[Culture_aglist] FW: [asfs] Seeds of Change in Iraq

[Tatiana Schreiber]

I read the article on the GRAIN website... It looks to me that the law in
place prohibits the replanting of patented seeds by transnational seed
companies (which include seeds that
may have been provided to farmers in "rebuilding Iraq" projects...) but
does not prohibit the replanting of seeds per se... in other words, the
articles about this seem very misleading to me, because they imply that
the law would prohibit farmers from saving seeds across the board which I
don't see anywhere in the law as far as I could tell. I think
the law is very problematic, because it imposes a US style patenting
law on  Iraq, encourages the use of GMO seeds, and endangers farmers by
threatening them with legal action if they replant these seeds -- but I'm
also troubled by the misleading character of the
articles about this. I'd be very curious as to others' point of
view.

Tatiana Schreiber (doctoral student, Environmental Studies, Antioch
New England Graduate School).

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004, Lois Stanford wrote:

> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ellen J Fried [mailto:ejf208 at nyu.edu] 
> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 2:25 PM
> To: ASFS ListServ
> Subject: [asfs] Seeds of Change in Iraq
> 
> Two website sites - of clear political stance - are claiming that the
> interim laws in Iraq put into place by Paul Bremmer firmly establish
> patented seeds as the agricultural wave of the future in Iraq, to the
> detriment of farmers who have practiced saving seed from one generation to
> the next.
> 
> The law itself is dense, but clearly contains provisions that are familiar
> to those who have followed Monsanto's and other seed firms' efforts to
> prohibit seed saving and prosecute those who do.
> 
> The success of future farming in Iraq depends on alot more than seed laws.
> Are the laws a positive step toward modernization and entry into the global
> trading community? Or the continued corporate rape of a country? 
> 
> Links below:
> 
> http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
> http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6
> 
> http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf
> 
> 
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