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Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 10:54:24 -0700 To: [log in to unmask] Subject:
Food Supply Update: July 2000 Cc: [log in to unmask]

Going...Going...Gone...Two Thousand Vegetable Seeds Eliminated! - Part I


By Geri Guidetti <[log in to unmask] The Ark Institute
http://www.arkinstitute.com Copyright (c) 2000 All Rights Reserved

***This Update may be forwarded or posted, unedited, without permission.
Edited versions must receive permission before re-publication.


The heated global dialogue surrounding genetically modified seeds and food
security is about to get hotter--much hotter. Within two weeks of each other,
two reports--one by the scientists and scholars representing seven top
international science academies, and the other by RAFI, the Rural Advancement
Foundation International--cover different, but related, aspects of the
growing international debate over food security. Both point to components of
a sweeping revolution that is dramatically changing the way the human race is
wittingly or unwittingly positioning itself to feed its current six billion
souls, a number projected to explode to nine billion in a mere 30 years. I
will cover issues from both of these reports in Parts I and II of this Food
Supply Update.

First, the RAFI report. Over the past several years, I have written to you of
the gradual disappearance of non-hybrid or open-pollinated seeds from the
marketplace. These were the seeds that humans have grown, improved,
multiplied and saved from one year to the next to feed themselves and their
communities since the dawn of human agriculture. While earlier food crop
improvements were (and in some places still are) carried out by individual
farmers using traditional breeding methods in the field, or by public
agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture working to improve the
yields and quality of crops for the farmers it served, the potential
profitability of an endless parade of new hybrids and now, genetically
controlled plants whose seed cannot be saved for future crops, increasingly
drew the attention of private seed companies that historically offered a wide
array of locally and regionally adapted non-hybrids. Hybrids are revenue
insurance. If seed cannot be saved by individuals and farmers for next year's
crops, growers would have to return to the company for new seed each and
every year. No matter if you cannot afford the seed because of weather
related crop failures the year before. No money, no seed, no crop, no
money--a viscious cycle that guarantees eventual bankruptcy.

Over the years, mergers and acquisitions of seed companies led to the
current, relative handful of transnational corporate seed giants, many of
whom also just happen to be in the pesticide and herbicide business. Food is
good business. Agricultural chemicals to grow food are good business. People
need to eat. As we move from the present six to the projected nine billion
people in the next 30 years, we must find ways to feed and distribute food to
that many more people and do so in a mere "speck" of time. It is this
knowledge, this pressure of time, and the obvious recognition of the almost
limitless size of the international food market that has biotechnology, seed
and chemical companies as well as whole countries competing for their piece
of the future food and food marketing pie.

Below is a detailed excerpt of RAFI's report on a recent announcement by
vegetable seed giant, Seminis. The full report can be found at RAFI's web
site. The address is printed, below. I'll meet you again at the end of the
excerpt......

RAFI Geno-Types 17 July 2000 www.rafi.org

Earmarked for Extinction? Seminis Eliminates 2,000 Varieties

Summary: Seminis, the world's largest vegetable seed corporation, announced
on 28 June that it would eliminate 2,000 varieties or 25% of its total
product line as a cost-cutting measure. Seed industry consolidation is
dramatically narrowing the availability of non-hybrid vegetable varieties and
a wealth of seed diversity is being lost forever.

Back in 1980, seed activists and conservationists protested when the European
Community amalgamated its member states' National Lists (plant varieties
approved by governments for commercial sale) into a "Common Catalogue." When
Brussels' bureaucrats proposed a common seed roster, the seed companies
obliged by providing a "hit list" of over 1,500 variety "names" they claimed
were only national synonyms of other named varieties. The 1,500 "synonyms"
became "illegal" by decree. The deletions were not, of course, "synonyms."
When the Catalogue was finalized, nearly 1,000 distinct vegetable varieties
were wiped out of commercial existence simply because they represented
low-profit competition in the form of non-hybrid or non-proprietary
varieties.

Today, after decades of consolidation in the seed industry, it is corporate
financial officers, not government bureaucrats, who are wiping out genetic
diversity at the stroke of a pen.

Seminis - At a Glance

* Subsidiary of Mexico-based conglomerate Savia.

* 1999 seed revenues: US $531 million

* World's largest vegetable seed company

* World's fifth ranking seed company.

* Controls 40% of US vegetable seed market.

* Presence in 120 countries; 70 research stations in 19 countries and
production sites in 32 countries.


Seminis, a subsidiary of the Mexican conglomerate Savia, controls nearly
one-fifth of the worldwide fruit and vegetable seed market and is the source
of approximately 40% of all vegetable seeds sold in the United States. The
company built its seed empire by acquiring a dozen or so seed companies most
notably, the garden seed division of Asgrow, Petoseed and Royal Sluis. As a
result of its buying binge, Seminis' offerings grew to approximately 8,000
varieties in 60 species of fruits and vegetables. On 28 June 2000 Seminis
announced that it would eliminate 2,000 varieties or 25% of its varieties, as
part of a "global restructuring and optimization plan."

No one knows for sure which varieties will be dropped from Seminis'
commercial line, but the older, less-profitable open-pollinated varieties
will be the first to go. Seed corporations favor hybrids because profit
margins are greater, because gardeners and farmers can't save hybrid seed
(thus encouraging repeat customers), and because the newer varieties are more
likely to be patented or protected by plant variety protection laws. Thirty
years ago, most North American and European seed companies were small,
family-owned businesses that specialized in varieties adapted to regional
climates, with resistance to local pests and diseases. Today, just 10
companies control 30% of the commercial seed market worldwide. And just 5
vegetable seed companies control 75% of the global vegetable seed market.

Operating on a global scale, it's more economical for transnational seed
companies to breed genetically-uniform varieties suited to the needs of
commercial agribusiness, rather than the regional needs of small farmers or
backyard gardeners. Corporate breeders are more likely to develop varieties
that perform adequately over vast geographic areas, rather than breed for
local climates, or for resistance to local pests or diseases. Vegetable
gardeners are looking for better-tasting, more nutritious varieties, but the
corporate breeder is more likely to provide tomatoes with longer shelf-life,
or vegetables that can withstand mechanical harvesting and long-distance
shipping. And most importantly, the seed corporation wants monopoly control
over its varieties and that means high-tech, patented varieties. Seminis is a
leader in the development of genetically engineered vegetables. The company
has 79 issued or allowed patents, and is seeking patents related to beans,
bean sprouts,broccoli, cauliflower, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, endive,
leek, lettuce, melon, muskmelon, onion, peas, pumpkin, radish, red cabbage,
spinach, squash, sweet pepper, tomato, watermelon, and white cabbage.

Monitoring Erosion: US-based Seed Savers Exchange (SSE, Decorah, Iowa) is the
world's largest grassroots network devoted to rescuing garden diversity. SSE
concludes that seed industry consolidation and the profit-motivated shift to
hybrid varieties is the leading factor behind the disappearance of garden
seed varieties in North America.

"It's impossible to predict how much irreplaceable vegetable diversity is
earmarked for extinction as a result of corporate cost-cutting and
consolidation," says Kent Whealy, Executive Director of Seed Savers Exchange.
"The seed varieties deemed obsolete and unprofitable by Seminis are now part
of the company's private gene bank, and that rich diversity is lost to the
public," adds Whealy.

According to Jodi Smith of Seminis, "Products that are removed from
commercial sale will remain available to our plant breeders through our large
bank of germplasm, maintaining biodiversity as a key part of our research and
development strategy." From Decorah, Iowa, Kent Whealy is doubtful. "That's
not our experience," Whealy regrets. "Conserving diversity in ex situ gene
banks is expensive, especially re-growing older seed samples that are losing
germination. If they're into cost-cutting, it won't be long before they
jettison these 2,000 varieties"..... (End Excerpt)

Please note Jodi Smith's quoted comment that the removed products (seeds in
this case) "will remain available to our plant breeders...." No longer to
you, to American or other global farmers, to gardeners, etc., but to Seminis
breeders to use as Seminis sees fit. Remember, Seminis is a leader in genetic
engineering of vegetables. Please note its 79 patents on vegetables. If you
don't see the significance of the virtually instantaneous removal of 2000
varieties from its commercial offerings, consider this: Seed Savers Exchange
has been monitoring the loss of commercially available non-hybrid seeds since
1981. In that year there were about 5000 vegetable seed varieties available
from mail order catalogs. By 1998, 88% had been dropped! The world's largest
vegetable seed company which controls 40% of the U.S. vegetable market just
announced the dropping of 2000 varieties of seeds in one day, in one bold
stroke. Are there more patents down the road that will genetically engineer
varieties among these 2000 dropped seeds rendering them patented, protected
or genetically sterile? I'd bet my dog on it, and I love my dog.

Food seed biodiversity is critical--absolutely critical--to human survival.
For one reason, whenever one of the inevitable plant plagues sweeps across
huge swaths of land, even across whole countries, biodiversity is the way we
find those varieties that are resistant. We're not going to find them if they
lie aging in the jars and freezers of corporate labs. Ask the Irish about the
Irish potato famine and the millions who died from that plant fungal plague.
A rich, biodiverse genetic heritage almost ensures that protected pockets of
resistant plants will stand like oases in virtual deserts of destruction.
>From these we have historically bred new seed stock.

Our rich food seed heritage with its God-given biodiversity, the genetic
foundation for human survival, is rapidly being tampered with, patented, and
transferred from gardens, fields and the free marketplace to reside in the
"germplasm banks" of a handful of transnational corporations. If the seeds
you can grow and save to feed yourself and your neighbor aren't in the stores
or in the catalogs, then you can't buy them. If you don't already own them,
will you ever be able to get them again? Not likely unless you know a seed
saver.

Once again (see Terminator, Verminator and related GURT technologies at
http://www.arkinstitute.com) we see a huge company making what may be judged
as a smart business decision. It will no doubt improve the bottom line and
investors' portfolios. But when is a smart business decision not smart? It is
not smart when it has the potential to hurt people in the long run. At the
very least, this decision will hurt those least able to afford to buy new
seed each year. It is never smart to encourage dependency, to discourage
self-reliance. Removal of non-hybrid food seeds from the marketplace has the
potential to do just that. This is especially true in poor, developing
countries.

Finally, it is definitely not smart to remove millions, perhaps billions, of
genes from the global gene pool in one broad brush stroke. This amounts to
instantaneous genetic erosion. Who knows the identity and purpose of all of
the genes contained in those 2000 varieties? Answer: No human, and there are
natural balances and adaptive, evolutionary forces at work among these genes,
the genes of plant disease organisms, and the rest of the Earth's organisms
that none of us can even hope to fully understand, yet our lives may depend
on them. It is what we do not know that can hurt us most. We might
inadvertently throw a baby out with the bath water.

RAFI suggests that Seminis make the list of discontinued seeds available and
insure that duplicates of the retired seed varieties be made available to
international seed banks to be held "in trust" for the global community. By
international agreement, seed held in trust is in the public domain, is
freely available to all breeders, and cannot be subject to intellectual
property claims. This is an excellent recommendation, though I would also
like to see Seminis reverse or modify its decision. Perhaps they would also
be willing to rotate their offerings of these 2000 varieties over, say, a
three year cycle. This would reduce their current production costs, yet keep
these varieties out in the field. You can find out more about Seminis and
several links to company resources and contacts via the Lycos search engine.
Type "Seminis seed" in the search box.

Going, going, gone...2000 vegetable varieties, a broad swath of our food
heritage and right to personal food security, is about to be swept from
commercial availability to corporate control. Those non-hybrid seeds you
bought, grew and saved have just become so much more valuable, that much more
important. There is a good likelihood that your collection contains at least
several, if not many, of the varieties in the as yet undisclosed 2000 about
to be retired. Treasure them, reproduce them, share them, give them away.
Educate and encourage others to do the same.

If you don't have them yet, the Ark Institute will help you. We will continue
offering free non-hybrid into the fall. Yes, they can be stored for next
year. Don't call our 800# for free seeds. You must go to
http://www.arkinstitute.com for complete details. Please take advantage of
it--now. It will not be available next year. We simply cannot afford it. If
you know of churches, prisons, food banks, etc, that will use this seed for
good, please let them know. We will donate bulk seed in large quantities,
too. Email me. If you need books on food gardening and seed saving to get
started, we'll send them to you at our cost--50% off their cover price--for
those we have in stock. Email us for availability of the titles at our web
site. We will "put your name on it" to ensure a copy if we have it in stock.
There has never been, nor is there likely to be again, a more affordable
opportunity to get involved in this critical effort, this mission to preserve
the natural genetic heritage of our food supply, to ensure our personal food
security. This is our mission. Please make it yours, too... Geri Guidetti,
The Ark Institute







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