This should be of interest to US health promoters and anyone interested in
the effects of technology on food access.  Monsanto is currently
developing, and seeking to patent, seed containing a plant gene that would
ensure that the seeds produced from crops would be sterile. That means that
farmers would no longer be able to store the seed from one crop for the
following year, but will be obliged to buy new seed (from guess who?) every
year. For third world farmers (where sales are to be targetted) this could
be disastrous. If the gene gets into wild plants it could be an ecological
catastrophe!
Check out the website below for further info.
David Burman

>X-BlackMail: [log in to unmask], dijkstra.uwaterloo.ca,
[log in to unmask], 129.97.54.123
>X-Authenticated-Timestamp: 15:57:43(EDT) on September 30, 1998
>Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 15:00:29 -0400
>From: Steve Kurtz <[log in to unmask]>
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en] (Win95; U)
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: email campaign re: seed-sterilizing technology
>Sender: [log in to unmask]
>
>Date:  Tue, 29 Sep 1998 16:12:38 -0800
>From: [log in to unmask]
>To: Multiple recipients of <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:  Terminator: RAFI Launches Mail Campaign
>
>--------------------------------------
>       Help Stop the Terminator
>Jump to: http://www.rafi.org/usda.html
>--------------------------------------
>
>Monsanto in Closed Negotiations with the US Department of Agriculture to
>Finalize Control of Terminator Technology
>
>        --------------------------------------------------------
>        Monsanto is moving swiftly to finalize its control over
>        the Terminator technology.  The company may extract an
>        exclusive license from the US Department of Agriculture
>        (USDA) within weeks.   RAFI is initiating an urgent
>        internet-based international campaign to stop the USDA -
>        Monsanto negotiations before it's too late.  A special
>        WWW page has been set up at http://www.rafi.org/usda.html
>        to enable anyone with internet access to send a customized
>        message to the USDA asking it to cease negotiations and
>        bury this anti-farmer, anti-biodiversity technology.
>        ----------------------------------------------------------

>