GEO WATCH/GUEST BLOG: Miguel Santistevan on Food and Seed Sovereignty

Moderator's Note: We are pleased to present this report by our friend and colleague, Miguel Santistevan on recent developments in New Mexico related to grassroots efforts to gain passage of a "Farmer Protection Act" (FPA).  It is striking to us how the debate surrounding the legitimate biosafety concerns posed by opponents of transgenics is so consistently and conveniently reduced to a matter of "sticking to scientific discourse." This seems especially the case whenever state legislatures consider important policy problems that can force politicos to question their adherence to the basic tenets of free market fundamentalism and calls instead for a deeper ecological and place-based grounding of law and policy. It is even more revealing that the type of science qualified as science for purposes of this legislative discourse is typically reduced to the science of the biotechnologists in lab white. When is the New Mexico political class going catch up with actual science in fields like ethnoecology, agroecology, and environmental anthropology and begin to recognize and value the scientific knowledge of the State's own multi-generational and place-based farmers, seed savers, and plant breeders? Miguel is a recipient of the Edwin Sanchez Acequia Graduate Fellowship from the Acequia Institute. 

For the original posting, please visit: Kindle Project.

The Struggle for Food and Seed Sovereignty in New Mexico

 

by Miguel Santistevan

Miguel Santistevan at his huerto familiar outside Taos, Nuevo Mexico.

A story of the struggle for food and seed sovereignty in New Mexico must be told.  In an unprecedented Alliance, Tribal and Acequia farmers made a Declaration that contextualizes the expropriation and genetic engineering (GE) of crops as a malicious act in the continuation of genocide. As concerns for food security in the context of climate change rise, the resilience of indigenous agricultural systems provide a model for food security in the face of uncertainty. If our potential is to be reached, traditional agriculture and the freedom to farm must survive against the onslaught of private property regimes, uncontainable cross-pollination, misinformation, and global influence of the biotechnology industry.

History

Many people do not realize that New Mexico is the place of agricultural introduction from Mexico into North America.  I have a friend from Tesuque Pueblo who jokingly told me that his people brought corn from down south and were the first Mexicans to cross the border before there was such a thing as Mexico or a border.  Another Hopi farmer gave me an account of the historical migration of their peoples from Central Mexico to where they reside now in Arizona.  Over hundreds and hundreds of years, gardens were brought northward with their nomadic settlements, continually adapting their crops to new environments in more northern latitudes.  The crops that thrive there today such as maize, beans, amaranth, squash, sunflower, and tobacco, are monuments of adaptability and survival from their longer season, longer day length homelands.

Later, the pueblos of Taos and Pecos were known as trade centers from Central America to North America and have the most diverse maize varieties when compared to other sites along the trade route.  The diversity in maize varieties found in Taos Pueblo in the 1940’s indicate a historical trade relationship with Mexico to the south and as far north and east with tribes in Canada and the State of New York.  The Spanish followed the central leg of this trade route, renamed it ‘El Camino Real,’ and arrived in northern New Mexico in the late 16th Century.  Though unfamiliar with the territory and unprepared for their first winter, the Spanish brought a template of survival for desert and extreme climate conditions.  Complete with the Acequia irrigation system that is based on equitable water sharing agreements, or repartos, as well as crop types from the Old World such as wheat, peas, favas, lentils, and garbanzos, the Spanish agricultural toolbox was well equipped for agricultural success in this unpredictable environment riddled with frost and drought.  Domesticated animals and fruit trees also increased food security while altering the Native’s original relationship with the land.  The last agricultural census by New Spain in the early 1800’s found an abundance of lentil and garbanzo production, crops that are a rare find nowadays.

Self Sufficiency vs. the Railroad and Globalization

The coming of the United States and the railroad altered the agricultural economy of the region with effects that lasted until the present.  The coming of the railroad offered economic opportunities and consumer goods to the local population where many men left to work on the railroad or in the mines, sent money home, and their families could then use the money to buy consumer goods at the local stores.  Prior to the introduction of goods from the United States, people were self sufficient except for the luxuries of kerosene, matches, salt, and sugar.  But even sugar could be locally produced from cane that was processed into ‘miel,’ something similar to molasses.  There is a ‘trovo,’ or epic song/poem, called ‘El Café y el Atole’ which chronicles the issues around the introduction of coffee as it began to replace atole, a traditional, locally produced, breakfast drink of blue corn gruel.

Given the deep relationship with the land and food of this region, starting with the indigenous people, following through with the Spanish introductions, and finally with the modern-day conveniences of the global economy, it is somewhat ironic that of all the places in the United States that we would have to consider issues of Food Security and Seed Sovereignty. New Mexico ranks one of the worst for hungry people in the U.S. while the population has access to goods of global origins from Wal-Marts, Dollar Stores, etc.  With the onset of Genetic Engineering (GE) in the rest of the world, New Mexico’s agricultural economy is now in the cross-hairs of biotechnology companies who wish to control our most important crops: alfalfa and chile.

Miguel's home kitchen garden plot.

Awareness, Action, and the Alliance

In 2006 I was working for the New Mexico Acequia Association (NMAA) coordinating a youth-in-agriculture mentorship program called Sembrando Semillas.  The NMAA deemed the time right for Acequia and Tribal farmers to get together and share our struggles while envisioning solutions.  We approached Clayton Brascoupe of the Traditional Native American Farmers’ Association (TNAFA) to gauge his interest in co-sponsoring an agriculture conference between our two organizations for the purpose of engaging our respective communities and having a seed exchange.  In the course of our conversation, the topic of Genetic Engineering came up.  We had both heard of genetic engineering and were sharing accounts each of us had about this technology and its impact to our traditional agricultural systems.  We talked about contamination of maize in Mexico, the development of corns that contained spermicide and adhesive, and contemplated the possibility of contamination against our native varieties of corn.  Given the spiritual significance of corn to our respective communities, we decided to organize the conference and sign a “Seed Sovereignty Declaration” that would articulate the issue and our concern about it as traditional farmers.  The first draft of the Declaration came to be on February 14, 2006 (Valentine’s Day) and after nine more revisions to the draft; the final Declaration was signed by hundreds of participants at the 1st Annual Tierra, Agua, y Cultura traditional agriculture conference on March 10 & 11, 2006.  (See www.lasacequias.org/programs/seed-alliance/ for more information on the Alliance and to read the Declaration.)

After the signing of the Declaration, we began referring to the collaboration between Acequia (NMAA) and Tribal farmers (TNAFA) as ‘the Alliance,’ short for The New Mexico Food and Seed Sovereignty Alliance.  The organizations Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE) and Tewa Women United (TWU) joined the Alliance and we found ourselves in a whirlwind of activity.  Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Land Recovery Project invited us to a meeting of Anishinabee and Native Hawaiians who were addressing Genetic Engineering contamination of their wild rice and taro, respectively.  We shared our efforts and the Declaration and a larger Alliance was forged between our Alliance and these other groups.

The Declaration Inspires Policy

The Declaration quickly became Resolutions for Tesuque Pueblo, the All Indian Pueblo Council, and The Eight Northern Pueblos.  The National Congress of American Indians adopted a resolution based on the language of the Declaration.  The Counties of Santa Fe and Rio Arriba also passed Resolutions.  Finally, the Alliance found itself in the 2007 New Mexico State Legislature to pass a version of the Declaration as a Memorial: House Memorial 84 was sponsored by Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, and Senate Joint Memorial 38 was sponsored by Senator Carlos Sisneros.  The Memorial was passing through the Legislature with flying colors given all of our endorsements.  At the 11th hour we were informed that the biotech industry was pressuring our Secretary of Agriculture, Miley Gonzales, to kill the Memorial.  The controversy was around the factual language in the Memorial that implicated the biotechnology industry for suing farmers in cases of unknown and unintended GE contamination, restricting research and labeling around GE products, and contamination events in Mexico and its associated cultural and environmental effects.  We were told that we could pass the Memorial if we took out that language, otherwise the process around the Memorial would be stalled and it would be ‘killed’ by running out of time.

In deliberating whether to concede to the amendments or fight, we decided that victory was already on our side, we had educated the legislators about the issue and the opposition had revealed themselves to us.  We conceded to the amendments and the Memorials passed unanimously.

A Setback for New Mexico

In 2008, the following year, it was a slap in the face to learn that Senator Bernadette Sanchez of the Westside of Albuquerque sponsored and passed Senate Bill 60 which gave New Mexico State University (NMSU) $1 million to the chile industry, which included the development of genetically engineered chile.  Unfortunately, this Bill was not discovered until it was too late and made it through the process without opposition.  If the opposition would have been organized at the time, it could have learned that NMSU had presumably been developing GE chile since 2003, using Tobacco Settlement monies.

The Alliance drafted a letter to the researchers, Dean of Research, Regents, and President of NMSU, and requested a meeting where our concerns could be addressed.  The closing paragraph of the letter reads:

“This is a matter of great urgency to our Alliance of traditional farmers from Pueblo, tribal and acequia communities.  We consider genetic modification and the potential contamination of our native seeds by GE technology a culturally insensitive and a direct attack towards our ancestry, culture, and posterity.  We would like to meet with you to discuss these concerns personally.”

This letter was sent twice by certified mail and we received no response both times.  We later learned that Election Bond D of that year had a rider to build the biotechnology company Syngenta offices on the NMSU campus.

Continued Action and Political Engagement

In response to GE chile and the 2008 legislature, a group called ‘Save NM Seeds’ emerged and drafted the “Farmer Protection Act” for the 2009 Legislative Session.  The Act was drafted in consultation with the Center for Food Safety, who has a track record of monitoring and resisting the negative effects of genetic engineering.  The Act was very comprehensive.  For example, it established culpability against the entities that would contaminate native crops, if the farmer incurred damages of more than $500 due to GE contamination.  Presumably because of its comprehensive nature and behind-the-veil relationships between government and industry, the Act was tabled at the first Committee hearing.  The Conservation Committee, which is chaired by Senator B. Sanchez, is the same Senator that sponsored the GE chile Bill the year prior.  This should not be a surprise, however, I hear that the Conservation Committee has little to do with conservation and is referred to as the “Kill” committee for conservation-minded Bills.

The Farmer Protection Act

The group that drafted the Farmer Protection Act and Save NM Seeds, then pared down the Farmer Protection Act to its basic elements for the 2010 Legislative Session.  The new version of the Farmer Protection Act attempted to accomplish four simple things:

1.     Puts in place some common-sense protections for small and independent farmers in New Mexico if encountered with suspected liability when they accidentally come into possession of patented, generically engineered seeds.

2.     Establishes a process for biotech companies to enter a farmer’s property to check for the presence of their patented seeds, while protecting the property rights of the farmer.

3.     States that no farmer in New Mexico has the duty to create buffer zones to protect his/her crops and land from genetic engineering encroachment.

4.     Says that the proper venue for any legal dispute between a New Mexico farmer who accidentally comes into possession of patented, genetically engineered seeds or crops, and the biotech corporation, is the district court in the New Mexico county where the dispute occurred – not in Missouri or some other state where the biotech company resides.

The ‘Dummy’ Bill

Since this legislative session was a 30-day session dedicated to budgetary issues, this kind of legislation would have to have a Governor’s ‘Call’ or ‘Message’ to be considered for the Session.  Before the session started, it was my understanding that the Act had a Governor’s Call but when the session actually was underway, it was sitting on the table with a ‘Message’ but no sponsor.  The Act was then introduced as a ‘Dummy’ Bill, a designation presumably reserved as a placeholder for legislation that a Senator can introduce without notice while the Session is underway.

Fighting for the FPA

Before you know it, I found myself testifying in front of the Cultural and Indian Affairs Committee in support of the Farmer Protection Act (FPA) against a lobbyist for the biotechnology industry.  The FPA passed the first committee and made its way to Judiciary Committee, where it was tabled on procedural grounds.  The Majority Whip of the Senate, Michael Sanchez, is supposed to refer Bills to the next committee, and he had never heard of nor seen the FPA.  Luckily the momentum was great enough that the FPA was revived the next morning and referred to Conservation Committee, still chaired by Senator B. Sanchez.

The next few days were a waiting game.  We finally heard on Saturday, February 13, that the FPA was scheduled for the next day, Valentines’ Day.  Presumably to throw off the support that was planning to pack the room, the schedule was changed a couple of times before the committee hearing on Sunday.  Nevertheless, we were able to pack the room with supporters and small farmers in time for the hearing.

Clarity

I found myself an expert witness again, sharing the role and table with Michael Reed of Save NM Seeds and Senator Eric Griego as the sponsor.  I listened to the biotech industry lobbyist present arguments that he tried to use on the Cultural and Indian Affairs Committee.  I couldn’t believe he was still towing that line, Senator McSorely had schooled him on the ridiculousness of his arguments less than a week before.  I had my counterpoints ready.  I then listened arguments from a lobbyist from the Dairy Growers Association.  As I listened to these arguments, it dawned on me that the FPA was probably more relevant in protecting farmers who engage in GE agriculture over smaller-scale farmers.  It became clear in my mind how GE contamination could occur with farms who practice GE agriculture and how the FPA would likely be deployed to protect those farmers before any others and so I awaited my turn to respond to the Committee.  Next I heard from a lobbyist of the chile industry who indicated that we need to have a ‘scientific’ discussion about the issue.  This was an interesting argument in that he was expressing opinions that science could easily refute.  His claim was basically that the accounts of contamination of non-GE crops by neighboring GE crops in other regions would not likely occur in New Mexico given its geography.  As a migration route for birds along the Rio Grande corridor and as home to five floristic zones (more than any other State in the Union), contamination would likely be more probable than in other regions.   As one of the only people with academic credentials in the room, a Master of Science in Ecology from the University of California, Davis as well as a Ph.D. Candidate in Biology from the University of New Mexico, I awaited my turn to rebut.

Silenced

But alas there never came my turn to rebut, to speak, nor to participate.  It seemed like the Chair was trying to blame us for their inability to balance the budget, like we were wasting their time.  Surprisingly, Senator Ulibarri questioned the validity of Tribal Resolutions and the Declarations given that they are over 3 years old.  I wanted to respond that the Declaration of Independence is over 200 years old but we don’t question it’s validity on the basis of time passed.  And so the FPA was tabled, killed, in the Conservation Committee on Valentines’ Day, exactly 4 years to the date that the first Seed Sovereignty Declaration was drafted.

Preparing for 2011

In the month of September 2010, Save NM Seeds hosted a strategy meeting to prepare for a presentation to the Rural and Economic Affairs Interim Committee held at NMSU on September 21, 2010.  Of the four presenters listed to present to the Committee, two were clearly supporters of industry, one was a patent lawyer, and the fourth a representative of Save NM Seeds.  I was not able to attend the meeting, however, it is comforting to know that this conversation is happening months in advance of the Legislative Session.  Hopefully capacity can be built to pass the FPA in 2011.  Of course this is an election year, which could change the Governor’s office to be a place of infertile ground for farmer protection and for many other issues.  Nevertheless, the momentum is building in NM.  The issues of GE in our food supply will not go away and will only grow more intense.  Every time I look, I find accounts of more people becoming aware of the potential impacts of GE on their health and environment.  In the wake of E. coli outbreaks and food recalls, the public is investing in the food system alternatives such as local food movements that can be seen in the growth of farmers’ markets across the country.

Taos Mountains on eastern horizon, as seen from Miguel's Sol Feliz Farm.

Truth

As the issues of food insecurity and seed sovereignty become more common place it will be more and more difficult for the GE industry to hide the truth of their business: maximize yields and convenience at the expense of nutritional quality and the environment, contaminate farmers and run them out of business, continue to depend on fossil fuels and exacerbate problems associated with climate change, contaminate the land and water with agriculture chemicals, and deter independent research into potential health and environmental effects while preventing the labeling of products that contain GE ingredients to be indicated as such.

Reflections

A person could easily become overwhelmed with this ‘David vs. Goliath’ scenario when it comes to changing the food system.  But I am reminded of what an elder once taught me when I said that I needed to be careful not to go crazy trying to solve the problems of the world.  It is better for your spiritual health to live the solution, he said, which is easy: gather the people and plant the fields.  In these days of runaway technology, we can easily forget that the instructions for survival are encoded in resilient seeds, the seeds and ways of ALL of our ancestors.  By reconnecting with the land, seeds, and our community, we can live an alternative solution while we prepare for the potential and likely collapse of the food system.  We can measure our ability to sustain by what we, as community, have in our agricultural toolboxes in terms of different crop types and our collective knowledge base of what is available as wild and natural foods in our watersheds while we get politically involved so our voice can be heard.

Looking Forward

Looking to the future, I reflect on the past:  The process of moving crops from the central latitudes to northern areas resulted in crops that are arguably the most adaptable in the world.  Not only that, but the context with which these crops are maintained today is representative of what is likely to be seen in the coming age of Climate Change: unpredictable weather.  If one looks at tree ring data from this region over the last 2000 years, there is nothing predictable about the climate.  Precipitation is all over the graph, from droughts to abundance.  Interestingly, even the “drought” of the 1950’s was relatively mild compared to what has been experienced in the more distant past.  It is laughable that people complain of “drought” or water shortage in our contemporary times, looking at tree ring data, we have more average precipitation in the last 50 or so years than we have had in the last 2000.  As problems of Climate Change mount for the greater populations around the globe, it will be beneficial to examine how Native Americans, Spanish, and Mexican settlers created a comprehensive agricultural system that addresses uncertainty and creates resilience, a system that relies on the cultural conservation of locally adapted seed.  Hopefully our efforts for food and seed sovereignty are successful and we will be able to share our knowledge and seed with others who will be hard pressed to figure it out.  This can only be true if we work together to honor the human right to save seed in the public domain and limit (eliminate) the corporate right to claim ownership of it while corrupting its genetic foundation.

The XXI Annual Headwaters Gathering

Moderator's Note: My followers may recall that I always post a blog entry on the annual Headwater's Gathering held every Fall since 1990 in the relatively remote mountain town of Gunnison, Colorado. I turn this responsibility over this year to my dear friend and fellow rabblerouser, Art Goodtimes, who authored this Headwaters' report for the Telluride Watch local rag. I plan to post my own take later this week, once I recover from a nasty chest cold.

Up Bear Creek

by Art Goodtimes

Gathering in Gunnison with Headwater elders, students & visiting presenters

Western State College played a great host to this year’s Headwaters Conference, thanks to the generous support of President Jay Helman and the able direction of Dr. John Hausdoerfer. In the Passing of the Gourd ritual on Sunday morning (an adaption of a pathway advocated by the late eco-guru Dolores LaChapelle), many heartfelt comments were made by students and whitehairs alike about the opportunity to learn and develop new skills to make communities resilient – the theme of the event.

Rarámuri anthropologist Dr. Enrique Salmón emphasized the importance of stories in maintaining sustainable indigenous foodways and biocultural diversity. He asked a very provocative question -- “What if Martin Luther King had told the assembled crowd before the Lincoln Memorial back in 1963, ‘I have a strategy’ instead of ‘I have a dream’” -- to demonstrate the power of story over more traditional Western methodologies such as analysis and planning.

The brilliant Hispanic environmental anthropologist Devon Peña of the University of Washington drew the distinction between indigenous complex societies and our own complicated but simplistic social structures, railing against the aggressive and predatory nature of capitalism. He called himself a Commons-ist, based on the long lot lines and acequia traditions of the San Luis Valley, where Peña has a home. 

He also criticized American society’s structural violence, as in cutting the land into grids of mathematic squares regardless of topography or our initial social tolerance of slavery and racism/sexism/ageism, and suggested that structural violence is what leads to physical violence like hate crimes, rape and smallpox blankets. 

Finally, Peña suggested that cultural continuity from indigenous (and in Colorado Hispanic) communities built up a huge toolbox of resilience in what he called a solidarity economy – “myriad, place-based forms of human cooperation and co-habitation with other living organisms.” 

Headwaters Bard Aaron Abeyta read a sad and yet hauntingly beautiful letter/poem about nuclear contamination of his Antonito homeland by outside corporate interests with his trademark moments of lyric beauty amid the profound disconnection of the prevailing culture from his rooted, place-based traditions.

Jerome Osentowski, founder and director of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in Basalt, as well as Broomfield’s New Leaf Gardens founder and Headwaters Anthem songster Alan Wartes showed what could be done to re-learn the skills of growing one’s own food, or at least a good portion of it, in rural or urban settings. And Western State’s student Food Ninjas walked that talk by feeding conference attendees locally grown and processed food from local providers.

Citizenship, naturalized exotics, immigration policy, Rose Tooke’s wonderful and simple explication of panarchy’s adaptive change cycle and biomimickry, climate chaos, cash-free bartering and exchange, the derivatives depression, Michael Taylor’s Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection, externalities, time-banking, the Siberian pea shrub, Brian Miller’s wife Dr. Lynn Sikkink excellent moderation, Dr. Jonathan Coop’s Institute for Applied Sustainability at Western State, Peggy Utesch’s oil & gas tales, scenes from Dr. Paul Edwards’ original play, Resilience, as performed by talented student actors, Dr. Maria Struble’s refugee studies, Rick Bass’ keynote address on his environmental activism in Montana, Word Horde poetry – it was a weekend of delight, insight and interactive discussion.

Headwaters founders George Silbley and Dr. Laura McCall joined me in honoring Headwaters elder Randy Russell in a Friday night memorial, as Russell passed away almost exactly a year before. Randy’s poem about the burning down of Gunnison’s legendary cowboy watering hole -- that Headwater attendees repaired to every evening for its first dozen years, to continue long, passionate and dizzyingly theoretical discussions late into the night -- is this week’s featured Gourd poem … Headwaters 21 was a full plate of intellectual stimulation spiced with poetry, song, theater, beer sessions and bracing walks. Quite delicious!

If you’ve never gone, you should mark your calendar next fall. 

THE TALKING GOURD

Ode to Cattleman’s

There will be no re-inhabitation of the Cattleman’s. No

smelling of the greasy grills, hearing the quiet sports TV,

arranging the tables for the yearly expropriation of space,

sweet talking the bar maids, negotiating the smoking section,

playing musical chairs, sharing stale pretzels and goldfish,

checking out the salad bar, and trying to remember

whether you are a Bull or a Heifer when confronted by

the bathroom doors, yet again. All the mundane things

that constituted the day’s last conference room, the

mighty Headwaters catch-up, talk-back, wrap-up sessions,

the stumbling into cold dark streets worrying about blood

alcohol levels. Our tradition crafted in that ungainly,

eclectic period piece of history -- firetrap it seems…

For as unlikely as it is, or that anyone would have

guessed, our tradition has outlived yours. And we are

now like startled minnows in a disturbed pond of night.

If we can’t re-inhabit you, we must now re-invent you.

Negotiate a sovereign space for ourselves for those

dark, cold November nights in Gunnison. Where the

smokers can smoke and the talkers can talk, and the

neophyte, newcomer, first-timer is embraced in our in-

formal communion, and the collective dances of our minds.

-Randy Russell

[1948-2009]

EEOC Issues Strong Final Rule Implementing GINA

Moderator's Note: While we do not cover the human genetics side of environmental justice as often as we should, we felt it important to bring this latest positive development to everyone's attention. I have known of and worked with the Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG) for close to two decades now. I can vouch for this source and state unequivocally that this is one of the sharpest NGOs comprised of scientists and social scientists working as public and environmental health advocates. This is an environmental justice issue because the frontiers of human genetics involve the uses (and possible abuses) of bioinformatics and the potential for discrimination remains high. Potential problems may also lay ahead for abuses through the corporate application of mass genotyping and toxicogenomics data bases, issues that are not fully addressed by GINA. This is a good start. Congratulations to our friends and colleagues at the CRG for this important accomplishment.

Rules Set for the Genetic Non-Discrimination Act

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE COUNCIL FOR RESPONSIBLE GENETICS

The Council for Responsible Genetics, a public interest organization, is hailing the Final Rule implementing the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) released today by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  

In its Final Rule, the EEOC lays out in detail strong protections against genetic discrimination and employer access to genetic information for every American worker. 

“Americans can finally take advantage of the tremendous potential of genetic research without the fear that their own genetic information will be used against them,” said CRG President Jeremy Gruber.  “This was a significant victory for the Council for Responsible Genetics, as virtually all our recommendations for reform were incorporated by the EEOC into the Final Rule.”   

The Council for Responsible Genetics played the lead role in advocating for a strong Final Rule implementing GINA.  CRG President Jeremy Gruber met multiple times with the EEOC Commissioners and formally testified before them.  He was the lead drafter of multiple sets of written comments in conjunction with the Genetic and Public Policy Center (referenced as GPPC in the Final Rule Supplementary Information), comments that were adopted by civil rights and patient’s groups, including among others the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Coalition for Genetic Fairness. 

“There is still so much to do to ensure that genetic privacy in this country is respected. Nevertheless, we are one step closer to our goal,” said CRG President Jeremy Gruber.

The Final Rule implementing GINA may be accessed in the Federal Register here.

Since 1983, the Council for Responsible Gene tics has represented the public interest and fostered public debate about the social, ethical and environmental implications of genetic technologies. CRG is a leader in the movement to steer biotechnology toward the advancement of public health, environmental protection, equal justice, and respect for human rights.

GEO Watch: Suicide Seeds

TERMINATOR TECHNOLOGY REMAINS ACTIVE THREAT

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. - La Via Campesina 

Seattle, WA. As I prepare for a trip to Colorado and a bit of seed exchanging with neighbors during a monthly meeting of the acequia association, I find myself contemplating the "Terminator." I am not referring to Arnold Schwarznegger's blockbuster films about killer cyborgs sent to the present day to slay the future leader of the human resistance in the aftermath of a pending machine take-over of the planet and destruction of civilization as we know it.

Terminator technology is a longstanding interest of the commercial agricultural biotechnology industry and is a logical extension of its penchant for controlling the ownership of seeds. If patents fail to protect corporate biopiracy, then may as well invent a genetic use restriction technology (GURT) that makes seeds sterile and of no value to seed keeper or plant breeder. Think digital rights management technology on newer music CDs or movie DVDs that keeps the listener from making copies, except in this case the restrictions are on the reproductive functions of life itself.

These efforts date back to the late-1990s when the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the USDA and a private corporation then known as Delta and Pine Land Company first developed and patented a transgenic technology that off-switches the gene expressions for reproduction of the plant; they neutralize the reproductive viability of the seed.

The implications posed by the eventual but certain introgression of GURT transgenic sequences into the genomes of nonGEO plants and their wild relatives are serious. Interference with natural reproductive processes is unwise because these are so closely related to the ability for farmers to follow in situ conservation practices that are essential to any continued place-based (rather than universalized) co-evolution of plants and humans. There is of course the pesky matter of the environmental and agroecological consequences and these concerns point to an area in which we still lack much of a predictive ecology.  We already know that introgression occurs and that transgenic sequences are found in native land races and other affected organisms.

The ETC Group has followed Terminator developments for more than a decade. On March 3, 1998, the Group reported that Delta and Pine Land Co. (incorporated in Mississippi, USA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had received US Patent No. 5,723,765 for a new genetic technology "designed to prevent unauthorized seed saving by farmers."

Monsanto had previously pledged not to deploy or commercialize GURT, but then turned around and acquired Delta and Pine Land in 2006. At the time, Via Campesina, an organization representing more than 10 million peasant farmers worldwide, issued this statement:“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.”

Semillas de muerte

There is little doubt we will soon face the return of efforts to market and commercialize Terminator technology. Monsanto seems posed to once again create another round of conflict and diatribe surrounding GURT. We need to inform ourselves of the more than frightening implications that lay at the end of the reproduction of life in all its chaotic forms and absent techno-anthropogenic manias.

The Terminator technology was the focus of a heated discussion during the 8th Conference of the Parties to the UN's Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in March 2006 when Monsanto was prompted to restate its "No Terminator" pledge. The current iteration of Mosanto's position on GURT is an exercise in discursive sleight-of-hand.

The statement ends with this disclaimer:

If Monsanto should decide to move forward in the area of GURTs, we would do so in consultation with experts and stakeholders, including NGOs. Our commitment to protecting smallholder farmers and our promise not to commercialize sterile seed technology will carry forward with these developments, should they occur.

This was 2006. What is Monsanto up to now? "Should decide" leaves open the possibility that the corporation will decide to go forward at some point in the future. Some will fret over the experts that consult with Monsanto. Others will complain about the so-called stakeholders including NGOs. Others are already asking: What about indigenous people?

Monsanto presumes to already have a "commitment to protecting smallholder farmers," but its record of attacks on mid-sized farmers like Percy Schmeiser do not bode well for the run-of-the mill [sic] smallholder working on 10 to 100 acres. Indigenous people cannot count on that as a genuine sentiment, to put it nicely.

How much respect can small subsistence farmers really expect from Monsanto as it pursues the next generation of Terminator technology? Actually, this should not even be considered a consultative matter. There are no circumstances under which any sane farmer, seed saver, plant breeder, agroecologist, or geneticist will accept release of Terminator genes into the environment. This would be akin to global non-consent on an ad hoc experiment in anthropogenic evolutionary biology for the sake of some corporate market share.

This is more a matter of the autonomy of farmers across the world and the ecological protection of our planet's ever-unfolding evolutionary biology -- Nature writes its own story and does not need human code writers to impose their high risk reductionist models on every living organism. The gene stops here.

It is widely believed that the principal aim in the development of Terminator technology is to prevent farmers from saving seed, forcing them to purchase new seed stock from the biotech merchants every year.

However, the latest reason, according to the ETC Group's report cited above, is that gene flow (introgression) from GEO to nonGEO plants is the "Achilles Heel" of the transgenics market. For example, Aventis sold its transgenic lines to Bayer, which now owns the controversial Starlink transgenic corn patent. Aventis and Bayer have had to spend close to $600 million conducting hapless research addressing the enigma of gene flow. These annoying regulatory expenditures obviously cut into corporate profit margins. Some in the industry even believe that unless the gene flow problem is resolved - perhaps by suspending the self-imposed ban on Terminator product lines -  then the future of agricultural transgenics is not altogether that bright.

Gene heroes to the rescue: ending the threat of gene drift? Product and marketing innovation at Monsanto, Aventis, Bayer, and other transnational firms proceed unabated. The principal new rationale for the use of GURT is not to protect the biopirates from seed thieves [sic] but to save the planet!

"Save The Planet!" is Monsanto's new self-declared duty and obligation.  GURT is being re-branded and re-packaged and is almost ready for re-introduction in its latest iteration for the coming round of public debate and expert scientific battles. The Terminator is now being promoted as a method to contain gene flow between GEO and nonGEO plants. See? The corporations are only trying to protect small farmers from their nasty little bio-engineered monsters; But they will have to use other nasty little bio-engineered monsters to do so. Is it just me, or does any one else see a problem with this ill logic?

It seems almost inconceivable that the biotech overlords would propose solving the riddle of the gene flow problem with an even more problematic technological fix [sic] - a monster cleaved unto another monster to choke it to death. With the future profits of this industry at stake, it seems civil society and NGO communities had best be ready for the eventuality that Monsanto or some other corporate titan will seek to commercialize and market Terminator technology.

Being watchful and alert has never seemed more important. We must guard against any and all efforts to release GURT into the environment. Stay with us for future updates as we continue to monitor developments in the endless Terminator sequels.