Seeding starvation in Iraq

it's always amazed me that in the midst of all the blood and gore and and chaos of the early days of the iraq fiasco, when it was becoming painfully clear that we were not being greeted as liberators and and it was going to be anything but a *cakewalk* one of the first moves made by viceroy bremer was guaranteeing a market for the GE seed companies and fucking the descendants of the people who invented agriculture over by making it illegal to saveseeds which they have only been doing for a few thousands of years.
original-online journal

Seeding starvation in Iraq

By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor


Jan 4, 2007, 00:54


In 2004, when L. Paul Bremer III left his position as Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator to �transfer sovereignty,� he also left behind 100 deadly orders to govern Iraq. 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?
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complete article, including links to other sources [link:onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1602.shtml|here