"The (now former) American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) government, Paul Bremer,updated Iraq's intellectual property law to 'meet current internationally-recognized standards of protection.'
 http://www.iraqcoalition.org/
regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf
The updated law makes saving seeds for next year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers in 2002, the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human civilizations,
http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htmnow illegal.
Instead, farmers < http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically-modified seeds from American corporations. These GM seeds have typically been modified from IP developed over thousands of generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, shared freely like agricultural 'open source.' Other IP provisions for technology in the law further integrate Iraq into the American IP economy."
http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/04
/11/13/2023220.shtml?tid=191&tid=155&tid=219
http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations
/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6
As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations -- including seeds the Iraqis themselves developed over hundreds of years. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo: Pay Monsanto, or starve.
|
homepage: 
