[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [seedsavers] This would be sad ways to do agriculture for us seedsavers



>Andrea, with that blinking banner saying I was the number so and so
visitor I closed quickly before the article had opened. I would
appreciate not to get such links.
Anders

I cannot know where that blinking window came from, Anders, but it
seems to have been bad luck or you have picked up a tracking cookie
from somewhere. I appereciated getting the link and info Andrea.

For Anders I have reposted the link and article here. I am considering
where I ought to send it so my politicians can know that we are aware
and don't like it one little bit.
BillSF9c


http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm

In the Vegetarian & Vegan News...
   News | VegSource Interactive, Inc.

Iraqi Farmers Aren't Celebrating World Food Day
Nov 11, 2004

As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush 
Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to 
save their seeds. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US 
corporations -- which can include seeds the Iraqis themselves developed 
over hundreds of years. 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.
When the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) celebrated 
biodiversity on World Food Day on October 16, Iraqi farmers were 
mourning its loss.

A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that 
new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that 
prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the 
seed market to transnational corporations. This is a disastrous turn of 
events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. 
While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for 
the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through 
trade deals. In this case, they invaded the country first, then imposed 
their patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable", said Shalini 
Bhutani, one of the report's authors.



Becoming Monsanto customers at the barrel of a US gun.
The new law in question [2] heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents 
on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law 
fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - 
that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large 
corporations providing inputs and seeds.

In 2002, FAO estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed 
 from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local 
markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put 
into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer 
proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by 
transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores 
all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of 
important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences 
are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food 
sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against 
the Iraqi farmer.

"If the FAO is celebrating 'Biodiversity for Food Security' this year, 
it needs to demonstrate some real commitment", says Henk Hobbelink of 
GRAIN, pointing out that the FAO has recently been cosying up with 
industry and offering support for genetic engineering [3]. "Most 
importantly, the FAO must recognise that biodiversity-rich farming and 
industry-led agriculture are worlds apart, and that industrial 
agriculture is one of the leading causes of the catastrophic decline in 
agricultural biodiversity that we have witnessed in recent decades. The 
FAO cannot hope to embrace biodiversity while holding industry's hand", 
he added.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

 From GRAIN Shalini Bhutani in India [Tel: +91 11 243 15 168 (work) or 
+91 98 104 33 076 (cell)] or Alexis Vaughan in United Kingdom [Tel: +44 
79 74 39 34 87 (mobile)]

 From Focus on the Global South Herbert Docena in Philippines [Tel:+63 2 
972 382 3804]

NOTES

[1] Visit http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6. GRAIN and Focus' report 
is entitled "Iraq's new patent law: a declaration of war against 
farmers". Against the grain is a series of short opinion pieces on 
recent trends and developments in the issues that GRAIN works on. This 
one has been produced collaboratively with Focus on the Global South.

[2] 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

[3] GRAIN, "FAO declares war on farmers, not hunger", New from Grain, 
16 June 2004, http://www.grain.org/front/?id=24

source: http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=253 16oct04

Related articles:

    * Monsanto's Royalty Grab in Argentina



At 23:47 2008-01-28, you wrote:
>
>
>Hello everyone,
>
>Can you imagine if this happened to us?
>
>Check out this article, it dates from 2004, but I doudt anything has 
changed?
><http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm>http://www.vegsource.
com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
>
>Andrea

_______________________________________________
seedsavers mailing list
seedsavers@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/seedsavers






________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever.  Check out the new AIM(R) Mail ! - 
http://webmail.aim.com
_______________________________________________
seedsavers mailing list
seedsavers@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/seedsavers