[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Iraqi farmers can't save their own seeds, because of US patents (Uruknet; Grain)

Thu Jan 27 22:04:08 PST 2005

>Welcome to The Brave New World!  The scope of 
>these imposed "improvements" is beyond
most people's wildest imaginations. Iraqis, 
unlike Americans, will fight back. If you think
it's bad there now, just wait!       Pax?,  Paul Etx

>
>For the record: ìU.S. declares Iraqis can not
>save their own seedsî
>
>Free Iraq
>Uruknet.info Information from Occupied Iraq
>January 23, 2005
>http://www.uruknet.info/?p=9114
>
>
>"As part of sweeping "economic restructuring"
>implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq,
>Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save
>their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis
>themselves have developed over hundreds of years.
>Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US
>corporations. That is because in recent years,
>transnational corporations have patented and now
>own many seed varieties originated or developed
>by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will
>be living under the new American credo:
>Pay Monsanto, or starve.:
>http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
>
>
>"The American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA
>(Coalition Provisional Authority) government,
>Paul Bremer, updated Iraq's intellectual property
>law to 'meet current internationally-recognized
>standards of protection'.
>(
>http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_
>Patents_Law.pdf )
>
>The updated law makes saving seeds for next
>year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers
>in 2002, and is the standard farming practice for
>thousands of years across human civilizations, to
>be now illegal.. Instead, farmers will have to
>obtain a yearly license for genetically modified
>(GM) seeds from American corporations. (
>http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6 ). These GM
>seeds have typically been modified from seeds
>developed over thousands of generations by
>indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, and shared
>freely like agricultural 'open source.'"
>
>Iraq law Requires Seed Licenses November 13, 2004
>
>
>"According to Order 81, paragraph 66 - [B],
>issued by L. Paul Bremer [CFR], the people in
>Iraq are now prohibited from saving seeds and may
>only plant seeds for their food from licensed,
>authorized U.S. distributors.
>The paragraph states, "Farmers shall be
>prohibited from re-using seeds of protected
>varieties or any variety mentioned in items 1 and
>2 of paragraph [C] of Article 14 of this
>chapter."
>(
>http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/13/2023220
>)
>
>Written in massively intricate legalese, Order 81
>directs the reader at Article 14, paragraph 2 [C]
>to paragraph [B] of Article 4, which states any
>variety that is different from any other known
>variety may be registered in any country and
>become a protected variety of seed - thus
>defaulting it into the "protected class" of seeds
>and prohibiting the Iraqis from reusing them the
>following season. Every year, the Iraqis must
>destroy any seed they have, and repurchase seeds
>from an authorized supplier, or face fines,
>penalties and/or jail time. "
>Iraqis Can't Save Seed January 19, 2005
>
>The original article on this topic: Iraqi farmers
>aren't celebrating October 15, 2004:
>http://www.uruknet.info/?p=6382
>
>As per an Iraqi proverb, the day will come,
>sooner rather than later, when the Iraqis will
>shred Bremerís Laws, soak them in water and offer
>the glass to Bremer to drink.
>
>
>
>*  *  *  *  *
>
>
>Iraq's new patent law: A declaration of war
>against farmers
>by Focus on the Global South and GRAIN
>
>Grain, October 2004
>NEWS RELEASE
>http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6
>
>
>When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)
>administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad
>after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in
>June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he
>enacted as chief of the occupation authority in
>Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent,
>Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information,
>Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." [1] This
>order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970
>and unless and until it is revised or repealed by
>a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and
>force of a binding law. [2] With important
>implications for farmers and the future of
>agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another
>important component in the United States'
>attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy.
>
>WHO GAINS?
>
>For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated
>in an essentially unregulated, informal seed
>supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free
>innovation with and exchange of planting
>materials among farming communities has long been
>the basis of agricultural practice. This has been
>made illegal under the new law. The seeds farmers
>are now allowed to plant - "protected" crop
>varieties brought into Iraq by transnational
>corporations in the name of agricultural
>reconstruction - will be the property of the
>corporations. While historically the Iraqi
>constitution prohibited private ownership of
>biological resources, the new US-imposed patent
>law introduces a system of monopoly rights over
>seeds. Inserted into Iraq's previous patent law
>is a whole new chapter on Plant Variety
>Protection (PVP) that provides for the
>"protection of new varieties of plants." PVP is
>an intellectual property right (IPR) or a kind of
>patent for plant varieties which gives an
>exclusive monopoly right on planting material to
>a plant breeder who claims to have discovered or
>developed a new variety. So the "protection" in
>PVP has nothing to do with conservation, but
>refers to safeguarding of the commercial
>interests of private breeders (usually large
>corporations) claiming to have created the new
>plants.
>
>To qualify for PVP, plant varieties must comply
>with the standards of the UPOV [3] Convention,
>which requires them be new, distinct, uniform and
>stable. Farmers' seeds cannot meet these
>criteria, making PVP-protected seeds the
>exclusive domain of corporations. The rights
>granted to plant breeders in this scheme include
>the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell,
>export, import and store the protected varieties.
>These rights extend to harvested material,
>including whole plants and parts of plants
>obtained from the use of a protected variety.
>This kind of PVP system is often the first step
>towards allowing the full-fledged patenting of
>life forms. Indeed, in this case the rest of the
>law does not rule out the patenting of plants or
>animals.
>
>The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop
>varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this
>time the protected variety de facto becomes the
>property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or
>otherwise use this variety without compensating
>the breeder. This new law means that Iraqi
>farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save
>for re-planting seeds of any plant variety
>registered under the plant variety provisions of
>the new patent law. [4] This deprives farmers
>what they and many others worldwide claim as
>their inherent right to save and replant seeds.
>
>CORPORATE CONTROL
>
>The new law is presented as being necessary to
>ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq
>and to facilitate Iraq's accession to the WTO
>[5]. What it will actually do is facilitate the
>penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of
>Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical - the
>corporate giants that control seed trade across
>the globe. Eliminating competition from farmers
>is a prerequisite for these companies to open up
>operations in Iraq, which the new law has
>achieved. Taking over the first step in the food
>chain is their next move.
>
>The new patent law also explicitly promotes the
>commercialisation of genetically modified (GM)
>seeds in Iraq. Despite serious resistance from
>farmers and consumers around the world, these
>same companies are pushing GM crops on farmers
>around the world for their own profit. Contrary
>to what the industry is asserting, GM seeds do
>not reduce the use of pesticides, but they pose a
>threat to the environment and to people's health
>while they increase farmers dependency on
>agribusiness. In some countries like India, the
>'accidental' release of GM crops is deliberately
>manipulated [6], since physical segregation of GM
>and GM-free crops is not feasible. Once
>introduced into the agro-ecological cycle there
>is no possible recall or cleanup from genetic
>pollution [7].
>
>As to the WTO argument, Iraq legally has a number
>of options for complying with the organisation's
>rules on intellectual property but the US simply
>decided that Iraq should not enjoy or explore
>them.
>
>RECONSTRUCTION FA«ADE
>
>Iraq is one more arena in a global drive for the
>adoption of seed patent laws protecting the
>monopoly rights of multinational corporations at
>the expense of local farmers. Over the past
>decade, many countries of the South have been
>compelled [8] to adopt seed patent laws through
>bilateral treaties [9]. The US has pushed for
>UPOV-styled plant protection laws beyond the IPR
>standards of the WTO in bilateral trade through
>agreements for example with Sri Lanka [10] and
>Cambodia [11]. Likewise, post-conflict countries
>have been especially targeted. For instance, as
>part of its reconstruction package the US has
>recently signed a Trade and Investment Framework
>Agreement with Afghanistan [12], which would also
>include IPR-related issues.
>
>Iraq is a special case in that the adoption of
>the patent law was not part of negotiations
>between sovereign countries. Nor did a sovereign
>law-making body enact it as reflecting the will
>of the Iraqi people. In Iraq, the patent law is
>just one more component in the comprehensive and
>radical transformation of the occupied country's
>economy along neo-liberal lines by the occupying
>powers. This transformation would entail not just
>the adoption of favoured laws but also the
>establishment of institutions that are most
>conducive to a free market regime.
>
>Order 81 is just one of 100 Orders left behind by
>Bremer and among the more notable of these laws
>is the controversial Order 39 which effectively
>lays down the over-all legal framework for Iraq's
>economy by giving foreign investors rights equal
>to Iraqis in exploiting Iraq's domestic market.
>Taken together, all these laws, which cover
>virtually all aspects of the economy - including
>Iraq's trade regime, the mandate of the Central
>Bank, regulations on trade union activities, etc.
>- lay the bases for the US' bigger objective of
>building a neo-liberal regime in Iraq. Order 81
>explicitly states that its provisions are
>consistent with Iraq's "transition from a
>non-transparent centrally planned economy to a
>free market economy characterised by sustainable
>economic growth through the establishment of a
>dynamic private sector, and the need to enact
>institutional and legal reforms to give it
>effect." Pushing for these "reforms" in Iraq has
>been the US Agency for International Development,
>which has been implementing an Agricultural
>Reconstruction and Development Program for Iraq
>(ARDI) since October 2003. To carry it out, a
>one-year US$5 million contract was granted to the
>US consulting firm Development Alternatives, Inc.
>[13] with the Texas A&M University [14] as an
>implementing partner. Part of the work has been
>sub-contracted to Sagric International [15] of
>Australia. The goal of ARDI in the name of
>rebuilding the farming sector is to develop the
>agribusiness opportunities and thus provide
>markets for agricultural products and services
>from overseas.
>
>Reconstruction work, thus, is not necessarily
>about rebuilding domestic economies and
>capacities, but about helping corporations
>approved by the occupying forces to capitalise on
>market opportunities in Iraq. The legal framework
>laid down by Bremer ensures that although US
>troops may leave Iraq in the conceivable future,
>US domination of Iraq's economy is here to stay.
>
>FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
>
>Food sovereignty is the right of people to define
>their own food and agriculture policies, to
>protect and regulate domestic agricultural
>production and trade, to decide the way food
>should be produced, what should be grown locally
>and what should be imported. The demand for food
>sovereignty and the opposition to the patenting
>of seeds has been central to the small farmers'
>struggle all over the world over the past decade.
>By fundamentally altering the IPR regime, the US
>has ensured that Iraq's agricultural system will
>remain under "occupation" in Iraq.
>
>Iraq has the potential to feed itself. But
>instead of developing this capacity, the US has
>shaped the future of Iraq's food and farming to
>serve the interests of US corporations. The new
>IPR regime pays scant respect to Iraqi farmers'
>contributions to the development of important
>crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses.
>Samples of such farmers' varieties were starting
>to be saved in the 1970s in the country's
>national gene bank in Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad.
>It is feared that all these have been lost in the
>long years of conflict. However, the Syria-based
>Consultative Group on International Agricultural
>Research (CGIAR) [17] centre - International
>Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas
>(ICARDA) still holds accessions of several Iraqi
>varieties. These collections that are evidence of
>the Iraqi farmers' knowledge are supposed to be
>held in trust by the centre. These comprise the
>agricultural heritage of Iraq belonging to the
>Iraqi farmers that ought now to be repatriated.
>There have been situations where germplasm held
>by an international agricultural research centre
>has been "leaked out" for research and
>development to Northern scientists [18]. Such
>kind of "biopiracy" is fuelled by an IPR regime
>that ignores the prior art of the farmer and
>grants rights to a breeder who claims to have
>created something new from the material and
>knowledge of the very farmer.
>
>While political sovereignty remains an illusion,
>food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has already
>been made near impossible by these new
>regulations. Iraq's freedom and sovereignty will
>remain questionable for as long as Iraqis do not
>have control over what they sow, grow, reap and
>eat.
>
>REFERENCES
>
>[1] Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed
>Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant
>Variety Law of 2004, CPA Order No. 81, 26 April
>2004, http://www.iraqcoalition.org/
>regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81 _Patents_Law.pdf
>
>[2] The PVP provisions will be put into effect as
>soon as the Iraqi Minister of Agriculture passes
>the necessary executive orders of implementation
>in accordance with this law.
>
>[3] UPOV stands for International Union for the
>Protection of New Plant Varieties. Headquartered
>in Geneva, Switzerland it is an intergovernmental
>organisation with 53 members, mostly
>industrialised countries. The UPOV Convention is
>a set of standards for the protection of plant
>varieties, mainly geared toward industrial
>agriculture and corporate interests. See
>http://www.upov.org.
>
>[4] Chapter Threequarter Article 15 B: Farmers
>shall be prohibited from re-using seeds of
>protected varieties or any variety mentioned.
>
>[5] The World Trade Organisation, wherein the
>Iraqi Government has an observer status.
>
>[6] http://www.grain.org/
>research/contamination.cfm?agenda
>
>[7] GRAIN, "Confronting contamination: 5 reasons
>to reject co-existence", Seedling, April 2004, p
>1. http://www.grain.org/ seedling/?id=280
>
>[8] GRAIN, PVP in the South: caving in to UPOV,
>http://www.grain.org/ rights/?id=64
>
>[9] GRAIN, Bilateral agreements imposing
>TRIPS-plus intellectual property rights on
>biodiversity in developing countries,
>http://www.grain.org/ rights/?id=68
>
>[10] http://www.grain.org/ brl/?typeid=15
>
>[11] http://www.bilaterals.org/
>article.php3?id_article=387
>
>[12] http://www.ustr.gov/ Document_Library/
>Press_Releases/2004/
>September/United_States_Afghanistan
>_Sign_Trade_Investment_ Framework_Agreement.html
>
>[13] http://www.dai.com
>
>[14] The University's Agriculture Program "is a
>recognised world leader in using biotechnology" &
>the University works closely with the USDA
>Agriculture Research Service.
>
>[15] http://www.sagric.com.au
>
>[16] http://www.export.gov/iraq/market_ops/
>
>[17] Consultative Group on International
>Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system, with its 16
>International Agricultural Research Centres
>(IARCs) of which ICARDA is one, holds the world's
>largest collections of plant genetic resources
>outside their natural habitat, which includes
>both farmers' varieties and improved varieties.
>
>[18] In 2001 it was discovered that a US plant
>geneticist had obtained the seeds of the original
>strain of the famed Thai Jasmine rice, Khao Dok
>Mali (KDM) 105, from the Philippines-based CGIAR
>centre - International Rice Research Institute
>(IRRI). But no Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)
>signed in the process, despite international
>obligations on IRRI to enforce this.
>
>
>Against the Grain is a series of short opinion
>pieces on recent trends and developments in the
>areas of biodiversity management and control. It
>is published by GRAIN on an irregular basis, and
>is available from our website: www.grain.org.
>Print copies can be requested from GRAIN, Girona
>25, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain. Email:
>grain(at)grain.org. This particular Against the
>GRAIN was produced in collaboration with Focus on
>the Global South (www.focusweb.org; email:
>admin(at)focusweb.org).
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand