Corporatism making seed saving illegal in Iraq

Ra Energy Fdn.
Raleigh Myers
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Blog
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Corporatism making seed saving illegal in Iraq

This is the opposite of what should be happening _ kicking the indigenous off their land any way they can
http://raenergy.igc.org/VILLAGE.html


Corporatism making seed saving illegal in Iraq
Iraq's new patent law is a neocon's dream come true

The article below describes o­ne of the new "economic policies" that
the United States is implementing in Iraq to give corporations free
rein. It is truly appalling and almost unbelievable that we would even
concieve much less implement a policy in Iraq so cruel, immoral, and
malignant. Rather than continue, I will stop here so that I do not
spoil the nasty surprise. ECONEWS
#144 Promoting the Vision of a Sustainable Vancouver Island DECEMBER
2004. -David, ViewFromThePeak.com

THE CRUEL LORDS OF NATURE

Around 10,000 years ago, after Earth had emerged from 90,000 years of
the last ice age, when mammoths roamed and northern humans shivered in
caves, the people who lived in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, in
modern day Iraq, invented agriculture.

They began collecting the seeds of wild plants such as wheat, barley,
peas, lentils, chickpeas and flax, and sowing them in an organized
manner. As the seasons passed, the farmers observed their crops, and
selected seeds from the plants which produced better yields, sharing
them in a tradition which continues to the present. In so doing,
Nature inserted human consciousness into its 450 million year old
process of plant evolution, and laid the foundations for all
agriculture.

Fast forward 10,000 years to modern day Iraq, under occupation by the
US government, as it seeks to extend its global economic empire.

When the US Administrator Paul Bremer left Baghdad in June 2004, he
left behind 100 orders that he had enacted. Most of the orders concern
the re-organization of Iraq's economy, handing control over to global
(mostly US) corporations, with the intention of making Iraq the
poster-boy for the neo-conservative vision of a free trading economy,
where global corporations could roam with as much freedom as the
mammoths did during the ice age.

Order 81, o­n "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information,
Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety" amends Iraq's patent law of
1970, making the practice of saving and exchanging seed in Iraq
illegal.

Illegal, after 10,000 years.

Iraq's previous constitution prohibited the private ownership of
biological resources. Under Order 81, the o­nly seeds that farmers
will be allowed to plant must be "protected" crop varieties brought
into Iraq by corporations who own the relevant Plant Variety
Protection (PVP) patent.

Since Iraqi farmers' seeds cannot meet the requirements, they will not
be allowed to use them. That right goes to corporate plant breeders
who have the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export,
import and store the protected varieties, including all the harvested
material, with a monopoly of 20 years for crop varieties, and 25 years
for trees and vines.

The new patent law explicitly promotes the commercialization of
genetically modified seeds, increasing the use of pesticides, and
farmers' dependency o­n companies such as Monsanto, Bayer and Dow
Chemical.

How are we supposed to react? The Iraqis have chosen their response:
armed resistance, fuelled not by El Qaeda operatives drawn to Iraq to
fight the US (making George Bush Osama bin Laden's best recruiting
agent), but by their anger at the Bremer laws, which turn their
economy over to a bunch of black-suited global pirates.

Is that hyperbole, or the extravagant ranting of a liberal whiner?

Not if you read the words of John Perkins, author of Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man, currently running at #104 in the Amazon best-seller
list.

In his book, Perkins describes how, as a highly paid professional in
the international banking community, he helped the US cheat poor
countries out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than
they could ever repay, and then taking over their economies.

He was recruited while in business school in the late '60s by the
National Security Agency, o­ne of America's spy agencies, and sent to
work for Chas T. Main, in Boston, where he became chief economist. His
job was to make deals lending vast sums of money to a country o­n
condition that they gave 90% of it back to a US company to build an
electrical system or highway, serving the wealthy people.

The country would be stuck with this enormous debt: Ecuador today
needs 50% of its national budget just to pay down its debt. When the
US wants more oil, it goes to Ecuador and says "Look, you're not able
to repay your debts, so give our oil companies your Amazon rain
forests, which are filled with oil."

When the economic hit men failed, the US would send in the CIA, and
when the CIA failed, they'd send in the army. That's basically what
has happened in Iraq. John Perkins accepted a half million dollar
bribe from a major construction company in the '90s not to write this
book, but after September 11th, he had a change of heart. He knew that
9/11 was "a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing ",
and "the o­nly way we're going to feel good about ourselves is if we
use these systems we've put into place to create positive change
around the world. There are 24,000 people starving to death every day.
We can change that." (http://www.Google.ca o­n Amy Goodman + John
Perkins for her radio interview).

We live in an incredible era. All around the world, the ice is
breaking, not just in the Arctic and Antarctic, but in people's
hearts. Ordinary people are realizing they do not have to wait for
someone else, before they stand up, and say "This is enough." You, me,
our neighbours: we are all feeling this way.

We know things must change. Have heart. We live in an incredible era.
Guy Dauncey

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Ra Energy Fdn.
Raleigh Myers
Worksheet bio
http://www.igc.apc.org/raenergy/bio.html
Blog
http://raenergy.blogspot.com/

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