Unbelievable Story: Iraq's Seeds of Destruction

[tumor]

Guys! You HAVE to check this story! It is incredible!
And then we wonder why people around the World hate America so much?

http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
or try www.vegsource.com

Another good article on the same topic:

www.grain.org

 

[devious_]

What the..

 

[Smurf]

I'm not surprised. Agri-corp is taking over.
Just another reason for the Iraqi's to rise up against their oppressive invaders.

 

[Moses]

Iraqi proverb : " So you lost your white horse...and you feel sorry now about the Saddle?!?"

This is exactly the thingy in its core: Thier country is invaded..the feel that U.S thought she defeated them by plotting her soldiers who killed 100,000 Iraqis citizens till now [Well, my bad math says...says...yeah at least 32 times more than 911 attackes loses which started all that Global crazy staff]
And yeah the U.S goverments who was "punished" Iraqis for 12 years by not buying good food from outside the country borders and the loss because of that was more than 1 million children [not speaking about othe age stages here]

And so now it is this seeds thingy? The article is good...but it only represent a drop in an Ocean..a big Ocean...a very big ocean... :uhh:

 

[Hurkyl]

Allow me to interrupt the two minute hate for a moment. Ignoring that the article seems awfully biased (I'm not saying it's wrong, just biased), don't you find it suspicious that it hasn't managed to become big news in the month since GRAIN wrote its first article on this?

 

[Smurf]

Refer to 'The Meatrix' now.

 

[Smurf]

Allow me to interrupt the two minute hate for a moment. Ignoring that the article seems awfully biased (I'm not saying it's wrong, just biased), don't you find it suspicious that it hasn't managed to become big news in the month since GRAIN wrote its first article on this?

Goes to show that the Media is owned by the same slimballs that own agri-corp.

 

[Evo]

The restriction on re-using seed is only concerning patented seed, this is no different than laws protecting patents in force anywhere else in the world.

Farmers shall be prohibited from re-using seeds of protected varieties or any variety mentioned in items 1 and 2 of paragraph (C) of Article 14 of this Chapter.

http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf

 

[tumor]

Patented seeds and reusing them is a whole new story and has nothing to do with this new situation in Iraq.
What is going on is that Iraqi farmers are going to be persecuted for saving their property(seeds),I call this blackmail and form of terrorism!

 

[Evo]

Patented seeds and reusing them is a whole new story and has nothing to do with this new situation in Iraq.
What is going on is that Iraqi farmers are going to be persecuted for saving their property(seeds),I call this blackmail and form of terrorism!

tumor, that is incorrect. I posted the link to the actual law, you can read it for yourself, the Iraqi farmers cannot re-use patented seed, just like anyone else in the world.

 

[Moonbear]

Evo, I'm puzzled about how they would re-use patented seeds anyway...I thought if a plant produced fertile seeds, it wasn't patentable. I thought they had to be propagated only by asexual methods in order to qualify for a patent. I could be wrong on that though.

 

[Evo]

Evo, I'm puzzled about how they would re-use patented seeds anyway...I thought if a plant produced fertile seeds, it wasn't patentable. I thought they had to be propagated only by asexual methods in order to qualify for a patent. I could be wrong on that though.

Actually I should have said "protected" as in registered, it's in the link to the patent law that tumor's article is about.

It also specifically states that this is for the protection of new varieties of plants.

 

[tumor]

Okay, maybe you right,but what happened, Monsanto came in on the back of Marines, got patents on domestic seeds and Iraqi farmers are screwd for good.
EU,Canada,Australia and almost whole of Asia does not uses patented seeds,why?no self respecting nation can let some mother****ers in Washington, New York or London dictate their food policy.

 

[Evo]

According to this law, it's only applicable to new varieties of plants.

"The protected variety: The variety registered according to the provisions of this chapter.

The education: Breeding a new plant variety or discovering and developing such.

The breeder: The person who bred, discovered or developed a new variety, or the legal succesor to such person.

The registrar: The registrar of the new plant varieties nominated by the minister.

The register: The register of the new plant varieties.

According to this, you can't register an existing variety.

 

[Tsu]

Whose 'law' is that? It looks like an Iraq COALITION document (signed by Paul Bremer ) to me. Were do we get off telling the Iraqis what to do with the seeds grown in their country? Have they actually officially agreed to be bound by this document? It appears more like it has been forced on them...

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.

Good old ShrubCo (GOD must have made him do it)...

 

[russ_watters]

EU,Canada,Australia and almost whole of Asia does not uses patented seeds...

You sure about that...?

 

[jcsd]

There's a couple of issues here:

1) patenting seeds is worldwide a very contraversial issue and ceratinly in many countires you cannot patent seeds in this way. I really don't think it was the place of the US to impose such contraversial legislation on the Iraqis

2) In many cases the patneting laws in general give too much power to the comapnies which means that they do not just cover seeds brought from the companies and, no the laws don't just cover seeds from which no new seeds cna be obtained.

 

[Smurf]

You sure about that...?

In Canada, It's complicated.
Prior to this Supreme Court case the Patent Act didn't cover 'Higher Life Forms' such as plants and seeds. But a Monsanto found a loop hole with genetically modified Plants and patented the gene instead of the plant.
Not sure about the details.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45322-2004May21.html

 

[Evo]

Great article smurf, that sheds a lot of light on the seed issue.

In Iraq, the farmers may continue to save and reuse the same seeds they always have. If they want to use and benefit from newer, high tech, disease resistant, higher yield seeds, they are held to the same rules everyone else in the world is.

I live near an experimental Bayer crop farm where they've been growing "glow in the dark" corn. I remember reading somewhere it was from a jellyfish gene. I wonder if the birds eating the stuff will start to glow, or maybe that would explain the glowing bird poop on my windshield.

 

[Smurf]

I've done some additional research, it seems farmers are getting screwed left and right whenever some GM seeds even blow into their crops from their neighbours they can get sued for it.

 

[Evo]

I've done some additional research, it seems farmers are getting screwed left and right whenever some GM seeds even blow into their crops from their neighbours they can get sued for it.

That's why I liked the idea of the counter-suit proposed in the article. Farmers should charge the agro companies for leasing space, maintenance, care etc... of any crops that were grown due to unwanted seed coming onto their lands.

It should be a double edged sword.

 

[Smurf]

I don't think the patent should only come into play when making profit from selling it directly.

 

[z4955]

Guys! You HAVE to check this story! It is incredible!
And then we wonder why people around the World hate America so much?

http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
or try www.vegsource.com

Another good article on the same topic:

www.grain.org
How do we know how true these articles are?

 

[tumor]

That's why I liked the idea of the counter-suit proposed in the article. Farmers should charge the agro companies for leasing space, maintenance, care etc... of any crops that were grown due to unwanted seed coming onto their lands.

It should be a double edged sword.

Tell me if farmers in third world countries where majority of patented seeds are being cultivated under the barrel of a gun have the resources and will to sue huge and rich agro companies?

 

[russ_watters]

Z - you need to set off the quote in your post with quotes.

How do we know how true these articles are?

The first thing I always do is check the source: is an activist website a reliable source? Second, I check for corroboration - provided by EVO in this case. The linked articles don't match the law they are describing or the interpretation of the other sources.

Regarding the Canada thing - it would be a lot simpler if all the seeds are sterila (I thought they were too), and while I think patents need to be protected, its unfair to penalize a farmer for an act of nature (the wind).