| GE
Free New Zealand in Food & Environment,
10th March 2005
New Zealand Urged to Help Iraqi Farmers
The New Zealand government is being urged to defend worldwide rights
of farmers to save seeds and to offer Iraq practical help independent
of US authorities.
The call comes in light of legislation being passed in Iraq to block
farmers from saving seeds, and recent moves internationally aimed
at authorising so-called Terminator Technology.
New Zealand supported Canada's push to restart Terminator technology
at a recent UN conference, prompting a campaign to demand our government
backs an international ban on the most immoral of the Terminator
techniques patented by Monsanto to create sterile seeds.
But the New Zealand government must also speak out in support and
offer practical help to Iraqi farmers who have been subjected to
what is being described as a "cynical and wicked" imposition
on occupied Iraq by US authorities.
International concern has been prompted by "Order 81"
signed and brought into force by Paul
Bremer, the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority,
on 26th April 2004.
"This legislation is a forewarning to all farmers- including
New Zealand's- that their basic rights are being squeezed away,"
says Jon Carapiet. "New Zealand must speak out in defence of
farmers, and offer independent aid. We must not be complicit in
the denial of farmers' rights by stealth."
The critical part of Order 81 makes a very basic change to Iraqi
"intellectual property" law, for the first time recognizing
the "ownership" of biologic material and paving the way
for the patenting of life forms. It also opens the way for genetically
modified crops to be introduced.
Where ownership of a crop is claimed, seed saving will be banned,
and royalties will have to be paid by the farmer to the registered
seed "owner". Farmers will be required to sign contracts
relating to seed supply and even to the marketing of the harvest.
Where GM crops
are involved (and possibly in other cases as well) they will also
be required to sign contracts for the purchase of specific herbicides,
insecticides and fertilisers.
The manner in which this Order was imposed on the people of Iraq
is an outrage too. There was virtually no Iraqi input into the wording
of the Order, as the country and its people were on their knees
following the Iraq War.
"This is the agricultural equivalent of kicking a man when
he's down, not the sense of fair play New Zealanders value and want
our country to defend," says Jon Carapiet.
"The moral and ethical issue of this legislation and the threat
posed by GE control-systems over seeds, cannot be ignored."
Ends
Jon Carapiet 0210 507 681
REFERENCES:
The Institute of Science in Society
Science Society Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk
ISIS Press Release 08/03/05
Iraqi Government
Urged to Revoke "Cynical and Wicked" Patent Law
/Dr. Brian John/
*A fully referenced
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/GMiraqFull.php
version of this article is posted on ISIS members’ website.
Details
here http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php
Back
to Press Release Directory
|
