Breaking: Venezuela Bans GMOs and Prohibits Seed Patenting

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2015/12/22/breaking-venezuela-bans-gmos-and-prohibits-seed-patenting/

To protect heirloom seeds and organic farmers, the country of Venezuela, through its National Assembly, recently approved a law that will ban the production, distribution, and importation of GM seeds.

According to the recently approved draft Seed Law, the state shall promote sustainable agriculture as the strategic basis for food security.

[tecelote]

1. I wish I read this in our newspapers...

"...the state shall promote sustainable agriculture as the strategic basis for food security."

But, here, our health does not matter enough to worry about food safety. Profit is king and we are just pawns.

[djean111]

2. Exactly right. n/t

[gvstn]

3. I too, wish this was U.S. law.

[gregcrawford]

4. Unfortunately...

... it won't be, unless Republicans and Third Way Democrats are tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

6. Air Water Food

minutes - days - weeks

without these you die

these are the basics

GET THESE RIGHT

[GoneFishin]

5. How long before we invade?

[NickB79]

7. Uh, guys? Regular hybrid seed also has patent protection!

If Venezuela REALLY banned seed patenting of all kinds, it means almost all the new, non-GM seed created in the past 40 years are off-limits to Venezuelan farmers. Without legally binding protection for their products through patent recognition, even non-GM seed companies won't sell to a country.

It's one thing to propose banning GM crops; it's quite another to take it so far that conventional hybrid crops are also removed from circulation.

Even almost all organic, non-GM farms in the US and Europe use conventional hybrids due to their far superior yields.

Think it was bad when Venezuela ran out of toilet paper and basic necessities a couple years ago? Imagine their farms running out of seed, or being forced to use inferior seed that only yields 2/3 what they used to get per acre.