Order 81

[Jcrowley]

<snip>

Order 81, which included “Patent, Industrial Design, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety,” prohibited Iraqis from reusing seeds of “new” plant varieties patented under the law. Think about that for a second . . .

What that order means is that seeds from those “new” varieties cannot be saved for reuse, at least not without paying a royalty to its “manufacturer,” whether it’s Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, or any of the other genetically-modifying seed giants. This could easily bankrupt farmers and contribute vastly to massive food shortages and starvation.

This law amended Iraq’s original patent law of 1970. Until it is revised or cancelled by a new Iraqi government, it is legally binding under the hawkish wing of the colonizing CPA. Historically, the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources. Yet this US-stamped patent law does just that. It introduces a plan for monopoly rights over seeds, if you can believe it.

In fact, there is a whole new chapter on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) inserted into Iraq’s former patent law. Page 15 and on provide for “protection” of new varieties of plants.” In it, PVP becomes an “intellectual property right” (IPR) for plants, a monopoly right on planting material (seeds) for a breeder claiming to have discovered or developed a new variety. Move over god, earth spirit, Mother Nature, whatever you wish to call creation’s prime mover. Monsanto is here, changing it all. And this has nothing to do with conservation. It’s about safeguarding “free market” interests, that is, the behemoths who claim they created the new plants. How’s that for a hustle?

To stack up for PVP status, plant varieties must meet standards of the UPOV Convention. What then? It calls for plants to be new, distinct, uniform and stable. Of course, farmers’ seeds can’t meet these criteria, despite the fact that Iraqi farmers have crossbred and improved their plants under close scrutiny for 8,000 years within their fertile crescent. But then, PVP-protected seeds are the proprietary domain of corporations. And what’s good for GM (genetic modification), whether from Monsanto, or its equally rapacious competitors, is good for Iraq, and soon to be the world if they have their way.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1602.shtml

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 is now history. The CPA has made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law. Iraqis may continue to use and save from their traditional seed stocks or what’s left of them after the years of war and drought, but that is the not the agenda for reconstruction embedded in the ruling. The purpose of the law is to facilitate the establishment of a new seed market in Iraq, where transnational corporations can sell their seeds – genetically modified or not, which farmers would have to purchase afresh every single cropping season.

http://www.grain.org/articles/index.cfm?id=6&print=yes

[MH1]

1. One more way of screwing the common people

This sort of thing is put into trade agreements (like CAFTA) too.

And we wonder why people in other countries aren't happy with us?

[Quakerfriend]

2. This has got to stop! Ralph Nader said it in a nutshell:

We have given OWNERSHIP of our flora and fauna to large multinational corps. Genetically modified food stuffs are a high crime against humanity! It needs more exposure. The American people are asleep on this one.

[Richard D]

3. If you look deeper at this . . .

. . . it's a weapon. Get a nation dependent, voluntarily or not, on these seeds, add a terminator gene, and presto - do what we say or you won't get more seeds and the country will rapidly starve.

[Jcrowley]

6. Yes

and the seeds are being engineered to require a "trigger" at various points of growth, flowering e.g., and you must purchase that trigger from the Company, Monsanto e.g., or your plants won't develop. I believe Delta and Pine developed the first patent on these. Use to follow this closely but no longer so I am not up to date on what is in the pipeline.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

A classic example is ''terminator'' technology, which renders seeds infertile in subsequent generations so that farmers are forced to return to the transnational firms to buy seeds rather than use what they have stored, as in traditional farming

''Terminator technology delivered from the outside could make entire countries dependent on TNCs for their seed requirements,'' Wieszacker said.

''This is in fact a war on entire species at the cost of monocultures which are vulnerable to ecological breakdown and are unsustainable,'' Edwards said.

Worst of all is the refusal of governments that are backed by the same TNCs to accept the international regulation of little-understood areas of biotechnology, notably genetic engineering, despite its potential for mass destruction, intended or otherwise, said Prof. Jean Grossholtz, feminist and global campaigner for cultural and biological diversity.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0125-04.htm

[G_j]

4. k& r

how very familiar..

[dipsydoodle]

5. Exactly the same happened in India

They were supplied with disease proof seeds which initially produced seeds in turn. As soon as the manufacturers realized this they made the seeds effectively sterile thus preventing further planting.

Bastards. x(

[yodermon]

7. There is something profoundly disturbing about this..

..namely that it is happening in the fertile crescent, the cradle of civilization, the land between the Tigris & Euphrates rivers, the Garden of Eden, even. The very birthplace of agriculture (some would argue). The very place where Cain's offering was rejected by god, after which he immediately proceeded to commit murder .. hmm.. sorry for the disjointed post but this is fraught with symbolism.

[Jcrowley]

8. One of Iraq’s most well known indigenous wheat varieties is called ‘Abu Ghraib’

Despite its recent troubles, Iraqi agriculture’s long history means that for the last 10,000 years Iraqi farmers have been naturally selecting wheat varieties that work best with their climate. Each year they have saved seeds from crops that prosper under certain conditions and replanted and cross-pollinated them with others with different strengths the following year, so that the crop continually improves. In 2002, the FAO estimated that 97 per cent of Iraqi farmers used their own saved seed or bought seed from local markets. That there are now over 200,000 known varieties of wheat in the world is down in no small part to the unrecognised work of farmers like these and their informal systems of knowledge sharing and trade. It would be more than reasonable to assume that somewhere amongst the many fields and grainstores of iraq there are samples of strong, indigenous wheat varieties that could be developed and distributed around the country in order to bolster production once more.

Likewise, long before Abu Ghraib became the world’s most infamous prison, it was known for housing not inmates, but seeds. In the early 1970s samples of the many varieties used by Iraqi farmers were starting to be saved in the country’s national gene bank, situated in the town of Abu Ghraib. Indeed one of Iraq’s most well known indigenous wheat varieties is called ‘Abu Ghraib’.

Unfortunately, this vital heritage and knowledge base is now believed lost, the victim of the current campaign and the many years of conflict that preceded it. But there is another viable source. At the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria there are still samples of several Iraqi varieties. As a revealing report by Focus on the Global South and GRAIN comments: ‘These comprise the agricultural heritage of Iraq belonging to the Iraqi farmers that ought now to be repatriated.’

<snip>

The US, however, has decided that, despite 10,000 years practice, Iraqis don’t know what wheat works best in their own conditions, and would be better off with some new, imported American varieties. Under the guise, therefore, of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally reengineer the country’s traditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. Or, as the aforementioned press release from Headquarters United States Command puts it: ‘Multi-National Forces are currently planting seeds for the future of agriculture in the Ninevah Province’

First, it is re-educating the farmers. An article in the Land and Livestock Post reveals that thanks to a project undertaken by Texas A&M University’s International Agriculture Office there are now 800 acres of demonstration plots all across Iraq, teaching Iraqi farmers how to grow ‘high-yield seed varieties’ of crops that include barley, chick peas, lentils – and wheat.

<snip>

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SMI20050827&articleId=870

[OneBlueSky]

9. of all the shit the U.S. has laid on Iraq, this is certainly among the most insidious . . .

beyond invasion, beyond massive civilian killings, beyond contaminating the countryside with depleted uranium, we now want to prohibit Iraqi farmers from practicing the age-old custom of seed saving . . .

this is truly despicable . . . and, like virtually all of our national and planetary crises, guess who's behind it? . . .

that's right . . . corporations! . . . and the thoroughly unethical, immoral, and flat out illegal actions they engage in to maximize profits at the expense of all of us . . .

beyond being unethical and immoral, this policy is also stunningly stupid . . . does anyone actually believe that subsistance farmers in Iraq are going to be able to afford to buy new Monsanto seeds every year? . . .

I swear, sometimes I think that the people running our government AND the corporations that "support" it are really and truly clinically insane . . .

[truedelphi]

10. And we wonder why They hate us

The Iraqis know about all of this.

they watched in horror as our troops buzz sawed down their sacred date and fig trees.

Then the Iraqi People found out that there will be hardly anything in their country that is not GMO.