The importance of seedsaving to 1.4 billion small-scale farmers throughout the world inspired our 2007/8 campaign against Terminator technology - the genetic modification of plants to make them produce sterile seeds, so they cannot be replanted to grow further crops.
To bring home the harm that these seeds would cause to the livelihoods of small-scale farmers, we produced a spoof seed packet that contained a cartoon leaflet featuring the Corn Beast - take a look at the leaflet to see why Terminator seeds could exacerbate world hunger and poverty if released into the environment!
During the campaign Progressio supporters sent 2,000 postcards to MPs and 500 messages of EU Environment Minister Stavros Dimas, calling on them to help ensure that the ban on Terminator seeds remained in place. In May 2008, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) upheld the ban. Progressio's delegation at the CBD meeting also successfully lobbied for seedsaving rights and practices to be acknowledged and protected. This creates a strong political imperative for governments to respect people's rights to save and cultivate seed varieties and resist large-scale commercial agriculture.
Read more about Terminator technology and why we campaigned against it.
You can also read more in our 2006 leaflet Say No to Suicide Seeds (published on behalf of the UK Working Group on Terminator Technology) - the precursor to our Say No to Terminator Seeds campaign.
