Ecuadorian girl holding local potatoes © Progressio/ Ecuadorian Agroecology Coordinating Office

The world celebrated World Food Day on 16 October. You, like us, may think that there is not much reason to celebrate: according to the UN's World Food Programme, more than 800 million people are hungry, writes Sol Oyuela. Progressio believes it is time to stand in solidarity with the struggle of poor people in the developing world to feed themselves and invites you to take part in its campaign, livesimply Say no to Terminator seeds: Become a seedsaver.

Terminator technology is the genetic modification of plants to make their seeds sterile. If farmers tried to plant the 'suicide seeds' harvested from these plants they would not grow. For most people of faith, such technology is in complete contradiction to the fundemental values of life: fertility and growth.

Not yet on the market, the technology is being developed by multinational seed companies to enable them to protect and profit from their property rights over seeds. If Terminator is commercialised farmers will be forced to buy new seeds each year from seed companies. Farmers' poverty would increase as seed companies' profits swell.

Terminator technology also bodes ill for the world's agricultural biodiversity. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that the main source of seeds for around 1.4 billion of the world's poorest farmers are those who save or exchange with neighbours. This practice of selecting, saving, sharing and replanting seeds each year is responsible for the existence of thousands of agricultural plant varieties adapted to local soils and climates and resistant to local pests. Juana Maria Remache, a small-scale farmer from Azuay, Ecuador told Progressio's development worker Michelle Lowe: 'We don't want genetically modified seeds….Lots of international seeds don't grow here anyway because of the altitude and conditions. It isn't really economic to buy seeds every time - we need to recover native seeds for reasons of economy, but also because of our culture and traditions. We are losing practices and traditions along with the seeds.' If Terminator technology spreads to indigenous agricultural systems, farmers would cease to be the stewards of biodiversity they've been since the dawn of farming.

And farmers don't even have to buy Terminator seeds to be threatened by them. Although seed companies claim that Terminator would prevent the contamination of normal crops with genetically modified ones, but research shows Terminator genes may still spread to other crops. If farmers whose crops have been contaminated were to unknowingly replant second-generation sterile seeds, they would find that fewer seeds germinate and their harvest would be poor.

In recognition of the threat that Terminator seeds pose to poor farmers and biodiversity, the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established a temporary ban in 2000 on the field-testing and commercialisation of Terminator technology. Unfortunately the ban is to be revised at the next meeting of the CBD in May 2008. Progressio and other campaigners fear that Terminator-friendly governments and seed companies will lobby the CBD for the ban to be weakened, as they did at a CBD meeting in 2005.

You can play a key role in alerting your MPs to this danger by orderering our campaign seedpacket. Inside it is a postcard asking your MP to urge the UK government to do everything in its power to uphold and strengthen the current UN ban. Sign and send it back to us we'll make sure that it reaches your MP.

The Say NO to Terminator seeds campaign is supported by prominent Catholics such as the former Bishop of Galloway and vice-president of Progressio, Maurice Taylor, who said: 'Although the project by some multinationals to supply farmers with seeds and/or plants immune from contamination may seem praiseworthy, the fact that such plants produce only sterile seeds would be a serious wrong and a grave disadvantage to the livelihood and welfare of farmers, especially those in the developing world. I therefore hope that the current ban on the practice will be rigorously maintained.'

The campaign is part of the livesimply initiative involving over 40 Catholic organisation to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor, and inspires the livesimply promise of the month to convince 10 of your friends to take part in the campaign by signing the seedpacket. Join the on-line promise on the livesimply promise website. And if your Church community or group would like campaigning materials and ideas for liturgy and worship please visit Progressio's seedsaver website.

Sol Oyuela is Progressio's environmental advocacy coordinator. Progressio is an international development agency combining gospel and Catholic social teaching with development and human rights thinking to tackle poverty and injustice in 11 developing countries.