Chile’s native seeds in danger of being monopolised

[marmar]

from OurWorld 2.0:



Chile’s native seeds in danger of being monopolised
by Pamela Sepulveda on July 20, 2011


Fear is growing among environmental and indigenous organisations in Chile over the possible appropriation of native seeds by foreign companies, opening the doors to transgenic crops and their negative impact on biodiversity.

Alarm arose because of several bills sponsored by the government of rightwing President Sebastián Piñera, especially after May 17 when Congress ratified the UPOV 91 Convention, which grants patent rights over new plant varieties to those who have discovered, developed or modified these varieties.

The convention of the intergovernmental International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV) is a revised version of a 1978 pact that Chile had already signed. Ratification of UPOV 91 was a requirement of the free trade treaties Santiago has entered into with Australia, the United States and Japan.

Congress began debating a bill to adopt UPOV 91 in 2009, but little progress was made until Piñera intervened and declared it an urgent measure in March this year, to accelerate its passage. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/chiles-native-seeds-in-danger-of-being-monopolised/

[Rabblevox]

1. Monsanto 1, People 0

[dipsydoodle]

2. That is disgusting

:(

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[Marrah_G]

4. Monsanto and companies like it do far more damage then any terrorist groups can

Or even any war can do. The damage they do is permenant and generations will suffer long after we are all turned to dust. They need to be stopped before heritage seeds are gone forever and there is nothing left that they don't own in regards to food.

[WinkyDink]

5. Google "Monsanto Obama." The search results are NOT PRETTY.

"President Obama has stacked his administration with people who are tied to multinationals like Monsanto (of Agent Orange infamy) and Dupont (the company that earned the largest civil administrative penalty ever for concealing the cancer risks of one of its products), to push expensive inputs that threaten family farmers’ access to clean water, arable land and the biodiversity cultivated by previous generations."

* Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, is in charge of food safety. Taylor is responsible for the decision to treat GMOs as “substantially equivalent” to the natural plants they are derived from. This removed the government’s responsibility to determine whether GMOs were safe for human consumption.

* Roger Beachy, director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, is in charge of USDA research.

* Islam Siddiqui, Vice President of the Monsanto and Dupont-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife, is the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative. (Opposition to Siddiqui’s nomination, including a New York Times editorial, forced Obama to use a recess appointment to block a Senate vote. Senate confirmation was not required for the posts Taylor and Beachy fill.)

* Rajiv Shah leads USAID and also served as Obama’s USDA Under Secretary for Research Education and Economics and Chief Scientist.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/dupont-monsanto-and-obama-versus-the-worlds-family-farmers/

http://www.truth-out.org/obama-deregulates-gmo-crops-despite-supreme-court-injunction/1307023149

http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/04/06/obamas-administration-refuses-to-halt-production-of-monsantos-genetically-modified-roundup-ready-sugar-beets

http://powerpointparadise.com/blog/2011/01/monsanto-corporation-reigns-over-obama-adminstration/