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STOP GE SEEDS
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Subject
Letter
I am writing to you about something Urgent, please respond promptly. It is of great concern to me to learn that New Zealand is trying to enable the use of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies, such as Terminator. These technologies, which result in seeds grown by farmers being sterile and therefore useless for replanting to grow next year's crops, are aimed at concentrating control of the world food supply in the hands of a few multinational companies such as Monsanto. This will result in seed supply being used as a political tool to coerce countries to fall into line with the wishes of those countries where the seed supply companies are based. Use of Terminator and the other seed sterility technologies will threaten the food security of more than a billion people who depend on the ability to save and replant the seeds they have grown themselves. This is inconsistent with New Zealand's desire to encourage sustainable development, ensure food security, and to eradicate poverty. New Zealand's case-by-case approach to genetic engineering is based on a biosecurity perspective. However, the over-riding considerations concerning Terminator and other seed sterility technologies are ethical. There are no cases when it is ethical to deprive people of the ability to feed themselves through growing their own crops from seeds they have grown themselves the previous year. You may be aware that the companies promoting Genetic Use Restriction Technologies are saying that they are a way to prevent contamination of non-GE crops by GE ones (remember when they were saying that contamination would not occur?). However, this is not the case because the technology does not seem able to make every seed sterile and, furthermore, it would not prevent pollen from the Terminator crops from pollinating non-GE crops and perhaps making them sterile. I urge you to use your influence to ensure that New Zealand supports a continued moratorium on the use of Terminator and other such technologies aimed at causing seed to be sterile. The opportunity for doing this is at the forthcoming meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, being held in Curitiba, Brazil from 13-31 March. Please reply and tell me your personal stance on this issue, your party's policy on sterile seed technology and what role and responsibility your ministerial position has in determining the NZ delegation's stance as presented at the upcoming International meeting on the Convention on Biological Diversity. Thank you. Sincerely,
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