Big Agro Bizz Buys up Biological Diversity

Big Agro Bizz Buys up Biological Diversity

www.indyweek.com

"When you save your own seeds, you can pick from the best plants and produce varieties that work well on your land," he says. "You can maintain the background of genetic diversity, while adapting it to what works best for you."

These well-adapted plants are called landraces, unique varieties specifically suited to the hundreds of millions of microclimates that exist around the world, and for most of history farmers have preserved them by saving seeds. These seeds carry cultural traditions, agricultural wisdom and sustainable biodiversity from one generation to the next, creating a 12,000-year-old heritage that nourishes our food system today.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Food Supply in danger!
Monsanto Terminator Technology -- Worldwide Famine & Starvation
politics.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 8-3-2007 by khunmoon]

Biopiracy is the norm of the day in big agricultural business. US patent laws has for more than a century allowed patent on chemical compounds derived from plants.

The Plant Patent Act was passed in 1930, allowing patents on new varieties, but it wasn't before the 1980 case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty patenting lifeforms became possible. Originally turned down by the patent examiner, stating that the law dictated that living things were not patentable, the Supreme Court upheld a patent on a bacterium, genetically modified by Chakrabarty to consume petroleum, reasoning that U.S. law permits patents on "anything under the sun that is made by man."

In 1991 came the John More decision opening the floodgates for patenting human DNA, but that would be too much to cover under the present topic.

That is, in very brief, the background for the thousands of biological patents granted since 1980.

Today big agro-firms like Monsanto systematically patents any variations in the gene code, that they can claim have a specific function first described by them. IOW, intellectual property are applied to the diversity developed by grain selection of farmers through millenniums, which means seeds that have been used and exchanged freely through generations, suddenly become illegal to use -- unless they get permission from the legal owners, i.e. Monsanto.

Mostly they won't be able to obtain, even buy that right, cause the agenda of big agro bizz is the reduction of biological diversity. They want the farmers to have no other choice than their genetically modified strings of terminator species.

Species that have no seeds at all or are sterile, so for every season new seed stock must be purchased. An aggressive policy of buying up local seed companies is also applied, to terminate local varieties, to kill off the diversity of the land

Their policy is the most distinct attempt on control of populous the world has ever seen. As long as you can keep warm, you could survive without fuel, but you can never survive without food.

The consequences of these policies are dire, outright evil, yes satanic, if you ask me.
Question is what can be done to stop it.

Legislation from governments are in favour of corporations, so no help there any time soon, though it must be said in Europe the popular resistance against any GMO food is almost universal.

EU and national legislation have for years tried to keep out GMO products and to meet the demand for marking of those that cannot be avoided.
Only WTO regulations and threats of trade barriers keep them from doing so.

First of all an awareness must be risen. I would say in Europe that awareness is there, whereas the American consumer seems more ignorant about the issue.

Fellow ATS'ers, go spread the word about what they do to your food and to future generations.
It's the biggest conspiracy in the history of man.

www.indyweek.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 9-3-2007 by khunmoon]

To bump this thread here's another link about
Monsanto's Terminator Technology

Monsanto is in the process of acquiring and patenting their newest technology, known as "Terminator Technology." This technology is currently the greatest threat to humanity. If it is used by Monsanto on a large-scale basis, it will inevitably lead to famine and starvation on a worldwide basis.

Billions of people on the planet are supported by farmers who save seeds from the crops and replant these seeds the following year. Seeds are planted. The crop is harvested. And the seeds from the harvest are replanted the following year. Most farmers cannot afford to buy new seeds every year, so collecting and replanting seeds is a crucial part of the agricultural cycle. This is the way food has been grown successfully for thousands of years.

And here's a case about Monsanto suing a man whose crops accidentally got contaminated by their sterile patented plants: Monsanto Inc. v. Schmeiser

Good thread khunmoon.


I can't contribute intelligent commentary at the moment - but I will take a moment to rant...

Never mind create Frankensteinian lifeforms that "terminate" the competition...

I find it astounding and frightening that corporations can OWN lifeforms' genetic blueprints - their DNA.



Did you know that a corporations can steal one of your cells, analyze it genetically, and then OWN your DNA?

Did you know that the best drugs are natural human proteins? That whomever analyzes and maps the healing protein first then owns it? That anyone who wants to compete and make the same product has to change it enough to avoid patent enfringement charges - which changes the protein enough so that it doesn't work the way it is supposed to, and often causes "side effects" like death or psychosis? (Ie., interferon)

That's the way the laws are written. To protect private ownership, and profits over people.

What's wrong with this picture?

Originally posted by soficrow
Did you know that a corporations can steal one of your cells, analyze it genetically, and then OWN your DNA?

Did you know that the best drugs are natural human proteins? That whomever analyzes and maps the healing protein first then owns it? That anyone who wants to compete and make the same product has to change it enough to avoid patent enfringement charges - which changes the protein enough so that it doesn't work the way it is supposed to, and often causes "side effects" like death or psychosis? (Ie., interferon)

That's the way the laws are written. To protect private ownership, and profits over people.

What's wrong with this picture?

That greed will make an end to us all -- even those of us that might not be THAT greedy.

Thanks for your rant Sofi!

The precedence for copyrighting human DNA was --as far as I know-- the John More decision.

In 1991, The California Supreme Court decided that a newly discovered cancer cell, known as "Mo," and any profits stemming from innovations relating to the cell were the sole property of the researchers who found and patented it. The man, whose body the cells were originally taken from, had no legal claim to ownership or copyright of the cells and could not demand compensation or other redress. The case, known as the John Moore decision, illustrates the legal and ethical dilemmas society faces in the age of biotechnology.

----

BTW I've come acros a very good post by Long Lance about what can happen when GM crops rule the land. A real life story from Argentina. Read it if you want to deny ignorance.

Argentina's Bitter Harvest - GM crops turned sour