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COP8 Day 4 High Stakes are Clear as Terminator "Negotiations" Begin

Enviado por Jim Thomas el

COP8 Day 4 High Stakes are Clear as Terminator "Negotiations" Begin
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by Lucy Sharratt

Discussions on Terminator at the UN COP started this afternoon - actually they started this morning as governments kept intervening to make statements on Terminator, even though the discussions were on another agenda item.

With a Chair who demonstrated great understanding and facilitation skills yesterday when he recognized and thanked the Via Campesina for thier protest in the negotiation hall, Indigenous Peoples were given time to fully express their stance on Terminator.

Women of Via Campesina protest terminator inside the COP8 meeting

Enviado por Jim Thomas el

Women of Via Campesina protest terminator inside the COP8 meeting
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A group of approximately 40 women from the Via Campesina movement - mostly from across the Americas - staged a dignified protest against Terminator on the floor of the negotiations at COP 8 today. They received applause from delegates and the Chair of the meeting recognized their protest and remarked that it was "a heartfelt protest that many of us feel sympathy with.. This reminds us that we are citizens of the world not just of countries". He said the protest will help the discussion on GURTS later in the day.

COP8 -Day 3 22nd March 2006 - Terminator Item looms..

Enviado por Jim Thomas el

COP8 -Day 3 22nd March 2006 - Terminator Item looms..
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So today is the day that Terminator is expected to come up in the Working Group and expectation and rumour is running high. Over 150 people are wandering around the conference room wearing distinctive white T-shirts which declare that suicide seeds are homicide seeds , there are posters and stickers, flags and placards - the front page of the Eco - the daily new service here - reminds Canada, New Zealand and Australia that 'The world is watching'. Governments are firming up their positions, issuing advance statements. We too are giving press conferences and interviews

Ban Terminator Campaign -- Terminator Seed Battle Begins

Enviado por ETC Staff el

Farmers Face Billions of Dollars in Potential Costs

Curitiba, Brazil. After a week that has seen a worldwide mobilisation against Terminator technology, the issue of Suicide Seeds is about to hit the negotiating floor of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Curitiba, Brazil (March 2006). Known to the CBD as GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), Terminator crops are genetically modified to create sterile seeds at harvest so that farmers must buy new seed every season. Today (22.03.2006) the Ban Terminator Campaign, a global coalition of over 500 organisations, released new financial calculations indicating that Terminator seeds will impose a burden of billions of extra dollars in seed costs on some of the world's poorest nations.

Cop 8 Day 2 -Tuesday 21st March - the World says No to Terminator..

Enviado por Jim Thomas el

Cop 8 Day 2 -Tuesday 21st March - the World says No to Terminator..
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As buses of delegates arrived this morning for day 2 of COP8 they were met by hundreds of protesting (and dancing) farmers, peasants, Indigenous People's and NGO's twirling flags, giving speeches, chanting and rallying against Terminator Technology - many of them organised through Via Campesina - the global movement of peasants. Banners with images of coffins proclaimed that "Case by Case = Coffin by Coffin' and that 'Suicide Seeds are Homicide Seeds" .

COP8 Day 1 - Monday March 20th - And so it begins...

Enviado por Jim Thomas el

COP8 Day 1 - Monday March 20th - And so it begins...
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The Eighth Conference Of the Parties (COP8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity opened today, here in Curitiba Brazil, with an indigenous ceremony to Mother Earth, tupthumping speeches and around 3000 delegates frenetically pacing the corridors jostling and negotiating.

Monsanto Apologizes

Enviado por ETC Staff el

A 21 February 2006 news release from the Ban Terminator Campaign reported on Monsanto's revised pledge on Terminator. Whereas the company made a public commitment in 1999 not to use Terminator technology, its new pledge suggests that it would use Terminator seeds in non-food crops and does not rule out other uses in the future. Now Monsanto's Director of Public Policy has written an apology to the Ban Terminator Campaign and concedes that it didn't really mean it would consider using Terminator in non-food crops.

Monsanto May Commercialize Terminator

Enviado por ETC Staff el

Biotech Giant Revises Pledge on Sterile Seed Technology as Global Alliance Calls for a Ban

Monsanto, the world's largest seed and agbiotech company, made a public promise in 1999 not to commercialize 'Terminator Technology' - plants that are genetically engineered to produce sterile seeds. Now (February 2006) Monsanto says it may develop or use the so-called 'suicide seeds' after all. The revised pledge from Monsanto now suggests that it would use Terminator seeds in non-food crops and does not rule out other uses of Terminator in the future. Monsanto's modified stance comes to light as the biotech and seed industry confront peasant and farmer movements, Indigenous peoples and their allies in an escalating battle at the United Nations over the future of Terminator.

Nano Risk Governance

Enviado por Kathy Jo Wetter el

Nano Risk Governance
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While some ETC Group staff were in Caracas strategizing with partners to strengthen the global opposition to Terminator, others of us were subjected to the slog of the CBD meeting in Granada. And one of us was spending a few days with unlimited access to free chocolate at Swiss Re's opulent Centre for Global Dialogue near Zurich. Swiss Re, the world's largest re-insurer (an insurer of insurance companies) is concerned - no surprise - about those risks associated with nanotechnology that may result in financial losses for the company.

Prácticamente anulada, la moratoria sobre Terminator

Enviado por ETC Staff el

Camino libre para su aprobación en la ONU. Los opositores a las semillas suicidas se preparan para la batalla en la COP 8 en Curitiba, Brasil.

Los pueblos indígenas fueron traicionados y se hizo trampa a los derechos de los agricultores en la reunión de Naciones Unidas las últimas dos semanas, cuando los gobiernos de Australia, Nueva Zelanda y Canadá -siguiendo indicaciones de Estados Unidos y de una docena de Gigantes Genéticos corporativos- dieron un paso muy importante para terminar con la actual moratoria sobre la tecnología Terminator (plantas modificadas genéticamente para producir semillas estériles). Las nocivas recomendaciones que resultaron de la reunión de Granada, España, irán a la 8ava reunión bianual del Convenio de Diversidad Biológica (CDB) de la ONU en Curitiba, Brasil, del 20 al 31 de marzo de 2006.

X prize-ing open the genome for $$$

Enviado por Jim Thomas el

X prize-ing open the genome for $$$
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Not content with heading for the stars, the corporate sponsored X-Foundation that awards the X-prize has now set a bounty for commericalising the neXt frontier - the human genome. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal the X-foundation will award a new X-prize of between $5-$20 million to the first inventor of a gene sequencer that can decode the DNA of 100 people in a matter of weeks. behind it is craig venter, the genomics mogul.

Nuevos confinamientos

Las corporaciones están desarrollando una variedad de mecanismos nuevos para asegurar el control monopólico de la biotecnología y otras tecnologías emergentes. Estos nuevos mecanismos —los que el Grupo ETC llama “nuevos confinamientos” complementarán o incluso remplazarán la propiedad intelectual como medio para fortalecer el dominio de las corporaciones sobre las nuevas tecnologías.

Granada's Grim Sowers Plow Up Moratorium on Terminator, Clear the Path for its Approval at UN

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Terminator Opponents Prepare for Battle at COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil March 20-31, 2006

Indigenous peoples were betrayed and Farmers' Rights trampled at a UN meeting this week (March 2006) when the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments - guided by the US government and a brazen cabal of corporate Gene Giants - took a major step to undermine the existing moratorium on Terminator technology (i.e., plants that are genetically modified to produce sterile seeds at harvest). The damaging recommendations from the meeting in Granada, Spain, now go to the upcoming 8th biennial meeting of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20-31, 2006.

Cresce a Ameaça do Terminator: Encontro intergovernamental para atacar o problema das sementes suicidas

Enviado por ETC Staff el

Os povos indígenas, as organizações de agricultores e os representantes da sociedade civil estão se unindo para defender uma moratória de fato das Nações Unidas sobre a tecnologia de esterilização de sementes - a moratória está atualmente sob ataque da indústria multinacional de semente e biotecnologia. Uma reunião da Comissão sobre Diversidade Biológica, onde as "sementes suicidadas" estão na agenda, acontecerá na Espanha na próxima semana. A moratória das Nações Unidas - a qual tem recomendação contra os testes a campo e a venda comercial da tecnologia de esterilização de sementes - está sob ataque. A Delta & Pine Land (uma companhia multinacional de sementes) e o Departamento de Agricultura dos Estados Unidos recentemente obtiveram novas patentes sobre o Terminator na Europa e no Canadá.

Support the campaign to BAN TERMINATOR!

Enviado por ETC Staff el

Please join the international campaign to BAN TERMINATOR. Terminator refers to plants that are genetically modified to render sterile seeds at harvest. Terminator technology was developed by the multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the United States government to prevent farmers from saving and re-planting harvested seed. (More background information on Terminator)

Temas relacionados: 
Terminator y Nuevos confinamientos

Biodiversidad y recursos genéticos

La diversidad biológica se refiere a todos los organismos vivos, su material genético y los ecosistemas de los que son parte. Usualmente se describe en tres niveles: genético, de especie y de la diversidad del ecosistema. La diversidad genética es la variación de los genes entre especies y dentro de ellas. La diversidad genética dentro de las especies les permite resistir a nuevas plagas y enfermedades y adaptarse a los cambios en el ambiente, el clima y los métodos agrícolas.

Terminator Technology Debated

Enviado por Charlie el

Terminator Technology Debated
Inglés

Two of us from ETC are in Granada, Spain following the Working Group on 8j the CBD body that has the mandate to recognize and protect the traditional knowledge, innovation and practices of indigenous peoples. By the end of the week, the Working Group on 8(j) will make recommendations to COP8 (Curitiba, Brazil, March) on the social and economic impacts of Terminator. Heres a brief round-up of government interventions (just the highlights) in yesterdays working group.

Terminator ataca de nuevo! Encuentro gubernamental para abordar el tema de las semillas suicidas

Enviado por ETC Staff el

8º Encuentro del Grupo de Trabajo sobre CDB en Granada, España, del 23 al 27 de enero 2006

Representantes de pueblos indígenas, de organizaciones campesinas y de la sociedad civil luchan para conseguir mantener la moratoria de facto de las Naciones Unidas sobre la tecnología de esterilización de semillas. Actualmente la industria multinacional de semillas y biotecnología ataca agresivamente para terminarla. Esta semana (2006), se pone en marcha en España un encuentro de la Convención sobre Diversidad Biológica, en el que las "semillas suicidas" están en la agenda. Esta moratoria de Naciones Unidas -que alerta contra los experimentos en campo y la venta de tecnología de esterilización de semillas -está en peligro. Delta & Pine Land (una compañía multinacional de semillas) y el Departamento de Agricultura de EEUU recientemente consiguieron nuevas patentes de Terminator en Europa y Canada.

¿Qué pasó con la patente del frijol Enola?

Enviado por ETC Staff el

El caso del frijol Enola demuestra que las apelaciones legales en cuestiones de propiedad intelectual no son un medio viable para "corregir" los abusos que se cometen en el sistema de patentes. Hace cinco años el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical elaboró una apelación legal en contra de la infame patente sobre el frijol Enola en la Oficina de Patentes y Marcas Registradas de Estados Unidos (US-PTO) en Washington.

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