Written question asked by Lord Hylton (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Rooker (Labour) on Tuesday, 23 October 2007.

Biodiversity: Terminator Seeds

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether at the May 2008 meeting on the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity they will oppose proposals by New Zealand, Canada or others to remove the existing moratorium on the development of terminator seeds technology.

Answer: As is usual with international negotiations, parties do not take up fixed positions in advance of meeting so we cannot say what stance New Zealand, Canada and others will take on ““terminator seeds technology””. The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) decided, in 2000, that there should be a precautionary approach in field testing and commercial development of genetic use restriction technologies (GURTs) while research into the possible socio-economic impacts of these technologies was carried out. This decision was reaffirmed at the CBD meeting held in Brazil in 2006. As a party to the CBD, the UK supports this decision. There has been no change to our position.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 5566; 695 c95WA
Session: 2006-07
Subjects: Genetically modified organisms Seeds Convention on Biological Diversity
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk