IRAQI FARMERS CAN'T SAVE SEEDS T O GROW CROPS

[Guest guest]

Iraqi Farmers Aren't Celebrating World Food Day

Nov 11, 2004

 

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.

 

 

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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.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

 

From GRAIN Shalini Bhutani in India [Tel: +91 11 243 15 168 (work) or +91 98 104

33 076 (cell)] or Alexis Vaughan in United Kingdom [Tel: +44 79 74 39 34 87

(mobile)]

 

From Focus on the Global South Herbert Docena in Philippines [Tel:+63 2 972 382

3804]

 

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/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf

 

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

2004, http://www.grain.org/front/?id=24

 

source: http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=253 16oct04