Especially note the article on Delta Pine Land Company.
--Dan Worley in Sunny Puerto Rico--
>Errors-To: <rwolfson@concentric.net>
>X-Sender: rwolfson@pop3.concentric.net
>Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 11:09:02 -0500
>To: info@natural-law.ca
>From: Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>
>Subject: misc GE News
>X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by ice.icepr.com id
MAA11506
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>
>Unauthorized rapeseed lines in Swedish field test in 1997
>
>(Forwarded message from Peter Einarsson <peter.einarsson@ekolantbruk.se>)
>
>A Swedish field test of gene modified rapeseed in 1997 contained two
>unauthorized lines in addition to the one line authorized by the government
>Board of Agriculture for testing.
>
>The mixup was unintentional and was uncovered during analysis of test data
>by the testing company, Sweden's Svalöf Weibull. The lines, however, were
>produced by German transnational AgrEvo at their Canadian subsidiary, and
>this was where the mixup took place.
>
>All three lines were modified for resistance to the herbicide Basta
>(glufosinate). Robert Andrén at the Board of Agriculture regards the
>incident as serious and says their field controls will be increased.
>
>Svalöf Weibull say they will seek damage compensation from AgrEvo.
>
>Further information:
>Peder Weibull, Svalöf Weibull, +46-418 66 70 00
>Robert Andrén, Board of Agriculture, +46-36 15 50 00
>
>...........................
>
>Thanks to the <allsorts@gn.apc.org> genetic engineering news group for
>posting the following two articles in its GE - GMO News 03/09
>
>
> Agence France Presse
>
>Pope condemns excesses of genetic engineering
>
>VATICAN CITY, March 9
>
>Pope John Paul II condemned Monday the excesses of genetic engineering,
>describing it as a technique used by totalitarian groups to violate human
>rights. "
>
>Totalitarian idealogies, which degrade Man by reducing him to an object
>while breaking basic human rights, raise in a worrisome way certain uses of
>the potentials offered by biotechnology, " he said.
>
>
>The pontiff, who has already specifically come out against human cloning,
>was speaking to the assembly of the pontifical council for health matters,
>which amounts to the Vatican's health ministry.
>
>The pope was opposed to the "manipulation of life, at the service of
>boundless ambition, which deforms the aspirations and hopes of mankind and
>which only increases its suffering."
>
>Last week the Vatican renewed its strong opposition to cloning, saying it
>is a serious attack on human dignity, but said genetic research into
>illnesses could be useful.
>
>...........................................
>
>Swiss find banned gene-change corn
>
>03/06/98
>
>ZURICH (Reuters) -
>
>Swiss government scientists have backed up environmental campaigners who
>complained that shippers were importing genetically altered American maize
>barred from Europe. Two Rhine barges loaded with maize were impounded in
>the Swiss city of Basle during the past week after complaints from
>Greenpeace and two local Swiss environmental groups.
>
>Prosecutors sent samples to government labs and reported on Friday that
>``both laboratories have stated independently of each other that there is
>evidence the two shipments contained genetically altered maize strains that
>are not approved.''
>
>They said they were investigating possible criminal charges against the
>shippers.
>
>Greenpeace said the maize, a mixture of traditional and gene-change
>strains, came from a large U.S. shipment unloaded in the Dutch port of
>Rotterdam.
>
>Swiss authorities have so far only approved only one type of gene-change
>maize, created by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG. About 10 other
>types are grown in the United States, Greenpeace says.
>
>...........................
>
>GENOTYPES
>11 March 1998
>
>*** US Patent on New Genetic Technology Will ***
>*** Prevent Farmers from Saving Seed ***
>
>On March 3 Delta and Pine Land Co. (Mississippi, USA) and the U.S.
>Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that they received US Patent No.
>5,723,765 on a new genetic technology designed to prevent unauthorized seed
>saving by farmers. The patented technology, "Control of plant gene
>expression" would allow seed companies to control the viability of progeny
>seed without harming the crop. In other words, the new technology
>genetically alters the seed so that it will not germinate if re-planted a
>second time.
>
>The patent is broad, applying to plants and seeds of all species, including
>both transgenic (genetically engineered) and conventionally-bred seeds. If
>commercially viable, the patented technology could have far-reaching
>implications for farmers and the commercial seed industry. If the
>technology is widely licensed, it could be a boon to the seed industry -
>especially for companies marketing self-pollinating seeds such as wheat,
>rice, cotton, soybeans, oats and sorghum. Historically there has been
>little commercial interest in non-hybridized seeds such as wheat and rice
>because there is no way for seed companies to control reproduction. If
>commercially viable, the new technology could mean huge profits in entirely
>new sectors of the seed industry. For farmers, the patented technology will
>undoubtedly mean greater dependence on the commercial seed market, and a
>fundamental loss of control over germplasm. If widely utilized, farmers
>will lose the age-old right to save seed from their harvest.
>
>Many seed corporations have tried to stop farmers from saving or re-selling
>proprietary seeds by using intellectual property laws (patents and plant
>breeder's rights) that make it illegal for farmers to re-use or sell
>harvested seed (for reproductive purposes). Monsanto, for example, now
>requires that farmers sign a licensing agreement that strictly forbids
>farmers from saving or re-using the company's patented seed. (See RAFI
>Communique on "Bioserfdom,"
>March/April, 1997.) According to a recent article in Progressive Farmer
>magazine, Monsanto is aggressively enforcing its patents on transgenic
>soybean seeds, and has recently taken legal action against more than 100
>soybean growers who have violated the licensing agreement. (see:
>http://www.progressivefarmer.com/today/pffile/savedseed.html)
>
>The company has even hired Pinkerton investigators (hired police) to
>identify unauthorized seed-saving farmers.
>
>If Delta and Pineland's new technology successfully prevents farmers from
>germinating a second generation of seed, then seed companies will gain
>biological control over seeds that they have heretofore lacked in
>non-hybrid crops.
>
>Nobody knows exactly how many farmers save seed from their harvest each
>year. By some estimates, 20% to 30% of all soybean fields in the US midwest
>are typically planted with saved seeds; up to 50% of soybeans in the South
>are planted with farmer-saved seed. Precise statistics are not available,
>but many North American wheat farmers rely primarily on farm-saved seeds
>and return to the commercial market once every four or five years.
>
>Impact in the South
>
>A genetic technology designed to prevent farmers from saving seed would
>have a far greater impact in the South - and that is precisely the market
>being targeted. Murray Robinson, the president of Delta & Pine Land, told
>RAFI, "We expect [the new technology] to have global implications,
>especially in markets or countries where patent laws are weak or
>non-existent." The company says its new patent has "the prospect of opening
>significant worldwide seed markets to the sale of transgenic technology for
>crops in which seed currently is saved and used in subsequent plantings."
>(http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/980303/ms_delta_p_1.html )
>
>Up to 1.4 billion resource-poor farmers in the South depend on farm-saved
>seed and seeds exchanged with farm neighbors as their primary seed source.
>A technology that threatens to extinguish farmer expertise in selecting
>seed and developing locally-adapted strains is a threat to food security
>and agricultural biodiversity, especially for the poor.
>
>According to USDA spokesman, Willard Phelps, Delta & Pine Land Co. has the
>option to exclusively license the patented technology that was jointly
>developed by USDA researchers and Delta & Pine Land. The USDA wants the
>technology to be "widely licensed and made expeditiously available to many
>seed companies," said USDA's Phelps. The goal is "to increase the value of
>proprietary seed owned by US seed companies and to open up new markets in
>Second and Third World countries," said Phelps.
>
>Melvin J. Oliver, a USDA molecular biologist and primary inventor of the
>technology, explains why the US government developed a technology that
>prohibits farmers from saving proprietary seed: "My main interest is the
>protection of American technology. Our mission is to protect US
>agriculture, and to make us competitive in the face of foreign competition.
>Without this, there is no way of protecting the technology [patented
>seed]." Oliver says that the technology to prohibit seed-saving is still in
>the product development stage, and is now being tested in cotton and
>tobacco.
>
>In RAFI's view, the fact that this technology was developed by USDA
>researchers, with taxpayer funds, should be a real kick in the teeth to US
>farmers. USDA researchers articulate a greater allegiance to the commercial
>seed industry than they do to farmers. Publicly-supported plant breeding
>was once the backbone of US agriculture. Its goal was to deliver superior
>crop varieties to farmers' fields - not to guarantee seed industry profits.
>A new technology that is designed to give the seed industry greater control
>over seeds will ultimately weaken the role of public breeders and reinforce
>corporate consolidation in the global seed industry (for more information,
>see RAFI's Communique on The Life Industry.)
>
>* Delta & Pine Land Co. (Scott, Mississippi) is the largest cotton seed
>company in the world, with 1997 annual sales of $183 million. Monsanto is a
>minor shareholder in Delta & Pineland; the two companies have a joint
>cotton seed venture in China (D&M Intl. LLC).
>
>* Monsanto (St. Louis, Missouri) is a major life industry corporation, and
>the world's second ranking agrochemical corporation. Monsanto's investment
>and acquisition in seeds and agrochemicals over the past 24 months exceeded
>(US) $2 billion. Monsanto's total 1996 revenues were (US) $9.26 billion.
>
>
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>_________________________________________________________
>Richard Wolfson, PhD
>Consumer Right to Know Campaign,
>for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term
>Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods,
>500 Wilbrod Street
>Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
>email: rwolfson@concentric.net
>
>Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
>contains more information on genetic engineering as well as
>previous genetic engineering news items
>Subscription fee to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months
>See website for details.
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