|
Political Asylum Publicly Debate Politics, War, Media. |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread | Display Modes |
23-03-05, 12:20 PM | #1 | ||
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
|
Agricultural DRM in Iraq
aparently, among the various "reforms" we have imposed on the Iraqis, is a whole new chapter of patent law:
Quote:
Quote:
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6 |
||
23-03-05, 12:44 PM | #2 | |
--------------------
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,379
|
Knife - did you even read the "CLARIFICATION" - February 2005
The report jointly issued by Focus on the Global South and GRAIN in October 2004 on Iraq's new patent law has received a lot of attention worldwide. It has also generated a misunderstanding that we wish to clarify. The law does not prohibit Iraqi farmers from using or saving "traditional" seeds. It prohibits them from reusing seeds of "new" plant varieties registered under the law - in practical terms, this means they cannot save those seeds for re-use. The report has been revised to express this more clearly. See the article you posted used a Fear Factor to get people, (mostly people against the War in Iraq), something to get all worked up about. Quote:
“What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.” -- Bertrand Russell, “Roads to Freedom”
__________________
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend |
|
23-03-05, 01:11 PM | #3 |
Keebeck Canuck
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Close to a border of LUNATICS
Posts: 1,771
|
|
23-03-05, 01:16 PM | #4 | |
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
|
Quote:
didn't know that had already been posted Miss S... Sinner, what part of the link didn't you think i read? the part you reposted? yup, i read that it doesn't apply to seeds they already have - that's not the point of the post. the point of the post is this: by allowing Monsanto et al to insert this into the CPA rules, we then set up thousands of Iraqi farmers to be the next Homer McFarlings, because the only new varieties allowed into Iraq are gonna be from corporations, not individuals. Iraq is a breadbasket of the Middle East and the genetic origin of wheat. should US agribusiness be allowed to own that heritage? |
|
23-03-05, 01:39 PM | #5 | ||
--------------------
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,379
|
Quote:
Here is Order 81 http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulat...atents_Law.pdf Nowhere does it say Iraqis must use GMO seeds. They can continue to farm the way they have for years. Order 81 is a WTO-style patent for protections on genetically engineered crops. Also A quote form Chris Horner the spokesman for Monsanto,- "For the record, Monsanto has no plans to introduce biotechnology in Iraq," -- "It doesn't fit with our business plans." If security and other factors improve, Horner says, "there could be opportunities for conventional seeds and chemicals. ... I would not characterize it as an emerging market." The outcry about Order 81 has "no basis in fact," says Horner. "How many new patented seed varieties are there in Iraq? Zero." This is not an Iraqi problem, these laws have been around for years, i am not saying this law is right but to say Bush and America is trying to control farmers in Iraq is complete Bullshit. Want something to argue -- ---Under NAFTA, "there wasn't supposed to be genetically modified corn coming to Mexico," yet GMO corn from the United States was discovered there in 2001. This February, a coalition of 70 groups from six Central American and Caribbean countries announced that GMOs – specifically, the infamous StarLink maize not authorized for human consumption – had been detected in U.N. food aid and commercial imports from the United States.--- Again i am not saying I am for these laws but that article is BS..... Quote:
__________________
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend |
||
23-03-05, 01:52 PM | #6 |
--------------------
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,379
|
to add---
Bill Rammell (Harlow, Lab) Hansard source UK Government officials in Iraq, as members of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), and other officials in the UK were consulted and invited to comment during the drafting of CPA Order 81. The Order was the subject of consultation and co-ordination with the Iraqi Governing Council, and was consistent with the needs identified by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the development of Iraq and its transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The provisions of CPA Order 81 concern the registration and protection of intellectual property rights in new plant varieties. The Order should not affect the ability of Iraqi farmers to save seeds from traditional sources. Any restrictions would relate only to patented biotech inventions or protected plant varieties. This is the normal effect of introducing such an intellectual property law. To secure protection, plant varieties would have needed to have been shown to be new, distinct from other varieties in common knowledge, uniform and stable. Farmers will have a choice of sources for their seed supply: they may choose to continue using current sources, such as saving their own seeds of traditional and unprotected varieties, or may choose to buy seeds which are subject to patent or plant variety rights protection. The implementation, application and interpretation of all CPA orders is now a matter for the Iraqis. The newly elected Transitional National Assembly, together with the Iraqi Transitional Government, have the power to overturn or rewrite any existing CPA Orders that they feel do not address the needs and rights of the Iraqi people.
__________________
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend |
23-03-05, 02:06 PM | #7 |
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,024
|
The issue isn’t whether they’ll be arrested for planting traditional seeds, the issue is whether patent law should recognize life forms, which apparently under the old Iraqi code it did not. Now that it does, and if Monsanto does get a beachhead in Iraq, using Monsanto seeds will give farmers a production edge over the farmer who doesn’t. Hold outs, those who use the traditional seeds, will normally find themselves with lower yields and at a competitive disadvantage compared to farmers using the Monsanto patented crops. The reason for this is at it’s base chemical, not genetic, because the new crops are highly resistant to the toxic effects of Monsanto’s signature herbicide, Roundup, and this allows massive use of the toxin on a scale that would ordinarily be prohibitive, because along with the weeds and other living elements in the soil the product would also kill the farmer’s cash crop as well. No longer. Now roundup can be applied in such heavy quantities it has led researchers to dub the practice Chemo-farming, after the non dissimilar therapy for cancer sufferers that attempts to kill cancer cells but all too often winds up killing many of the patients as well. Roundup migration to other fields (called “drift”) causes serious problems, where farms are small and the other fields are held by different owners. These innocent farmers who use herbicides in a totally different manor, if at all, now find their precious water tainted and their traditional crops “inadvertently” killed by the chemical, forcing them into the same burdensome financial cycle where they have to buy the new seeds and now Roundup in turn. Not to mention the problems associated with the health effects of cumulative exposure on the people themselves. While it’s highly touted as a product that “breaks down fast” it’s still the leading cause of illness, at least among California landscape and farm workers where it ranks as numbers one and three respectively.
So far from being this ridiculously simple equation the corporation mouthpieces would have you believe, “Don’t like Patent Seeds, don’t use ‘em!” turns out, as usual to be cynical sloganeering. The effects go way beyond the decisions of isolated individuals applying these engineered products on their own plots. By creating this system in patent law they can very well damage traditional farming, with a little knowledge of human behavior it’s relatively easy to craft laws in such a fashion that create dependence on chemo-farming along with the multi national conglomerates and the world leaders (and police and court systems) supporting and enforcing it, and ultimately that’s the only point of the exercise from the corporations’ point of view. Creating in essence a class of serfs where you once had not rich but at least independent farmers is an underhanded practice the wealthy and powerful have regularly encouraged and often notoriously accomplished. So while nothing in law may directly prohibit growers from husbanding seeds and using traditional crops the system does stack the odds so far in favor of the conglomerates it all but accomplishes the same thing. - js. |
23-03-05, 02:11 PM | #8 | |
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
|
Quote:
and do you really believe that CPA order 81 got written without any influence from the companies who will stand to benefit? |
|
23-03-05, 02:33 PM | #9 | ||
--------------------
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,379
|
Quote:
The Order is there to protect intellectual property. Are GMO's good or the Law fair? I really do not know. Not the point, I just have a problem with this quote you made... Quote:
__________________
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend |
||
23-03-05, 02:47 PM | #10 |
flippin 'em off
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: the real world
Posts: 3,232
|
The propaganda war continues though.
Lol at the bird brains; can't even remember what they were squawking last month but think they're so much smarter than career farmers that they know what's best for them. Guess they just saw the same propaganda again and forgot they'd already parroted it. Wonder if they still get a cracker. |
23-03-05, 02:52 PM | #11 | ||
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
23-03-05, 03:00 PM | #12 | |
--------------------
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,379
|
Quote:
I would stop posting Propaganda From October of Last Year if I was you, I am not you so continue if you wish, Things have changed since then.
__________________
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend |
|
23-03-05, 03:23 PM | #13 | |
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
|
Quote:
in one form or another, CPA 81 will live on. Iraq is the world's biggest cash cow right now - whomever needs CPA 81 to stay put will just buy off Iraq's newly elected officials. just like in America. |
|
23-03-05, 03:29 PM | #14 | |
--------------------
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,379
|
Quote:
Iraq's new patent law: A declaration of war against farmers October 17, 2004 -- Do you even know what you post????
__________________
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend |
|
23-03-05, 04:23 PM | #15 | |
my name is Ranking Fullstop
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Promontorium Tremendum
Posts: 4,391
|
Quote:
ok, i'm back. yup, that's what it is. |
|
23-03-05, 04:52 PM | #16 |
flippin 'em off
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: the real world
Posts: 3,232
|
Last edited by albed : 23-03-05 at 05:20 PM. |
19-04-05, 03:00 PM | #17 |
Posts: n/a
|
Iraq farming legacy is threatened
I'm not sure if anyone is still interested in this discussion, but I wanted to make some comments anyway. While there has been a lot of alarmist claims about CPA order 81 which appear to be technically inaccurate, the fact of the matter is that the seed saving legacy of the Iraq farmer IS threatened.
I tried not to be alarmist. I wanted to get it right. Read order 81 carefully, but esecially Articles 14.C.1 and 14.C.2 and 15. One of you mentioned it being WTO-styled. In fact, the plant variety protection racket goes back to the end of the 19th century when hybridization was becoming a more modern science in the post-Mendel world of genetics. The U.S. patent office consistently refused to patent life. The emerging USDA and some well placed bureaucrats began building a bypass around the U.S. patent office via legislation that developed throughout the 20th century: 1930 Plant Patent Act 1970 Plant Variety Protection Act Anyone who is interested in learning more about the precedent being set by the courts and the legal frameworks that are developing should check out www.seedsofdeception.com and also read "Altered Harvest" by Jack Doyle, 1985. I believe Doyle's book is out of print. It appears to be 20 years ahead of its time, and the historical record is quite good. Europe started the "International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants" (UPOV) - http://www.upov.int. Canada has Plant Breeder's Rights Act - http://laws.justice.gc.ca./en/P-14.6/fulltoc.html and the associated Plant Breeders' Rights Office - http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/.../pbrpove.shtml. And now Iraq has order 81. Former CPA chief Paul Bremer also appointed some national security wanks with 5 year terms well before the recent election, in order to secure U.S. foreign policy power inside the new order. All of these "patent" laws are simply frameworks for the biotech cartels. Traditional seeds can be patented. All you have to do is map the genetic code and isolate the traits and file the paperwork. This is ALREADY happening in other countries. It WILL happen in Iraq unless the new government scraps order 81, which is unlikely due to the national security puppets who will scream to high hell about open markets being in the national interest and whatever other neoliberal BS they can come up with. Farmers have been developing seed for centuries. ICARDA has 1000 specimens from Iraq stored in Syria. The Abu Ghraib genebank was looted/destroyed in the war. The same thing happened in Afghanistan - and they HID their germplasm resources. Another issue is cross-pollination. GM traits can be passed through cross pollination. This is ALREADY happening. And if GM seed traits are passed to a traditional variety, guess who owns the seed that follows from the cross? You guessed it, the patent holder. As for Monsanto spokestwit Chris Horner stating "for the record, Monsanto has no plans to introduce biotechnology in Iraq..." - it's BULLSHIT. Monsanto now controls 90% of the world's GM seed supply and 80% of the world's soybeans. Do you think they are going to let an opening market in Iraq sit dormant? The key words are "no plans". Plans change. They are buying up seed companies at an alarming rate. They are moving into water. Their chemicals have already invaded the soil. What else is left for agricultural hegemony except to control the weather. All this talk about food security is a lot of prop-spin. Cozy language is being used for the idealogues to lap up. The facts are that GMO tech is threatening food security and biodiversity in the name of profits and foreign policy chess maneuvers. More importantly, GMO is not necessary. Like other militaristic technologies, it is about concentration of power. Traditional farming methods are much less threatening to biodiversity and provide REAL options for food security, but they are inheritantly more democratic - they prevent monopolies like Monsanto from operating that they do. Traditional farming is about building community and the open sharing of knowledge and a diverse seed base. Do you all know about the corn blight of 1970? Read the intro to Altered Harvest at http://www.unsafescience.com/cms-sclb.html. In any case, if terminator seeds (via GURTs) become a reality, this will all be a moot point, as the ability for farmer's to save seed will be severely marginalized, because the resulting seed from the GM varieties will be sterile. Should those varieties cross-pollinate and pass the terminator trait to other non-GM varieties in the same family - biodiversity meltdown. |
20-04-05, 03:28 PM | #18 | |
Thanks for being with arse
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The other side of the world
Posts: 10,343
|
some good info there
heres some stuff about terminator seeds Quote:
|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|