Iraq’s Terminator seed patents
p2pnet.net OTÂ News View:- We, who are into peer-to-peer, aren’t the only ones being hassled by the cartels. There’s also a trend in abusing intellectual property laws to control the food supply in many countries. In Iraq, for example, under a new order passed by former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III (USA administrator), Iraqis are forbidden to replant seed obtained from certain varieties of “registered plant varieties.”
In other words, the man who administered Iraq at US taxpayers’ expense, is passing laws granting exclusive rights to produce varieties of grain to giant companies.
I, as a US taxpayer, never agreed to this, and I’m fighting mad over it.
The US, EU and Japanese governments, representing corporate lobbyists are using the World Trade Organisation to to force its member states to enact patents on plant varieties and it looks like people from all aver the world are having their work stolen from them by the large mutinational corporations in the food production business.
I wonder if the cartels even paid farmers for their work involved in the years of crossbreeding plants before they got hold of them?
And I wonder what’s going to happen if farmers continue to plant seeds without permission from the new “owners” of genetic material?
Will these farmers be sued and forced off their land? Will their crops be sprayed with herbicide? Or even more scary, will the cartels use “copy protection” to prevent these seeds from sprouting after a certain number of generations? (The terminator gene is already registered in two dozen varieties.) If there is “copy protection” built into these seeds, will it be passed to other plants during cross pollination?
Not only are the cartels locking down music, movies and software, it looks like they want a chokehold on our very food supply.
I once read an article in an electronics hacker magazine called “Nuts n Volts.” The article dealt with gene splicing. It may be very time for the little guy to start experimenting in this realm. If copy protection in patented plant varieties is allowed, then we need ways to defeat it. I, for one, don’t reconize any law patenting any form of life.
Life is owned by the Creator of the universe, not the cartels. I wonder if the intent of the cartels is to control us via the threat of starvation? I passed this story to several news websites, and I heard nothing in reply nor did I see it posted.
It may be time for this story to be put out on the blogs or any way possible to get the word out.
If people want to know who the real terrorists are, they should take a real hard look at the patent offices of their governemnts and the cartels which lobby for the patents. As I have said many times in the forums, goverments have really overstepped their boundaries. I sometimes wonder how long it will be before I see the “Homeland Security” folks appear at my house to take me away for speaking out about patent and copyright abuse. Please do your research and spread the word to everyone you can about this. As far as
I’m concerned. This is a LIFE OR DEATH issue for the entire population!
Documentation for this story can be found at the below websites:
- http://www.primalseeds.org/patents.htm
- http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6
- http://www.life.ca/nl/67/terminator.html
- http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/terminate.cfm
- http://www.gene.ch/genet/1999/Mar/msg00027.html
- http://www.devp.org/testA/news/communiquesaaar-a.html
- http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/4293
- http://www.dit.ac.za/edition/index.php?edition=260802&article=279
William Keeley
[If you're trying to remember where you've come across Keeley's name before, he's the guy who created SpamFryer and he has another equally interesting app in the works ....]
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
February 19th, 2005 at 2:10 am
This “terminator gene” which prevents sprouting..
If it spreads it could defoliate the entire planet. It could end all life on land, and through the domino effect much of the ocean ecosystem as well.
This is how the world ends.. through greed which strangles it to death.
February 19th, 2005 at 5:47 am
Even worse, what if it made the jump over to the top level predators…. humans? 3 or 4 generations, and nobody can produce children anymore!?!
Sounds like Sci Fi, but then, Aids, Chicken Flu (SARS) and so many others….
Worst part is you won’t know if you are buying genetically modified food, since it’s not listed in the supermarket… it could even be listed as organic….
February 19th, 2005 at 6:30 am
Some day they will patent human genes and force you to pay for having children.
February 19th, 2005 at 7:43 am
Just more men trying to “own” what is God’s. Pride cometh before the fall.
February 21st, 2005 at 7:14 am
I would like to point out that although forcing people to use certain kinds of seeds for the benefit of big corporations is indeed dispecable, what makes this one even more revolting is that it is being forced by an occupying power over an occupied people. They were never out to “liberate” the Iraqis. Dont look for terrorists in the lobbying groups or patent organizations, look for them in your own governments.
February 23rd, 2005 at 2:08 pm
Wow, you are smoking some good shit. Get a grip. The ‘terminator gene’ is a big fat myth. Loosen up your tinfoil hat freak.
July 21st, 2005 at 8:09 pm
The people getting worked into a frenzy over this story are wacky, pathetic, and desperately in search of mountains in Mole-Hill Land.
There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in Order 81, the document in question, which forces Iraqis to buy only genetically modified seeds. Nothing which forces them only to grow such. And nothing which prevents them from saving NON-GM seeds from one season to another and replanting them, as they’ve done for centuries.
Not one thing. Check it for yourself.
http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents_Law.pdf