- An international moratorium on the use of one of the
world's most controversial GM food technologies may be broken today if
the Canadian government gets seed sterilisation backed at a UN meeting.
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- Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Canada
wants all governments to accept the testing and commercialisation of "terminator"
crop varieties. These are genetically engineered to produce only infertile
seeds which farmers cannot replant.
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- Jointly patented by the GM company Monsanto and the US
government, the technology was condemned in the late 1990s by many African
and Asian governments who called for a permanent ban.
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- Monsanto and other GM companies which were developing
similar technologies voluntarily pulled out of research after concerns
were also raised about the "terminator" genes spreading to non-GM
crops, and international outrage that poor farmers would not be able to
use seeds from their crops, as they have always done.
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- But leaked instructions to Canadian government negotiators
at the Bangkok meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical
and Technological Advice, a group which advises the UN's Convention on
Biological Diversity, show that Canada will request today that all countries
open their doors to the technology.
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- The papers, leaked to the environment group ETC, also
show that the Canadian government will attack an official UN report critical
of the potential impact of "terminator" seeds on small farmers
and indigenous peoples. The report recommends that governments prohibit
the technology.
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- The Canadian government team in Bangkok was last night
unavailable for comment.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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