Canada has granted a patent on the controversial terminator technology to an American biotech firm.
Delta and Pine Land Co. and the United States Department of Agriculture received a patent on Oct. 11 for their Technology Protection System, which restricts transgenic movement in GM crops.
The built-in biosafety device virtually eliminates cross-pollination and the volunteer problem that has plagued the biotech industry for years. But some farm groups and environmentalists say there is an ulterior motive behind the scientific advancement.
“Corporate control of seeds is the only goal of terminator,” said Greenpeace Canada campaigner Eric Darier.
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Terminator seeds are engineered to be sterile after the first harvest, so the seed cannot be saved and reused by farmers the following season.
“This is an outrageous strategy to commercialize a dangerous anti-farmer and non-ecological technology,” said Darier.
Harry Collins, vice-president of technology transfer with Delta and Pine, the 11th largest seed company in the world, said the protection system will benefit growers around the world by leading to improved varieties.
“The objective of farming is not necessarily to save seed. The objective is to produce a good crop.”
The company’s Technology Protection System, which received its first patent in the United States in 1998, could help achieve that goal by restoring profitability to varietal development.
There has been a global trend toward less public funding for breeding programs and private companies are reluctant to pour money into new crop lines if they lose control of the seed after it has been sold once.
By ensuring seed developers won’t lose revenue through the practice of farm-saved seed, the patented sterility technology could provide breeders with renewed incentive to create beneficial new crops.
Those crops will generate enough extra revenue that growers will be able to afford a modest fee for their annual seed purchases, said Collins.
Denise Dewar, executive director of plant biotechnology at Crop- Life Canada, said she finds all the uproar about terminator technology a little over the top considering farmers are already growing crops containing similar traits.
Many corn, sorghum, sunflower and canola varieties grown around the world are hybrids. Hybrid seed by nature is not well suited to being saved and replanted the following year.
“This type of technology has been around for a long time,” she said.
Growers have been planting hybrid corn since the 1930s, lured by the impressive yields it has delivered.
“They feel there has been a bigger advantage to hybrid corn than a disadvantage,” said Dewar.
National Farmers Union vice-president Terry Boehm said there is a fundamental difference between hybrids and what Delta and Pine is attempting to commercialize.
“(Terminator) is really an affront to nature. Every living being, human or otherwise, reproduces. Plants reproduce and that is what the foundation of agriculture and life are built on,” he said.
Boehm is calling on the government of Canada to follow the lead of India and Brazil by banning the use of the terminator technology in crops.
Collins said there is no need for a government ban when growers like Boehm are under no obligation to purchase seed containing the terminator trait.
