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At UN, Sachs Defends Monsanto and Terminator Seeds, Praises Pharmaceutical Industry and Patents

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- Monsanto, the subject of protests throughout India and much of the developing world for its use of so-called death or single-use seeds, has a defender it emerges in the UN system, Jeffrey Sachs. Following a June 20 talk extolling the virtual of genetically modified food, Sachs was asked by Inner City Press about a counter-example, that of Monsanto and its death seeds, which are sterile so that farmers have to continue buying from Monsanto for each and every crop. "That never happened," Sachs said. "That's a story from a long long time ago, but it showed the reputational challenges. It became a massive issue at the time."

  But even a cursory news search finds that the issues of Monsanto and terminator seeds continue to this day. Only last year, Monsanto's acquisition of Delta and Pine Land Company was protested to the U.S. Justice Department because it would "threaten farmers in developing countries by giving Monsanto  control of DPL's 'Terminator' technology. Terminator plants produce sterile seeds that cannot be saved and replanted, forcing farmers to buy fresh seed every year." Chemical Food News, February 26, 2007.

Ban, Sachs and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Monsanto's terminator seeds not shown

   Monsanto itself has argued against farmers' rights to "save and replant" seeds. The Georgetown International Environmental Law Review (Summer 2007) notes a full-page advertisement that Monsanto took out in Farm Journal stating that

"It takes millions of dollars and years of research to develop the biotech crops that deliver superior value to growers. And future investment in biotech research depends on companies' ability to share in the added value created by these crops. Consider what happens if growers save and replant patented seed. First, there is less incentive for all companies to invest in future technology, such as me development of seeds with traits that produce higher-yielding, higher-value and drought-tolerant crops."

   Sachs seems to have bought Monsanto's logic. Three times he cited "drought-tolerant crops" as justifying bio-agriculture. But as quoted in the Daily Mail on June 20, Professor Ossama El-Tayeb of Cairo University, condemns "big business" for claiming that "GM crops will alleviate poverty soon, while currently available ones mostly contribute negatively to poverty alleviation and food security, and positively to the stock market."

  Then again, Sachs also praised the pharmaceutical industry, with which he has worked for a decade he said and "has now in general made its life saving medicines available at cost in the poorest countries." Sachs seems to have inordinate faith in powerful corporations. "Let me say clearly," he responded about Monsanto's use of terminator or death seeds, "no company would have that intention right now because the backlash would be very serious." But Monsanto is in fact using the technology. And Jeffrey Sachs, from a UN platform, is among those trying to dampen the backlash.

   To be more complete, alongside defending Monsanto and praising pharmaceutical companies, Sachs spoke in progressive generalities about three tests for GM foods: human health, environmental safety, and intellectual property rights. He said that "the first two need a regulatory framework -- it needs public acceptance, testing, environmental oversight and regulation. That is," he claimed, "agreed by the industry itself.  On the third, we need to find creative approaches to intellectual property."  While true, creating sterile seeds to make money while people starve, as Monsanto despite Sachs denials reportedly does, is probably not the type of creativity that's needed. To be continued.

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Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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