[asia-apec 428] Re: No patents on rice! No patents on life!

[George J. Aditjondro]

Dear Obet;

Pls add my name on, in the Indonesian or Australian section:

Dr. George J. Aditjondro
Former Vice President of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI)
Indonesian academic dissident in self-imposed exile
Lecturer in the Sociology of Non-Western Environmental Movements
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Newcastle
NSW 2308, Australia

Besides, I had sent you an email message earlier, asking if you could send
me hard copies of the Philippine Greens party documents to my office
address, for my students in my Non-Western Env. Movt.s class. Is that still
possible?  Maraming salamat, po.

George

>We are collecting signatures for the statement below which will be
>presented later by one of the signatories to a WTO meeting in Geneva.
>Kindly inform us right away if you want your organization's name added
>to this list.
>
>Obet Verzola
>Philippine Greens
>
>----------
>
>NO PATENTS ON RICE!    NO PATENTS ON LIFE!
>
>Statement from Peoples' Movements & NGOs in Southeast Asia to the World
>Trade Organization
>May 1998
>
>Rice is life in Southeast and other parts of Asia. It has been the
>cornerstone of our food, our languages, our cultures - in short, our
>life - for thousands of years. Over the centuries, farming communities
>throughout the region have developed, nurtured and conserved over a
>hundred thousand distinct varieties of rice to suit different tastes
>and needs.
>
>The Green Revolution spearheaded by the International Rice Research
>Institute (IRRI) in the 1960s resulted the loss of this diversity from
>farmers' fields and the spread of wholly unsustainable farming systems
>which require high energy inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers,
>so-called 'high-yielding' seeds, irrigation systems and supervised
>credit schemes. In this process, farmers lost control of their own
>seeds, their own knowledge and their own self-confidence. Today,
>people are struggling throughout the region to rebuild more
>sustainable agriculture systems hinged on farmers' control of genetic
>resources and local knowledge.
>
>
>In the past, the whole cycle of the rice economy was under the control
>of farmers themselves, from production through distribution. Today,
>global corporations are taking over the rice sector. With the
>expansion of industrial farming, global corporations - and their local
>subsidiaries=20 - established their predominance in the rice sector
>through research programs, interference in policy-making, and their
>exports of farm machinery, pesticides and fertilizers. Now, through
>the use of genetic engineering, they are increasing their control over
>our rice cultures. The kinds of rice that we are promised through this
>technology threaten the environment and public health. For example,
>herbicide tolerant rice will lead to increased pesticide use. Rice
>incorporating Bacillus thuringiensis genes will disrupt ecological
>balances. Both of these are unsafe for consumers and will lead to
>allergic reactions, increased antibiotic resistance and other health
>hazards. New hybrids - such as those based on the so-called
>'Terminator Technology' - will force farmers to buy rice seed every
>planting season from transnational corporations.
>
>
>The extension of the patent system through the WTO Agreement on Trade
>Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) gives global
>corporations the 'right' to claim monopoly ownership over rice - and
>life - itself. Companies in the industrialized world have already
>started to claim intellectual property rights (IPR) on rice. A
>derivative of IR-8,=20 IRRI's 'miracle rice', was monopolised through
>IPR in the United States already in the 1980s. Recently, RiceTec, a
>company in Texas, has taken out a patent on basmati rice. This is
>biopiracy against India and Pakistan. The same company and many others
>in the US are now marketing what they label as Jasmine rice. This is
>not only intellectual and cultural theft, it also directly threatens
>farm communities in Southeast Asia. Jasmine rice comes from Thailand,
>where it is grown today by over five million resource-poor farmers who
>are trying to develop ecological alternatives for Jasmine rice
>production and marketing.
>
>We have to strengthen local groups to assert farmers' and community
>rights to counter these trends in the region. For this reason, we make
>the following demands:
>
>1. WTO memberstates must recognise that farmers' and community rights
>have precedence over intellectual property rights and that IPRs
>destroy biodiversity. Many initiatives to develop and implement
>farmers' and community rights are underway in Southeast Asia, and must
>be supported and strengthened.
>
>2. We encourage the memberstates of the Association of Southeast Asian
>Nations (ASEAN) to support the initiatives of India and the
>Organisation for African Unity to resist the extension of IPR systems
>and to develop community rights at the local and national levels.
>
>3. Genetic engineering of rice and other foods should be prohibited.
>
>4. Agriculture and biodiversity must be taken out of the WTO regime,
>especially the TRIPS Agreement.
>
>5. No patents on rice! No patents on life!
>
>PHILIPPINES
>
>1. MASIPAG (Farmer/Scientist Partnership for Development)
>2. CEC (Center for Environmental Concerns)
>3. PDG (Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Dev't Group)
>4. MAPISAN
>5. HAYUMA
>6. Assisi Foundation
>7. Philippine Greens
>8. Dr Oscar Zamora, University of the Philippines Los Banos
>9. Dr Romy Quijano, University of the Philippines College of Medicine
>10. Sustainable Agriculture Center, Xavier University, Cagayan de Oro City
>11. SIBAT (Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya)
>12. Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC)
>13. GRAIN Los Ba=F1os
>
>THAILAND
>
>1. TREE (Technology for Rural and Ecological Enrichment)
>2. BIOTHAI (Thai Network on Biodiversity and Community Rights)
>
>INDONESIA
>
>1. PAN (Pesticides Action Network) Indonesia
>2. Anik Wusari, Resource Management and Development Consultant (REMDEC)
>3. Omar Sari, Network and Computer Specialist, INFID
>
>CAMBODIA
>
>1. Lot S. Miranda, HEKS Cambodia Programme
>
>Additional endorsements from JAPAN:
>
>1)Hiroko Kubota. University of Kokugakuin,member of JOAA
>2)JAPAN:Ichijima Organic Farming Association -Shinji Hashimoto