In October 2000 AstraZeneca and Novartis merged their agribusiness interests to become Syngenta. Their aim is to become the world’s first global business solely focused on agribusiness – making and selling:

	herbicides, fungicides, insecticides
	seeds.

Both AstraZeneca and Novartis have been accused in the past of working on gm crops which would enforce a continuing dependence on buying their products. The most famous are ‘Terminator seeds’ – seeds modified to grow plants which produce infertile seed. Farmer have always saved seed, and 1.4 billion people still rely on them as their primary seed source.
‘Terminator’ means farmers would have to buy new (patented) seed or chemicals which will switch off the sterility each year – at an increased and annual cost. Such a cost would be felt heavily by poor farmers in the South.
‘Terminator’ is just one example of a range of gm techniques known as ‘Genetic Use Restriction Technologies’ (s). These work by controlling the traits of gm crops with the application of special chemicals. The plants’ natural functions – or traits – are betrayed: hence they have been dubbed ‘Traitor Technology’. It was the Canadian-based Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) who first exposed the technology and coined the terms ‘Terminator’ and ‘Traitor’ in 1998/99. The research in this report builds on RAFI’s earlier analysis.
After much public outcry, both AstraZeneca and Novartis made public promises that they would not commercialise the ‘Terminator’ patents they owned. However, investigations in this report show that research and development around ‘Terminator’ and ‘Traitor’ seeds has continued since those promises were made.
We have uncovered 11 new patents held by both companies which allow for genetic modification of staple crops which will:

	produce disease prone plants (unless treated with chemicals)
	control the fertility of crops
	control when plants flower
	control when crops sprout
	control how crops age.

Syngenta will have the single largest interest in gurt s of all the global gm companies. Out of a total of 60 gurt s patents identified to date, Syngenta own 25 , or 42 per cent. In the light of the evidence in this report, the four authors, ActionAid, Berne Declaration, GeneWatch uk and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation have serious concerns about the potential impact Syngenta’s work on ‘Terminator’ and ‘Traitor’ technologies could have on poor farmers in the South if commercialised. We encourage civil society to scrutinise ‘Traitor Technology’ and have issued the following demands to Syngenta and national governments:

	that Syngenta commits not to develop any crops using ‘Terminator Technology’
	that Syngenta commits not to develop plants with weakened disease resistance and/or where the possibility of growing farm-saved seeds with the same characteristics is made dependent on the use of a chemical inducer
	that in line with recommendations from the un Convention on Biological Diversity ), Syngenta will not conduct field trials on ‘Traitor Technology’ until the results of assessments of the impact of the technology are available
	that Governments agree a global ban on ‘Terminator Technology’
	that Governments do not allow field testing of ‘Traitor Technology’ and assist the cbd in the assessment of its impacts.

October 2000