Syngenta and Terminator
With 2004 sales of US $7.3 billion, Syngenta is the world’s second largest agrochemical enterprise, and the third largest seed corporation. The company was formed in November 2000 when AstraZeneca and Novartis merged. The next day the company won a new Terminator patent, US Patent 6,147,282, “Method of controlling the fertility of a plant.” (The patent was issued to Novartis – but the company’s intellectual property related to seeds and pesticides goes to Syngenta.)
Although Syngenta has an official policy position against the use of Terminator technology, the company holds more patents on Terminator technology than any other company. US Patent 6,147,282 is just one in a series of Terminator patents won by Novartis that describe a complex system for chemical control of a plant’s fertility where the application of a chemical inducer can be used to either abolish or restore a plant’s fertility.
Syngenta's Terminator Potato Patent Must be Disallowed (March 2006):
Indigenous Farmers of Peru view Syngenta's patent on a Terminator potato as a serious risk to the more than 3,000 potato varieties in the region and efforts to reduce poverty Indigenous Farmers Demand Syngenta Renounce Terminator Potato Patent (March 21, 2006) This letter was presented at the Syngenta Annual General Meeting April 19, 2006 to approximately 1000 shareholders.
Syngenta won a new Terminator patent, US Patent 6,700,039, in March 2004 (the most recent Terminator patent identified) for a chemically-induced method to prevent sprouting of potatoes. The patent claims a method that makes potatoes or other vegetative material incapable of sprouting until an external chemical is applied. Theoretically, the trait to prevent sprouting can be turned on or off with the application of an external chemical. Syngenta may argue that inhibiting sprouting in potatoes is in advantage when they are being stored -- but the same trait could be used to prevent potato farmers from planting viable potatoes, unless they are first sprayed with a chemical inducer.
“Syngenta and its predecessor companies have a long-standing policy not to use the so-called ‘terminator’ technology to prevent seed germination.”
View Syngenta’s position on the company web site
Nevertheless, Syngenta continues to invest in and develop genetic seed sterilization technologies.
•Click here to view a list of Syngenta’s Terminator patents (pdf)
•"Syngenta: Switching off farmers’ rights?" October 2000, ActionAid, GeneWatch UK, the Berne Declaration, Swedish Society for Nature Conservancy. Available on the Action Aid website: www.actionaid.org.uk/792/gm_crops.html
•For detailed background information on Syngenta’s early Terminator patents, see: “Terminator Two Years Later: Update on Terminator/Traitor Technology – A Report Prepared in Preparation for the Fifth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity,” May, 2000. Available on ETC Group’s web site: www.etcgroup.org/documents/other_rafiupdate.pdf
