Monsanto takes Seminis Seeds: US outlaws seed saving by Iraqfarmers

**Don Boekelheide d*@yahoo.com**

Two bits of truly dismal news to go along with today's
report on the reality of global warming,  from Sam
Smith's excellent daily email news service, the
Progressive Review (to subscribe (free - but then send
him support): 
prorev-subscribe@topica.com. -DB

MONSANTO EXTENDS CONTROL OVER SEED SUPPLY

REUTERS - Agriculture products company Monsanto Co.
said it will buy Seminis Inc., the world's largest
commercial fruit and vegetable seed company, for at
least $1 billion from a private equity firm to
capitalize on the trend toward healthier eating. . .
Monsanto, a leading developer of genetic modifications
for crops like soybeans and corn, said biotechnology
modifications to Seminis' fruit and vegetable lines
were an option, but the initial focus would be on
leveraging Seminis' conventional breeding programs
with Monsanto's advanced research and development to
develop improved product options. . . Seminis supplies
more than 3,500 seed varieties to commercial fruit and
vegetable growers, dealers, distributors, wholesalers
and home gardeners around the world.

US OUTLAWS SAVING SEED BY IRAQI FARMERS  

GRAIN - When former Coalition Provisional Authority
administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after
the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004,
he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of
the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order
81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed
Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety."
This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970
and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a
new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force
of a binding law.  With important implications for
farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq, this
order is yet another important component in the United
States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's
economy. 

For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an
essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system.
Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and
exchange of planting materials among farming
communities has long been the basis of agricultural
practice. This has been made illegal under the new
law. The seeds farmers are now allowed to plant -
"protected" crop varieties brought into Iraq by
transnational corporations in the name of agricultural
reconstruction - will be the property of the
corporations. While historically the Iraqi
constitution prohibited private ownership of
biological resources, the new US-imposed patent law
introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds. . .

The rights granted to plant breeders in this scheme
include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce,
sell, export, import and store the protected
varieties. . . The term of the monopoly is 20 years
for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During
this time the protected variety de facto becomes the
property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or
otherwise use this variety without compensating the
breeder. This new law means that Iraqi farmers can
neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting
seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant
variety provisions of the new patent law. This
deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide
claim as their inherent right to save and replant
seeds. . . 

Iraq is one more arena in a global drive for the
adoption of seed patent laws protecting the monopoly
rights of multinational corporations at the expense of
local farmers. Over the past decade, many countries of
the South have been compelled to adopt seed patent
laws through bilateral treaties. . .

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