[asia-apec 429] Re: No patents on rice! No patents on life!

[AMC]

12 May 1998

Dear Obet,

Thanks for sending us your statement. Please include AMC (Asian Migrant
Centre, Hong Kong).

Thanks!

Rex Varona
Executive Director

At 07:37 PM 5/8/98, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>
>