[shmerek]

I don't know if this will get the timeline graphic or what but it seems pretty shitty.

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 � including 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.

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/regulat...atents_Law.pdf

3 GRAIN, "FAO declares war on farmers, not hunger", New from Grain, 16 June


Source: IraqWar

[Abu Bakr]

[voodoo]

If the Merry Cans can enforce this in that Mess-O-Potamia then I tip my hat for them.

[Krusty]

I don't know if the US occupation in Iraq could look any more like Imperialism if it were scripted. This is sure to put a damper on the overwhelming support Iraqis have heretofore shown to our invasion.

[shmerek]

It is **** like this that could turn the average iraqi into an "insurgent"

[Scientist]

If this is true then wow...just wow. I had no idea a corporation could purchase and relicense rights to the reproduction of a naturally occuring subspecies or variety of plant. Is this really the case?

I also feel for the Iraqi farmer and the biodiversity of the area.

[DBursey]

This act of agro-colonialist aggression must not stand! I propose a coalition of composters to bombard the Shiite out of Baghdad with back issues of Organic Gardening!

[Spliff]

Originally posted by Scientist:
If this is true then wow...just wow. I had no idea a corporation could purchase and relicense rights to the reproduction of a naturally occuring subspecies or variety of plant. Is this really the case?

I also feel for the Iraqi farmer and the biodiversity of the area.

I had never heard of this until I saw the documentary "The Corporation." Apparently, Monsanto has been doing this in many countries, but there are activists that are fighting them.

Check out "The Corporation" (the movie or the book).
http://www.thecorporation.com/

And here is an archive of news stories about Monsanto. It's focussed on negative stories about Monsanto, but many are from legitimate news sources so you'll get an idea of Monsanto's aggressive tactics.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto02.cfm

[roberto blanco]

welcome to the brave new �entury�.

wake up and smell the starbucks� cofee people. iraq has just been added to the hive.

[eklipse]

Originally posted by shmerek:
It is **** like this that could turn the average iraqi into an "insurgent"

It's not like they don't have enough reasons already.

[icydanger]

Introducing modified seeds in Iraq when restricted in EU? No choice, US's WMDs PROGRAiN

[insha]

Can someone educate me on this Monsanto situation. I was not aware of this until I read this thread. Are they doing similar things else where in the world?

[shmerek]

Originally posted by insha:
Can someone educate me on this Monsanto situation. I was not aware of this until I read this thread. Are they doing similar things else where in the world?

Monsanto in india
Monsanto's Terminator Technology in Trouble
Monsanto sues canadian farmer
monsanto in thailand
From everything that I have ever read about Monsanto they scare the **** out of me. Just google them if you want to find out more.

You can hardly say one is liberating a people if their food production is going to be subservient to a corporation. This whole thing stinks.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by Scientist:
If this is true then wow...just wow. I had no idea a corporation could purchase and relicense rights to the reproduction of a naturally occuring subspecies or variety of plant. Is this really the case?

These are not just any seeds. They are not "naturally occuring". These are the creme-de-la-creme seeds, many of which have taken decades (and millions upon millions of dollars) to research and develop.

These articles leave out a lot of specifics, but if it's similar to what goes on in the US and other developed countries, that's fine with me.

The mom and pop farmers should be able to use any seed they want for their little gardens. But, if it is a major farming cooperative that is going to be shipping huge amounts of crops all over the globe, then there needs to be standards. It's not even arguable. And believe me, these Iraqi farmers with their higher-priced seeds (and more durable crops) will now have the entire world as a market.

Sure, Iraq could omit this provision and allow their commercial farms to grow whatever, with whatever, they want. But no other developed nation is going to allow those crops into their nation. When it comes to food on a global scale, it is imperative that standards and practices be written into trade law.

Anyone ever enter the state of California? I recall crossing the border and having a guard come to my car window and ask if I have any fruits, vegetables, or nuts with me. Fundamentally, I should be able to carry a tomato acrossthe border into California. Ultimately, however, there is a greater good being served.

Agricultural standards have been and remain vital to the global food supply.

Just like with the Halliburton, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Nike, etc, this is just the latest attempt by the left to attack and defame a successful corporation.

[Spliff]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
These are not just any seeds. They are not "naturally occuring". These are the creme-de-la-creme seeds, many of which have taken decades (and millions upon millions of dollars) to research and develop.

Just like with the Halliburton, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Nike, etc, this is just the latest attempt by the left to attack and defame a successful corporation.

So you think that Monsanto has every right to prevent poor farmers from freely saving seeds as they have been doing for decades, if not centuries? They're dirt poor. Where will they get the money to buy seeds that they've always saved in the past?

Seed Saving : Our Ethical Duty, Our Human Right

Dr. Vandana Shiva

Seed is the first link in the food chain. In Sanskrit, Bija, the seed, means the source of life. Saving seed is our duty, sharing seed is our culture.

Patents on seeds and genetic resources rob us of our birth right to derive our livelihoods by transforming seed saving and seed sharing into "intellectual property crimes". This is an assault on our culture, our human rights, our very survival.

Seed patents and seed monopolies are also becoming a major source of seed insecurity and food security. As seed is transformed from the common property of peasant communities into the private property of giant corporations like Monsanto, a number of associated transformations take place.

As seed saving is prevented by patents as well as by the engineering of seed with non-renewable traits, seed has to be bought for every planting season by poor peasants. A free resource available on farm become a commodity to which farmers are forced to by every year. This increases poverty and leads to indebtedness. As debts increase and become unpayable., farmers are compelled to sell kidneys or even commit suicide. More than 25,000 peasants in India have taken their lives since 1997 when the practice of seed saving was transformed under globalisation pressures and multinational seed corporations started to take control of the seed supply. Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.

The shift from farm saved seed to corporate monopolies of the seed supply is also a shift from biodiversity to monocultures in agriculture. The District of Warangal in Andhra Pradesh used to grow diverse legumes, millets, oilseeds. Seed monopolies created crop monocultures of cotton, leading to disappearance of millions of natures evolution and farmers breeding.

Monocultures and uniformity increase the risks of crop failure as diverse seeds adapted to diverse ecosystems are replaced by rushed introduction of unadapted and often untested seeds into the market. When Monsanto first introduced Bt Cotton in India in 2002, the farmers lost Rs. 1 billion due to crop failure. Instead of 1,500 Kg / acre as promised by the company, the harvest was as low as 200 kg. Instead of increased incomes of Rs. 10,000 / acre, farmers ran into losses of Rs. 6400 / acre.

In the state of Bihar, when farm saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto's hybrid corn, the entire crop failed creating Rs. 4 billion losses and hence increased poverty for desperately poor farmers.

Poor peasants of the South cannot survive seed monopolies. That is why the case of Percy Schmeiser will decide the fate not just of one Canadian farmer but billions of peasants. The unjust and unethical case brought by Monsanto against Percy is a double crime against farmers. Firstly by creating and enforcing illegitimate patent rights to seed, it robs us of our human right and human duty to be seed savers. Secondly, it rewards the polluter with enhanced property rights and profits. The principle of "pollute pays" has been transformed into the "polluter gets paid" principle.

This perverse jurisprudence must be corrected for the sake of all farmers, and all species. Farmers freedoms must come before corporate monopoly. Farmers survival must come before corporate greed. Percy's future is our future. Percy's seed freedom is our freedom. Percy's rights as a farmer are symbolic of the human rights of all farmers.

Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology
A- 60, Hauz Khas
New Delhi India 110016
Ph +91-11-26968077 and 26853772
Fax: +91-11-26856795
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

http://www.vshiva.net/aticles/seed_saving.htm

[Spliff]

Multinationals Rob Seeds of Poor

[insha]

Originally posted by shmerek:
Monsanto in india
Monsanto's Terminator Technology in Trouble
Monsanto sues canadian farmer
monsanto in thailand
From everything that I have ever read about Monsanto they scare the **** out of me. Just google them if you want to find out more.

You can hardly say one is liberating a people if their food production is going to be subservient to a corporation. This whole thing stinks.

Thanks for nudge. This is some scary stuff. How bad a shape do we have to be in to let things like this go so far!?

[shmerek]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
These are not just any seeds. They are not "naturally occuring". These are the creme-de-la-creme seeds, many of which have taken decades (and millions upon millions of dollars) to research and develop.

These articles leave out a lot of specifics, but if it's similar to what goes on in the US and other developed countries, that's fine with me.

The mom and pop farmers should be able to use any seed they want for their little gardens. But, if it is a major farming cooperative that is going to be shipping huge amounts of crops all over the globe, then there needs to be standards. It's not even arguable. And believe me, these Iraqi farmers with their higher-priced seeds (and more durable crops) will now have the entire world as a market.

Sure, Iraq could omit this provision and allow their commercial farms to grow whatever, with whatever, they want. But no other developed nation is going to allow those crops into their nation. When it comes to food on a global scale, it is imperative that standards and practices be written into trade law.

Anyone ever enter the state of California? I recall crossing the border and having a guard come to my car window and ask if I have any fruits, vegetables, or nuts with me. Fundamentally, I should be able to carry a tomato acrossthe border into California. Ultimately, however, there is a greater good being served.

Agricultural standards have been and remain vital to the global food supply.

Just like with the Halliburton, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Nike, etc, this is just the latest attempt by the left to attack and defame a successful corporation.

What a bunch of crap. The fact is these gm seeds will be forced on the iraqi farmer they won't have any choice, way to liberate

[DBursey]

Iraqi farmers with their higher-priced seeds (and more durable crops) will now have the entire world as a market.

Or the utilization of g.m. crops may preclude their participation in a growing number of world markets for grain and cereal crops as new and more stringent regulatory regimes are set in place to protect against the dimly understood consequences of unbridled genetic tampering with food stocks.

Summary compilation of recent Internet postings demonstrating global concern about genetic engineering

Animals Avoid GM Food, for Good Reasons

Recent action on genetic engineering

Cabinet papers warn Canada off GM crops

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by shmerek:
I don't know if this will get the timeline graphic or what but it seems pretty shitty.

Ahhh, Freedom�

[shmerek]

Originally posted by DBursey:
Or the utilization of g.m. crops may preclude their participation in a growing number of world markets for grain and cereal crops as new and more stringent regulatory regimes are set in place to protect against the dimly understood consequences of unbridled genetic tampering with food stocks.

Summary compilation of recent Internet postings demonstrating global concern about genetic engineering

Animals Avoid GM Food, for Good Reasons

Recent action on genetic engineering

Cabinet papers warn Canada off GM crops

for the links.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by Spliff:
So you think that Monsanto has every right to prevent poor farmers from freely saving seeds as they have been doing for decades, if not centuries? They're dirt poor. Where will they get the money to buy seeds that they've always saved in the past?

If they don't comply with food and agricultural standards, their food will never be allowed into other countries. That reduces their market by about 99%.

Poor mom-and-pop farmers can AFAIK still use their seeds in their gardens. This has more to do with international commerce.

The same concept is used with the pharmaceuticals industry. Ingestibles, as I call them.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by DBursey:
Or the utilization of g.m. crops may preclude their participation in a growing number of world markets for grain and cereal crops as new and more stringent regulatory regimes are set in place to protect against the dimly understood consequences of unbridled genetic tampering with food stocks.

Soon, Iraq will have their own elected government. They'll make their own decisions.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by shmerek:
What a bunch of crap. The fact is these gm seeds will be forced on the iraqi farmer they won't have any choice, way to liberate

THe only crap here is this anti-corporate agenda your pushing via selectively quoted material.

The fact remains, if a big Iraqi farmer/corporation wants to sell bales of rice to a developed nation (you know, the nations most likely to buy the stuff), standards must be complied with.

It's obvious that you wish to take away 99% of the worldwide market for Iraqi agriculture. After their upcoming elections, Iraq will make their own decisions on the matter - irregardless of your slant.

[shmerek]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
THe only crap here is this anti-corporate agenda your pushing via selectively quoted material.

The fact remains, if a big Iraqi farmer/corporation wants to sell bales of rice to a developed nation (you know, the nations most likely to buy the stuff), standards must be complied with.

It's obvious that you wish to take away 99% of the worldwide market for Iraqi agriculture. After their upcoming elections, Iraq will make their own decisions on the matter - irregardless of your slant.

Hey man all I am bitching about is at this point the iraqi farmers don't have a choice they have to comply and become monsanto bitches. So as they have their elections they can (hopefully) make their own decisions. That would be most excellent. Also you can have standards and comply with the worldwide market without having to use monsanto GM seed. 99% bull, I don't know if you read any of the links provided by DBursey but having GM crops is actually causing export problems for Canada.

The Canadian Wheat Board has just surveyed its overseas customers in Europe, Japan and the US, with 82% saying that they would not take GM wheat. The export market for milling wheat into bread is worth �2bn a year to Canada

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by shmerek:
Hey man all I am bitching about is at this point the iraqi farmers don't have a choice they have to comply and become monsanto bitches. So as they have their elections they can (hopefully) make their own decisions. That would be most excellent. Also you can have standards and comply with the worldwide market without having to use monsanto GM seed. 99% bull, I don't know if you read any of the links provided by DBursey but having GM crops is actually causing export problems for Canada.

I see nothing in that CA Order that mentions the name "Monsanto". And in the first article you posted, there were other companies mentioned along with Monsanto as suppliers. Not quite as limiting as you portray, is it?

As for Canada, their problems are their problems.

[shmerek]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
I see nothing in that CA Order that mentions the name "Monsanto". And in the first article you posted, there were other companies mentioned along with Monsanto as suppliers. Not quite as limiting as you portray, is it?

As for Canada, their problems are their problems.

Regardless if it is Monsanto or Monsanto and a couple of other companies the fact it they have to be supplied by these big companies at all that I have a problem with. Agriculture is a sef sustaining business and should not have to go to some US corp for their seed.
It is a Canadian problem but a problem of many of the world markets not wanting to accept GM products.

[voodoo]

http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/lay...ge/default.asp

Sound like the good guys

Anyway an interesting place to work for a molecular or plant biologist.

[spacefreak]

Originally posted by shmerek:
Agriculture is a sef sustaining business and should not have to go to some US corp for their seed.

Mom and Pop, again, can grow their wn tomatos from their own seeds no problem.

NO DEVELOPED COUNTRY WILL BUY AGRICULTURE FROM A NATION WHOSE PRODUCT IS NOT UP TO STANDARD.

That's it. Unless you want to change the trade laws of North America, South America, Europe, and most of Asia, Iraq will not be able to compete in global agricultural markets.

I cannot fathom the fact that you refuse to understand this. You're telling me that if you are going to restructure a nation's agriculture industry, and there's big money to be made for the farmers if their product meets the standards of the big markets, that you're going to recommend NOT complying with such standards?

The truth is, you are not at all concerned about Iraq's agricultural prospects. You're just pissed off that a US-based company is the global leader in seed development.

It would be a lot easier if you would just come out and say that you hate US companies instead of spending so much time trying to weave some ridiculous conclusion based on selected quotes from selected articles.

[Spliff]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
It would be a lot easier if you would just come out and say that you hate US companies instead of spending so much time trying to weave some ridiculous conclusion based on selected quotes from selected articles.

Spacefreak,

This discussion isn't about hating US corporations, but you're trying to claim it is. This discussion is about the questionable practices of a single corporation that happens to be based in the US. If Monsanto were Australian we'd still be complaining about it. Just because someone criticizes a US corporation doesn't mean they're against the US or against capitalism or against US corporations. It's nothing as black-and-white as that, so stop trying to characterize it as such.

[shmerek]

Originally posted by Spliff:
Spacefreak,

This discussion isn't about hating US corporations, but you're trying to claim it is. This discussion is about the questionable practices of a single corporation that happens to be based in the US. If Monsanto were Australian we'd still be complaining about it. Just because someone criticizes a US corporation doesn't mean they're against the US or against capitalism or against US corporations. It's nothing as black-and-white as that, so stop trying to characterize it as such.

Exactly.

[icydanger]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
Mom and Pop, again, can grow their wn tomatos from their own seeds no problem.

NO DEVELOPED COUNTRY WILL BUY AGRICULTURE FROM A NATION WHOSE PRODUCT IS NOT UP TO STANDARD.

right- up to US standard? EU standards are different, they restrict GM food

[shmerek]

As for thw spacefreak quote above. I am more concerned about the ability of Iraq to feed itself without having to pay some foreign corporation for seed. Let's worry about the international market after this first step and the standards you are worried about don't add up if you do a little research on GM foods.