Iraqis Are Running Out of Food

of course, i'm sure paul bremer and his order #81 declaring that iraqi farmers can't save seeds and practically mandating they can only purchase GMO seeds from american companies doesn't have anything to do with this. nothing at all i'm sure. absolutely nothing. at. all. nothing.besides starvation anat.
original-alternet-IPS

LEARN MORE ABOUT CPA ORDER81

Iraqis Are Running Out of Food
By Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily, IPS News
Posted on February 22, 2007, Printed on February 25, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/48227/

The lack of security in Iraq is leading now to a collapse in food supplies.

"Look at us begging for food despite the fortunes we have," 60-year-old Um Muthanna from Baghdad said. Standing at a vegetable market in central Baghdad where vegetable supplies are not what they used to be, Um Mahmood despaired for Iraq.

"A country with two great rivers should have been the biggest exporter in the world, but now we beg for food from those who participated in killing us." Iraq is rich in oil and agricultural resources.

Local and international aid flooded into Iraq in 2004, the year following the invasion, but much of the supply was blocked off after the kidnapping of many aid activists in the country.

The food the Iraqis did get was often not what they needed, or wanted.

"Iraqis do not feel at ease receiving food aid when they exported food in the past," economist Dr. Jassim al-Rikabi said.
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complete article here

Hersh says the money was used by the US to arm both the Sunnis and the Shias and their various internal factions to further the civil war and put the smackdown on Hezbollah.

Hersh has such a good track record that I tend to believe him at this point.

of course, i'm sure paul bremer and his order #81 declaring that iraqi farmers can't save seeds and practically mandating they can only purchase GMO seeds from american companies doesn't have anything to do with this.

Like that's been enforced. :eyes:

Also, your reading of rule 81 appears to be wrong. It in no way prohibits the saving of heirloom seeds, as far as I can tell.

of course your argument had better be fairly perauasive becaus it's not only *my* reading of it that sees where it prevents iraqi farmers from saving seeds. i can point you to a dozen sites right off the bat and scores more given a bit of time.
edit for clarification - the reason i say there's no other way to read the order is some of the primary targets during the invasion were the stores of seed companies and the agricultural feed and supply warehouses because those were pinpointed as some of those WMD that rummy knew exactly where they were - east north west and south somewhat of baghdad. narowed it right the fuck down din't he?

I've read rule 81. Point me to the section where it says that farmers can't save their own heirloom seeds from season to season.

>i can point you to a dozen sites right off the bat and scores more given a bit of time.

I'm not looking for somebody's site saying this. I'm looking at what the law says. Please show me where the law says this.

to beable to run in a country like iraq and completly distroy there whole way of life , this makes me dam sick , jr. should be hung just like his old cowboy freinds of yester years

With a bushel of rotten tomatoes lobbed at his head first.

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.

While historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds.

greet the Americans. I'm sure the kids will thrive on that.

:mad: