Ann Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
Whitten Building
P.O. Box 96456
Washington, DC  20090-6456.


Dear Secretary Veneman,


I am writing regarding the "Terminator" technology, developed by
USDA and Delta & Pine Land Co. and partially financed with U.S.
taxpayer dollars, as well as recently issued patents to DuPont and
Syngenta. With alarm and dismay, I learned that USDA has
concluded negotiations to license Terminator technology to the only
company that has publicly declared its intention to commercialize
Terminator seeds--Delta & Pine Land (D&PL). I feel betrayed,
because in 1999, USDA officials had publicly backed off from
marketing these seeds to reassure an outraged public.


I object strenuously to the use of public research funds for
technology that will bring no agronomic benefit to farmers, and no
benefits to consumers. Now more than ever, USDA should be
safeguarding, not declaring war on, the security of the food supply
in the United States and worldwide. Terminator sacrifices security
of the food supply to protect profits for big agribusiness.


Transgenes from biofoods have pervaded the entire food supply,
including organic. They have even invaded noncrop plants. The
implications of runaway genes that render food plants pose a
monstrous and unacceptable risk to the nation's and world's
farmers, food supply, and ecosystems. Delta & Pine Land has said
that it will target the use of Terminator seeds in developing
countries, where over 1.4 billion people -- primarily poor farmers
-- depend on farm-saved seed as their primary seed source. Worse
still, conventional farmers everywhere are at risk of having
suicide genes pollute their crops and render plants sterile.


Nations worldwide, whose friendship the US now needs desperately,
have expressed outraged opposition to this technology. Their
outpouring of support in the United States's dark hour of need
should not be rewarded by continued economic warfare, with
transnational agribusiness corporations as the only beneficiaries.


Because genetically engineered foods are not labeled, terminator
technology is one more example of robbing citizens of choice. In
many food crops, the seed is the part of the plant consumers use.
I do not want to eat sterile seeds, grains, and legumes.


Please forbid commercialization of Terminator, and adopt policies
that serve the interest of the nation's and the worlds' people.
Policies that serve the narrow interests of agribusiness have no
place in a government instituted to serve citizens.


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