At UN, Sachs defends Monsanto and Terminator seeds, praises pharmaceutical industry and patents

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.

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."

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