Delta & Pine Land (D&PL) - now to be bought by Monsanto (August 16, 2006) - has publicly declared its intention to commercialize Terminator. The company conducts greenhouse trials of Terminator seeds in the US and holds the first patent on Terminator jointly with the US Department of Agriculture.
D&PL holds three patents jointly with the United States Department of Agriculture. These were the first patents on Terminator. Delta & Pine Land is conducting greenhouse tests of Terminator in the United States and has new glossy promotional material on Terminator.
The company states that it may be “several years” before their technology is commercially available but also says that “Once developed, we intend licensing of this technology to be widely available to other seed companies”
Delta & Pine Land sells conventional and genetically modified (GM) cottonseed and soybean seed. D&PL licenses genetically modified insect resistant (Bollgard/Bt cotton) and herbicide resistant (Roundup Ready cotton and soybean) traits from Monsanto and incorporates them into their soybean and cottonseeds.
Delta & Pine Land:
•is the 11th largest seed company in the world
•is the largest cotton seed company in the world
•produces and sells conventional and GM soy and cotton seed
In the past, Delta & Pine Land has depicted peasants and small-scale farmers in the South as backward, lazy and uninformed about the “benefits” of new technology. At a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization meeting in 1998, D&PL’s Harry Collins reflected the corporate seed industry’s ignorance about the realities of subsistence farming and farm-based food security in his written remarks:
“The centuries old practice of farmer saved seed is really a gross disadvantage to third world farmers who inadvertently become locked into obsolete varieties because of their taking the ‘easy road’ and not planting newer, more productive varieties.”
Terminator Seeds on the Lose? In August 2005, 2 of Delta and Pine Land’s greenhouses were destroyed and 11 were damaged by a tornado. Delta & Pine Land is testing Terminator seeds in greenhouses but we do not know if there were Terminator tests in the houses that were destroyed or what biosafety risks, if any, might be posed. But this event shows that even seemingly secure physical containment is vulnerable. (“D&PL storm losses top $1 million” Woodrow Wilkins Jr., Delta Democrat Times 30/08/05)
View Delta & Pine Land’s glossy colour pamphlet promoting Terminator ( text only) ( pdf high resolution 4MB) ( pdf low resolution 0.5MB)
Deadly Pollution in Paraguay: In 1999 Delta & Pine Land dumped contaminated cottonseed in a community in Paraguay and was found guilty in the death of peasant farmer Julio Chavez, a 30 year-old man. Court Victory in Paraguay
Read interview with Harry Collins, Vice President, Delta & Pine Land on Seed Quest.com