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Powell River Regional District Supports local farming issues
Resolution from the Powell River Regional District made and endorsed at the BC Union of Municipalities, Fall, 2006

B71 SEED PRODUCTION MONOPOLY Powell River Regional District

WHEREAS six giant agro-chemical corporations, assisted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), have developed and received a patent on new agricultural biotechnology applicable to plants and seeds of all species that creates sterile seeds by programming a plant’s DNA to kill its own embryos;

AND WHEREAS this patent will increase the value of proprietary seed owned by US seed companies and will give these companies a virtual monopoly on seed production and ownership, enabling them to dominate world food production with genetically engineered food;

AND WHEREAS this combination of biotechnology and the granting of patents will effectively stop farmers from using seed from their own crops, thus destroying the “plant-to-seed-to-plant-to-seed” cycle that supports most life on this planet and is fundamental to human existence:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the UBCM petition the Prime Minister of Canada, the Premier of British Columbia, and their respective Ministers’ of Agriculture to take immediate and decisive action to halt the growing monopolization of our food production industry and the introduction of “terminator seed” which could spread plant sterility among all seeding plants, potentially creating a global catastrophe:

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the UBCM urge the governments of Canada and of BC to act immediately to prevent any Canadian corporation from patenting, and thus controlling and monopolizing, any seed stock of any variety in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

MOTION, was ENDORSED