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Terminator seeds already law??
  -  ----- Original Message -----


From: Sandra Finley
To: sabest1@sasktel.net
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 7:57 AM
Subject: Terminator Technology will not solve the problem it is intended to address de


A warm embrace to many recent new-comers to our network, from all of us!

And many, many thanks for the insights and input others of you have
provided. It is woven into the information base and gave me the conviction
to, as Zeb recommended, "use the phone more"!

UPDATE:

Monday, March 14 I talked by telephone with Bob McLean, head of the Canadian
delegation to the United Nations meetings on Terminator Technology in Brazil
that start next week (March 20).

We had a good talk. I won't go into the arguments I presented in the
conversation and the counter-arguments.

I did not say, but I understand that there is only so much that can be done
by one person in the system. Bob can do his work to the best of his
ability, but we have to do our part, if there is to be a satisfactory
outcome on Terminator Technology - herbicide-tolerant seeds with another
design feature added: they're now sterile, too. (This is the path our food
supply is taking.)

This morning I sent the letter below to ALL the parties who have played a
role in terminator technology, for the purpose of bringing them together in
effective problem-solving. The letter places terminator technology in
context. When you understand what has happened, you better understand
"their" perceived need to proceed with terminator technology, and you can
see that "they" think they are acting in our best interests. That has to be
unveiled. Terminator is not in the public interest. The problem is the
development of herbicide-tolerant seeds. If we stop the development of
those seeds, there is no need for terminator technology and whatever
ghoulish inventions will be necessary to deal with the unforeseen problems
created by it.

Hopefully the letter and attachment will provide newcomers with enough
background to understand what is going on. Terminator Technology, if
allowed to proceed, will further entrench governance that serves
transnational corporate interests. There are severe implications for our
health (the food supply) and for the environment.

In my mind, the best people to lobby are:
(the complete list of people I sent information to is at bottom. You may
wish to pick up others from that list.)

(1) Chuck Strahl, Minister Responsible for Dept Agriculture
New Westminster, BC
(604) 792-3311; riding@chuckstrahl.com;
(613) 992-2940; ottawa@chuckstrahl.com;

(2) Parliamentary Secretary to Chuck Strahl
David L. Anderson, from Frontier, Saskatchewan
Cypress Hills - Grasslands
613) 992-0657; (306) 778-4480; anderda@parl.gc.ca;
david.anderson1@sasktel.net;

(3) Leonard Edwards, Deputy Minister Agriculture
edwardslj@agr.gc.ca; (613) 759-1101

(4) Rona Ambrose
Minister Responsible for Dept Environment
Edmonton-Spruce Grove (Alberta)
(819) 997-1441; Rona.Ambrose@ec.gc.ca;

(5) Mark Warawa
Parliamentary Secretary, Environment
Langley, BC
tel: 604-534-5955; markwarawa@shaw.ca;

(6) Your own Member of Parliament
Click on http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
to obtain contact information.
A phone call is best, email second best.

Effective messages are short (unlike mine!). Something like:

"Terminator Technology is taking us further down a wrong pathway. Please
support the United Nations Moratorium on terminator technology. And remove
all licensing for these seeds in Canada. Herbicide-tolerant seeds are the
problem to be addressed. The licensing of these seeds needs to be stopped."

Your participation brings no results if I don't join my hand to yours. My
letter will bear no fruit, if others don't join their hand to mine.
Together we are powerful.

Cheers!
Sandra
======================================
LETTER SENT: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 AM:
---------

SENT TO:
list at bottom

PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION:
To connect people who have responsibilities for terminator technology for
the purpose of problem-solving.

The office of Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture is the most obvious
candidate to co-ordinate the problem-solving.


Dear All,

(1) I understand that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Dept of
Agriculture, has already licensed terminator seeds.

Request: François Guimont (613 225-2342), President of the CFIA,
responsible for the licensing of crops: will you please confirm this with
me?

-------

(2) RE: Government of Canada negotiating Terminator Technology
UN Meetings start next week, March 20, Brazil
(Bob McLean, Dept of Environment, is
Head of the Canadian Delegation)


INPUT TO PARTIES:

Terminator Technology was a response, the wrong response, to a mistake made
by credentialed, influential authorities and the Governments - public
investment in herbicide tolerant crops. The chemical/pharmaceutical/biotech
corporations are also paying dearly as angry farmers demand they come and
pull the plants (weeds) that are resistant to chemicals, out of their
fields. The public is screaming.

Rather than admit the mistake and back out, another gene manipulation is
being
made to try and correct the problem: the seeds designed to be tolerant of
chemical applications now also carry a "suicide" trait.

The re-design is supposed to correct the earlier design which quickly spread
and became a pollutant that is very costly to control - not to mention that
citizens are not anxious to have a food supply developed according to the
criteria that it be resistant to chemicals (and now it has also to be
sterile). ... Our Governments and Universities invested in the development
of herbicide-tolerant seeds. They're in a hole; instead of climbing out,
they are digging in deeper (We have a Problem? ... well then, we'll make
the seeds sterile! Ha! Aren't we brilliant!).

"Correct" responses address the actual problem. Inappropriate responses to
problems are band-aids that temporarily cover over the problem. Under the
band-aid, the wound festers and grows larger.

Terminator Technology is a wrong response to the pollution caused by
herbicide-tolerant crops:

- It will not arrest the development and licensing of seeds designed to be
tolerant of herbicide applications. Alfalfa, grasses, lentils, wheat,
canola ... the list of herbicide-tolerant plants developed, licensed, in use
and waiting to be introduced is long.

- Nor does Terminator Technology address the problem that due to
partnerships between the corporations, the Government, and the Universities,
we are totally without effective regulation (protection of the commons).
Seeds are a vital part of the commons, to be carefully guarded and protected
to serve the public interest. With seed development, we have completely
lost that function in the Canadian democracy. The Government is a
collaborator in serving corporate interests, to the detriment of the public
interest.

And then there are the fish (Canadian) that have had growth genes from other
species inserted into them, and the pigs (American) with growth genes from
human beings. The fish grow to 6 times the size of normal fish within a
year's time. Government regulation? Aaah! but these fish, too, are
designed to be sterile. "Life Running Out of Control" by German
documentary-maker Bertram Verhaag, who I met while he was in Saskatchewan
collecting the footage on our experience with gene-altered canola, is an
excellent source of information - I recommend it to you. I myself, might
have titled the documentary "Man playing God".

This is our food supply, guys. And always it comes back to the fundamental
question: in whose interests?

The industry propaganda extols the virtues of seeds that are resistant to
chemicals. And now the virtue of chemical-resistant, sterile seeds. The
irrefutable evidence is that herbicide-tolerant seeds lead to higher levels
of chemical use. A simple person can figure it out: more and more plants
are resistant to glyphosate (roundup). You can kill off unwanted plants
with an application of glyphosate, but there has to be a follow-up
application of 2,4-D to kill the resistant plants. Is terminator technology
the solution?

Terminator Technology is a classic example of the functioning of dynamic
systems. You have a system that is out-of-balance (use herbicide-tolerant
canola to illustrate). In order to bring canola back to equilibrium, as
with any dynamic system, you have to:
a. respond to the feedback that something is wrong by taking the
APPROPRIATE corrective action to bring the system back to equilibrium, and
b. do it "in time".

If you fail on either account, the system falls into further disintegration
and eventual collapse. The classic case used to illustrate this by Jane
Jacobs is the Atlantic cod fishery: the feedback was declining catches.
The response was more money which both maintained and attracted more people
to the fishery, which allowed bigger vessels that could go further to sea.
It was the wrong response to the feedback; the cod fishery collapsed, with
severe repercussions. The last time I checked, a number of years ago, the
collapse was permanent. That is characteristic of dynamic systems: once
they go past a certain level of disintegration, they are not retrievable.

Seeds are the basis of our food supply. First the seeds were engineered so
they can be sprayed with chemicals and survive. Now those seeds have
another modification to make them sterile. Meanwhile the production of
herbicide-tolerant plants moves forward - more and more of them are released
into the environment. The base problem is not addressed. And in whose
interests?

Much of the nutrient value is in the germ of a seed; sterile seeds mean
what?

People buy wheat germ to add to their breakfast cereal to compensate for
nutrients removed in the milling process (cereal typically has the wheat
germ removed to increase the shelf life of the product. The "germ" of the
seed will go rancid if not refrigerated.)

What has happened to the germ of the seed, if the seed is sterile? The
health of the population is dependent upon the quality of the available
foods.

Do sterile seeds produce pollen?

The problem with answering the question is that most of the research has
transnational corporate interest behind it. They expected people to believe
the silly things about herbicide tolerant seeds (they can "co-exist" in
nature). Such lies have been held forth until they became untenable in an
informed and guffawing public. Public trust in "the science" and the
reassurances have been completely
undermined. ... The corporations and their collaborators....

I ask you to put your heads together. Back out of the hole. Terminator
Technology will not correct the actual problems because in no way does it
address the problems. We are on the wrong path. Your reputations will be
saved if you have the courage to acknowledge and address the problem. I
challenge you to find the APPROPRIATE response in a TIMELY fashion.

Many of you have inherited the dilemma from your predecessors. You don't
have face to save. You are in a position to assert the public interest.

The CFIA, Department of Agriculture should withdraw all licensing of seeds
that have been designed to be resistant to chemical applications and all
seeds that have built-in Terminator Technology, also known as
- Technology Protection System (TPS)
- "Suicide seeds"
- genetic seed sterilisation technology (GSST)
- GURTS, Genetic Use Restriction Technologies.

That will address the root of the problem. Also, the Patent Act needs to be
updated. It applies to mechanical devices. It was never intended for
application to life forms. To subscribe to the idea that a person or a
corporation can legitimately claim ownership over life forms is nuts.

----------

The United Nations negotiations on Terminator Technology are through
- the Department of the Environment.

But the people and institutions behind terminator technology are
- the Departments of Agriculture and
- Health,
- the universities where the biotechnology research is being carried out
through partnerships between the Government, the Universities and
- the corrupt chemical/pharmaceutical/biotech complex of companies.

(I have a long list from the public record of the court convictions, etc.
against these corporations if people question the choice of words,
"corrupt".)

I am sending this communication to many of the people/institutions that have
played a role along the path that led to terminator technology. (recipients
are listed below.) We all share responsibility for arriving at this place.

It is unfair to target the Department of Environment over Terminator
Technology. It is a shared responsibility. May we all do our part. This
is mine.

Thanks.

Sandra Finley

------------

TO:
Bob McLean
Dept of Environment
Head of the Canadian Delegation
negotiating Terminator Technology
UN Meetings next week, start March 20, Brazil
(819) 997-1303; Robert.Mclean@ec.gc.ca;
(Bob was also head of delegation at the Bangkok round of negotiations)

John Karau
Dept of Environment
(John was head at the round of negotiations in Spain.)
Biodiversity Convention office
john.karau@ec.gc.ca; Phone 819-953-9669

Rona Ambrose
Minister Responsible for Dept Environment
Edmonton-Spruce Grove (Alberta)
(819) 997-1441; Rona.Ambrose@ec.gc.ca;

Deputy Minister, Dept Environment
(Justice Gomery recommended that deputy ministers bear more responsibility
for their actions. Hence their inclusion in this communication.)

Mark Warawa
Parliamentary Secretary, Environment
Langley, BC
tel: 604-534-5955; markwarawa@shaw.ca;

-------

NOTE: I have asked the University of Saskatchewan to re-visit its
partnerships with corporations, because of the corruption they create. My
case is well documented, from external sources and from personal experience.
My submission to the Board of Governors is attached.

---------------------

University of Saskatchewan
Board of Governors
c/o Lea Pennock, University Secretary
Lea.Pennock@usask.ca; alex.hockley@usask.ca;

Ernie Barber, Dean of Agriculture, U of S
ernie.barber@usask.ca;

François Guimont (613 225-2342)
President of the CFIA, (Cdn Food Inspection Agency) responsible for the
licensing of crops that are the basis of our food supply. The CFIA is part
of Agriculture Canada.
Sent from website,
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/bio/subs/2005/20051108e.shtml
guimontf@inspection.gc.ca;

Stephen Yarrow, director of CFIA's plant bio-safety office
syarrow@inspection.gc.ca;

Chuck Strahl, Minister Responsible for Dept Agriculture
New Westminster, BC
(604) 792-3311; riding@chuckstrahl.com;
(613) 992-2940; ottawa@chuckstrahl.com;

Parliamentary Secretary to Chuck Strahl
David L. Anderson, from Frontier, Saskatchewan
Cypress Hills - Grasslands
613) 992-0657; (306) 778-4480; anderda@parl.gc.ca;
david.anderson1@sasktel.net;

Leonard Edwards, Deputy Minister Agriculture
edwardslj@agr.gc.ca; (613) 759-1101

the United Nations moratorium on Terminator
c/o Dr. Tewolde (Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, Ethiopia)
African biosafety negotiator
esid@ethionet.et;

Dr. Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the CBD
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
secretariat@biodiv.org;

My Member of Parliament
(The University of Saskatchewan is also in his riding)
Brad Trost
Saskatoon Humboldt
Saskatoon Constituency Office: (306) 975-6133
The Hill email address: trostb@parl.gc.ca;
Local email address: brad.trost@sasktel.net;

-----------------------
UN Meeting in Brazil (20-31 March 2006) on Terminator Technology. This
matter requires prompt attention.

Best wishes,
Sandra Finley
===================
FROM:
Sandra Finley
Saskatoon, SK S7N 0L1
306-373-8078
sabest1@sasktel.net




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