/

Background to Proposed Terminator Legislation in Brazil:

Brazil's House of Representatives currently has two bills before it related
to genetically engineered sterility in plants. Both bills would amend the
country's March 2005 Biosafety Law prohibiting Terminator:

PL 268/2007 prohibits the selling of seeds containing Genetic Use
Restriction Technologies (GURTS, more commonly known as Terminator), except
in the case of ``bioreactor'' plant seeds, i.e., genetically modified to
produce proteins or compounds intended mainly for therapeutic or industrial
uses.

PL 268/2007 is moving through the House of Representatives now and has been
analyzed by the Committee on Environment and the Committee on Sustainable
Development and Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development and Food Supply,
and is ready to be considered by the Judicial Commission, whose task is to
assess the bill's constitutionality. After one postponement, the Commission
is scheduled to rule on the issue next week. If the Commission's opinion is
that PL 268/2007 is constitutional, the bill is ready to be voted on.

Implications for the International Moratorium on Terminator: In 2000, the
Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) agreed on a de facto moratorium (Decision V/5), prohibiting the
testing and commercialization of GURTs (Terminator).[i] The Decision was
re-affirmed by the COP in 2006. If Brazil amends its Biosafety Law to allow
GURTs, it will open the door to a violation of the international moratorium
agreed by 193 countries, including Brazil.

[i] Convention on Biological Diversity Decision V/5 III para 23: ``in the
current absence of reliable data on genetic use restriction technologies,
without which there is an inadequate basis on which to assess their
potential risks, and in accordance with the precautionary approach, products
incorporating such technologies should not be approved by Parties for field
testing until appropriate scientific data can justify such testing, and for
commercial use until appropriate, authorized and strictly controlled
scientific assessments with regard to, inter alia, their ecological and
socio-economic impacts and any adverse effects for biological diversity,
food security and human health have been carried out in a transparent manner
and the conditions for their safe and beneficial use validated.''

Introduction to Terminator Technology

Terminator technology refers to plants that have been genetically modified
to render sterile seeds at harvest - it is also called Genetic Use
Restriction Technology or GURTS. Terminator technology was developed by the
multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the United States government to
prevent farmers from saving and re-planting harvested seed. Terminator has
not yet been commercialized or field-tested but tests are currently being
conducted in greenhouses in the United States.

``Terminator is a direct assault on farmers and indigenous cultures and on
food sovereignty. It threatens the well-being of all rural people, primarily
the very poorest.'' - Rafael Alegri'a of Via Campesina, an organization
representing over 10 million peasant farmers worldwide.

Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTs) is the ``official'' name for
Terminator technology that is used at the United Nations and by scientists.
It refers to technologies that, in their design, provide a mechanism to
switch introduced genes on or off, using external inducers like chemicals or
physical stimuli such as heat shock (called an inducible system). This
mechanism allows for restricted use or performance of transgenes. There are
two tyoes of GURTs technologies that rely on the same mechanism,
variety-related or V-GURTs and trait-related or T-GURTs. V-GURTs aim to
control reproductive processes to result in seed sterility, thus affecting
the viability of the whole variety; T-GURTs aim to control the use of traits
such as insect resistance, stress tolerance or production of nutrients. The
ability to switch the GURTs mechanism on or off externally would,
theoretically, enable control over the viability of seeds or over traits.
(Source: EcoNexus www.econexus.info)

Why is Terminator a problem?

The top 10 largest seed companies control half the world's commercial seed
market. If Terminator is commercialized, corporations will likely
incorporate sterility genes into all their seeds. That's because genetic
seed sterilization would secure a much stronger monopoly than patents --
instead of suing farmers for saving seed, companies are trying to make it
biologically impossible for farmers to re-use harvested seed.

Canadian farms of all sizes save seeds and this practice is growing as the
farm income crisis gets worse each year. Across the world, over 1.4 billion
people, primarily small-scale farming families in the developing world,
depend on farm-saved seed as their primary seed source. Terminator seeds
will force dependence on external seed sources and disrupt the age-old
practice of farmer seed selection, exchange and breeding - centuries of
Indigenous and farmer seed variety development is the foundation of the
Canadian seed stock.

What impact will Terminator seeds have on farmers?

Terminator is a major violation of the rights of farmers to save and reuse
their own seeds. Through pollen movement in the first generation, Terminator
genes could contaminate farmers' crops - farmers might then unknowingly save
and reuse seeds that are contaminated and will not germinate. This could
also happen if imported grain contains Terminator genes.

Farmers who depend on humanitarian food aid risk devastating crop loss if
they unknowingly use food aid grain containing Terminator genes as seed.

Terminator would ensure a corporate stranglehold on seeds and result in
higher seed prices at a time when farmers are experiencing the worst income
crisis in the history of modern agriculture. If Canadian farmers were forced
to buy Terminator seeds every year, the cost would be crippling. For
example, an estimated 90% of Canadian wheat is planted with saved seed - in
total, the annual cost to buy this seed would be $95 million dollars.

Who holds patents on Terminator?

Monsanto has acquired Delta & Pine Land (DPL), the world's largest cotton
seed company, which jointly holds three US patents on Terminator technology
with the US Department of Agriculture. In October 2005, DPL won new
Terminator patents in both Europe and Canada. Also, the multinational seed
and agrochemical company Syngenta is requesting a Canadian patent on its
Terminator potatoes. But Indigenous potato farmers in the Andes of Peru have
asked Syngenta destroy this patent.

Will Terminator stop genetic contamination?

The multinational seed industry is waging a public relations campaign to
promote Terminator technology as a means to stop unwanted genetic
contamination from genetically engineered (GE) plants (particularly for
potential use in GE trees and plants modified to produce drugs and
industrial chemicals).

Escaped genes from GE plants are causing contamination and pose threats to
agricultural biodiversity and the livelihoods of farmers. For example,
Saskatchewan organic canola farmers are suing Monsanto and Bayer for GE
contamination (www.saskorganic.com/oapf).

Industry argues that engineered sterility would offer a built-in safety
feature for GE plants because if genes from a Terminator crop
cross-pollinate with related plants nearby, the seed produced from unwanted
pollination will be sterile - it will not germinate. But Terminator
technology is a complex system involving multiple inserted genes that all
work together in a sequence. Scientists warn that Terminator will not be
100% effective. The likelihood of system failure means it could never be a
reliable tool for ``biocontainment''. If Terminator is used for
``biocontainment'' and fails, it would introduce new, dangerous biosafety
risks.

Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
Collaborative Campaigning for Food Sovereignty and Environmental Justice
Suite 206, 180 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2P 1P5
Phone: 613 241 2267 ext. 25
Fax: 613 241 2506
coordinat***@c*****.ca
www.cban.ca
https://www.facebook.com/cban.canadian.biotechnology.action.network
biotechaction

Donate today! www.cban.ca/donate