info from www.aseed.net Protest against patents on life and biopiracy
Monday, 22 November 2010
On Tuesday November 23, 2010, the conference 'Biodiversity: Opportinuties for a new economy' took place at Artis in Amsterdam. ASEED Europe made a picketline to protest biopiracy and patenting parts of nature. "Big multinationals that make business with biodiversity, that always boils down to privatising parts of it, for profit," says Linda Coenen of ASEED. "But the conference does not quiestion the idea of reducing nature to a commodity and the societal consequences that has." ASEED handed out a pamphlet with this message to the 100 conference participants. Many expressed understanding for the criticism and shared our concerns.
The conference mainly focusses on HOW industry can get started with biodiversity. ASEED has serious doubts about this approach. Biodiversity and traditional uses are reduced to economic assets without questioning the desirability of this development. "Large multinational companies making money on biodiversity, that always turns out to patenting: the appropriation of pieces of nature," says Linda Coenen of ASEED. "The word patenting is not mentioned at all and criticism was put away in separate debate on Monday night instead of confronting the delegates from industry with it."
With patents knowledge and plants are monopolized and made inaccessible for others. This tends to decrease biodiversity, and foodsecurity as well. That is not only happening in the South but also in Europe. The patenting of agricultural crops is a problem for plant breeding and traditional farming practices like seed saving. A SEED opposes patents on life and feels that natural resources - from seeds to genes to medicine - should remain freely available for everyone.
End of biopiracy not in sight
For years companies have been exploiting the absence of international rules on the use of genetic resources and the protection of indigenous groups. The outcome of the recent UN conference on Biodiversity this may finally change. The objective is to force companies in the future to make agreements with local communities, before they use flora and fauna to develop products. [1]
This looks like a step in the right direction, but according to ASEED it remains difficult to bring into practice. For example, applications or characteristics of genetic material are ften used in more than one community, so with whom will an interested company then agreements on sharing the proceeds? Moreover, not all communities or indigenous peoples recognized by their own government. And who will monitor the implementation and fair application of the Convention? Rights of indigenous peoples are already often violated for many industrial practices. Finally, some key players are not co-operating, including the United States, home to many companies that are guilty of biopiracy.
EU: Stop the monopolization of food crops
Also in Europe privatisation of parts of nature is starting to cause problems. We are talking about food crops. The big seed companies are increasingly patenting plants and plant characteristics. Thus they make work for smaller breeders impossible and push them out of the market. Furthermore, their lobby aims at banning all non-commercial seeds for agricultural crops, now that the EU is reviewing the existing legislation on seeds, bowing to the wishes of the seed giants. This poses a further threat to the diversity of agricultural crops and food security. Saatgutkampagne set up an international protests against this through a petition directed at the EU. ASEED supports this campaign. In April, ASEED published the brochure "You will reap what you sow" on monopolization of seeds [4].
Notes [1] The COP10 CBD-Biodiversity Convention took place in Nagoya, Japan, 18-29 October 2010. Download the new protocol: http://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2010/pr-2010-10-29-cop-10-en.pdf The US is one of the few states who did not sign the new protocal.
We, the undersigned civil society groups who have been present here in The Hague, collectively reject the Hague Roadmap for Action.
More than 100 organisations, many of which have not been invited to this Conference, have also expressed their serious concerns in a Civil Society Statement on October 31.
Those most impacted by climate change and whose livelihoods are most at risk, in particular small-scale farmers, indigenous people and women especially from developing countries, have not been present, or consulted, nor have genuinely participated in this process. A democratic and participatory process should have involved all sectors of civil society engaged on these issues in a process designed to genuinely engage and dialogue with civil society. The "roadmap for action" drafted by a few cannot be claimed to have been "collectively developed", even by those present at the Conference.
We therefore have strong objections to a Chair's summary that portrays a "shared understanding" on challenges and solutions for a so-called roadmap on highly complex linkages between food security, climate change and agriculture.
The conference also lacks the legitimacy of a UN process where all governments are represented, and negotiate and adopt decisions. It therefore cannot produce as its output an agreed Roadmap for Action, but should only issue a Chair's summary of the various discussions that have taken place at the conference.
In addition, a process that genuinely seeks to draw together the linkages between agriculture, food security and climate change should have involved participants from both the agriculture and climate change sectors and processes. Otherwise, the outcome of the conference could be interpreted to be an attempt to undermine or pre-empt on-going negotiations in the UNFCCC.
Our understanding of the problems and solutions differs fundamentally from the framing posed by the organizers. We believe that adaptation has to be the main priority of this conference. The agricultural challenges faced by the poorest and most vulnerable, in Africa but also in Asia, in small-island states, in Latin America, are adaptation challenges. While sustainable farming practices can provide mitigation benefits, the climate crisis is caused first and foremost by the emissions of rich countries and we reject that small farmers are meant now to take on the mitigation responsibilities of the North.
The unanimous endorsement of carbon markets and market mechanisms in the draft is unfounded. There are on-going discussions about market-based mechanisms at both the CBD and the UNFCCC. At the 10th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity which ended in Nagoya last week, the issue of innovative financial mechanisms, including market mechanisms for financing biodiversity, proved so controversial that a draft decision on it was not adopted.
Also, at the UNFCCC, the issue of carbon market mechanisms is equally controversial. Developing countries support limiting the use of existing carbon market mechanisms, and oppose the introduction of new ones. Therefore, the conference should refrain from policy prescriptions about carbon markets.
This is because under the UNFCCC, developed countries have legally binding commitments to finance adaptation and mitigation (including for agriculture) in developing countries. So-called innovative "carbon finance" is being promoted by some so that developed countries can avoid, rather than fulfill their obligations. Instead, many developing countries are demanding that fund-based financing should be the focus. Carbon markets, with their speculative tendencies, inherent instability, combined with the complexity of the agriculture markets could spell disaster for food rights, food security and livelihoods in developing countries.
Finally, tools and strategies needed to address food security, food sovereignty and climate change have been widely discussed in the IAASTD; in ongoing discussions within the UN FAO Committee on World Food Security and key processes led by social movements such as La Via Campesina and other farmers organizations. The Hague conference need not reinvent the wheel. Conference organizers cannot therefore ascribe a set of tools and policy recommendations to all the participants who have gathered here.
4 November, 2010
Signatories:
Both ENDS, the Netherlands ETC Group ILEIA - Centre for learning on sustainable agriculture, the Netherlands Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, USA International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) International Forum on Globalisation Joop de Koeijer, member of NAV (Dutch Arable farmers' Union) and Via Campesina Platform Aarde, Boer, Consument, the Netherlands Tearfund, UK Third World Network X MinY Solidarity Fund, the Netherlands Spirit Of Squatters Collective
Spirit Of Squatters Collective : This is solidarity action (like most of our videos). The solidarity is stronger when it is seen by as many people as possible.So...Please use it ! Pass this info to everybody who could be interested !!! Feel free to embed,link it,send it,screen it etc. Use it=don't loose it. Reclaim the media with us !
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and that's few words from our pages: With our activities we want to make this world a better place.Reclaim the media with us.Feel free to use our videos.Now all up to you !!!Real life is beginning when you turn off the tv, computer. See you on the streets in actions !!!
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Call out Public Inspection of a Monsanto Facility Enkhuizen, Tuesday morning 2 November 2010
Food security in times of climate change? 1-5 Nov agro industry lobbies, powerful governments, the UN, and Worldbank are getting together in the conference It’s down 2 Earth in The Hague preparing for the climate summit COP16 this November in Cancun, Mexico. They come up with technological solutions when what we need is a system change.
1. Get you hands off our lands and food! Multinationals are monopolizing our food supply. They are chemical companies selling pesticides and artificial fertilizers. These multinationals develop patented GM crops, buy up seed companies, and tell greenwash stories to sell more chemicals and make more money. Large agribusiness, such as Monsanto and Syngenta, have other agendas and priorities than food security or fighting climate change. Their practices threaten small-scale farming and peoples’ food sovereignty around the world.
2. Our climate is not for sale! One of the main drivers of deforestation and CO2 pollution is industrial agribusiness, mainly with soy crops and palm oil monocultures. Monsanto is lobbying hard for carbon credits for their GM Roundup Ready soybeans because these would contribute to the reduction of CO2. But in reality the soy is transported all over the globe and nearby communities get poisoned with Roundup pesticide, loose their own food production, end up in the slums.
3. Food sovereignty – no food monopolies! The only way to enable people around the world to feed themselves is to establish food sovereignty: local community control over lands, seeds, water and sustainable agricultural processes. This can only be achieved by getting rid of monopolising, profit-seeking corporations and speculators like Monsanto and Syngenta. Small-scale agriculture not only contributes positively to the carbon balance of the planet, it also gives employment to 2.8 billion people. It remains the best way to combat hunger, malnutrition and the current food crisis. It uses less fossil fuels, takes local ecosystems into account and does not poison the environment with pesticides.
To get real ‘climate smart agriculture’ we need to start with getting the truth out and reveal the corporate lies about the current agriculture system. Let’s bring out Monsanto’s Hidden Agenda with a Public Inspection!
Achtergrond / Background info
Deels in het Engels, deel in het Nederlands | Partly in Dutch, Partly in English
* Civil Society statement of concern on the Hague Conference on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change This letter by civil society outlines concerns about a high level meeting "Down 2 Earth" at the Hague on agriculture, food security and climate change. http://www.iatp.org/climate/files/document/civil%20society%20statement_hague_0.pdf
* New scientific report: GM soy Sustainable, Responsible? (September 2010) The cultivation of Genetically Manipulated Roundup Ready RR soy endangers human and animal health, increases herbicide use, damages the environment, and has negative impacts on rural populations. The monopolistic control by agribusiness companies over GM RR soy technology and production endangers markets, compromises the economic viability of farming, and threatens food security. In light of these impacts, it is misleading to describe GM RR soy production as sustainable and responsible. To do so sends a confusing message to consumers and all in the supply chain, interfering with their ability to identify products that reflect their needs and values. Proponents of GM RR soy are invited to address the arguments and scientific findings in this paper and to join in a transparent, science based inquiry into the principles of sustainability and soy production. http://www.gmwatch.org/file/GMsoy_SustainableResponsible_Sept2010_Summary.pdf
* UN: Agriculture at a Crossroads (UN 2008) Synthesis for Scientific Report report The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) This Synthesis Report captures the complexity and diversity of agriculture and agricultural knowledge, science and technology across world regions. The diversion of agricultural crops to fuel can raise food prices and reduce our ability to alleviate hunger throughout the world. The negative social effects risk being exacerbated in cases where small-scale farmers are marginalized or displaced from their land. From an environmental perspective, there is considerable variation, uncertainty and debate over the net energy balance and level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the long term, effects on food prices may be reduced, but environmental effects caused by land and water requirements of large-scale increases of first generation biofuels production are likely to persist and will need to be addressed. "Although considered by many to be a success story, the benefits of productivity increases in world agriculture are unevenly spread. Often the poorest of the poor have gained little or nothing; and 850 million people are still hungry or malnourished with an additional 4 million more joining their ranks annually. We are putting food that appears cheap on our tables; but it is food that is not always healthy and that costs us dearly in terms of water, soil and the biological diversity on which all our futures depend." — Professor Bob Watson, director, IAASTD http://www.agassessment.org/reports/IAASTD/EN/Agriculture%20at%20a%20Crossroads_Synthesis%20Report%20%28English%29.pdf
* Duurzaam nieuws 21-09-2010: Wondergewas stelt teleur Indiase deelstaten die vijf jaar geleden nog vol vuur waren over de toekomstmogelijkheden die de teelt van jatropha bood, zijn nu heel stil geworden. Chhattisgarh maakte zich in 2005 sterk de belangrijkste leverancier van biodiesel in India te worden, maar de website van de Chhattisgarh Bio-fuel Development Authority meldt sinds 2008 geen belangrijke verwezenlijkingen meer. http://www.duurzaamnieuws.nl/bericht.rxml?id=59089&title=Bio%20dieselt%20niet%20goed%20in%20India
* Agriculture and climate change: Real problems, false solutions Preliminary report by Grupo de Reflexion Rural, Biofuelwatch, EcoNexus and NOAH – Friends of the Earth Denmark – Bonn, June 2009 "The development of the bio-economy implies that huge areas of the planet will be turned over to massive monocultures of biomass raw material for processing in biorefineries. This prioritises the use of biomass for economic purposes over ecological purposes such as protecting biodiversity or ecosystems. Furthermore demand is potentially limitless as massive increases in energy consumption are predicted. This is compounded by the fact that plant biomass has low energy density in comparison with the fossil fuels it is meant to replace. The development of the bio-economy would further extend all the well-documented impacts of industrial agriculture on soils, water, biodiversity, ecosystem integrity, small-scale farmers, local communities and indigenous peoples. It could signal the end of major tracts of forest and other vital ecosystems. The irony is that this would all take place in the name of tackling climate change." "Land that is classified as marginal often has great value to people, biodiversity and ecosystems and for climate stabilisation. Turning it over to industrial cropping for food or fuel may increase regional and global climate change." http://www.econexus.info/pdf/agriculture-climate-change-june-2009.pdf
* Rapport Veredelde Zaken De toekomst van de plantenveredeling in het licht van de ontwikkelingen in het octrooirecht en het kwekersrecht WUR – 2009 "De wereldwijde omzet van groentezaden is jaarlijks ongeveer € 2.7 miljard. Tengevolge van de concentratie die de afgelopen decennia jaar heeft plaatsgevonden wordt deze omzet voornamelijk gerealiseerd door de activiteiten van slechts negen professionele zaadbedrijven. De zaden vormen de basis voor een markt met een geschatte jaaromzet van € 250 miljard. De markt voor groentezaden neemt jaarlijks met 5-7% toe; groenten behoren tot de belangrijkste voedselproducten en zijn goed voor de gezondheid van de mens." (P.13) Op mondiaal niveau hebben de grootste bedrijven hun marktaandeel aanzienlijk weten te vergroten, van 8% voor de top-tien in 1985 to bijna 30% in 2006. Dit is het resultaat van overnames en samengaan van bedrijven. Ter illustratie: De bedrijven Sandoz en Ciba Geigy gingen op in het nieuwe bedrijf Syngenta; grote delen van Advanta (voorheen vanderHave) komen in de kolom van 2006 terug onder Limagrain, en Seminis, Dekalb/Asgrow en de zaadafdeling van Cargill (en sinds 2007 ook Delta & Pine Land) zijn nu onderdeel van Monsanto. Tabel 3.4 laat de dominantie zien van de zogenaamde geïntegreerde 'life sciences' bedrijven zoals Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta and BayerCropScience, die naast zaden belangrijke afdelingen in andere gebieden hebben, met name gewasbeschermings- en geneesmiddelen." (P.33) - Cijfers over overnames in de mondiale en Nederlandse zaadindustrie: P.27 http://documents.plant.wur.nl/cgn/literature/reports/VeredeldeZaken.pdf
* Wereldbank vreest nieuwe voedselcrisis Duurzaam nieuws 23-10-2010 De Wereldbank heeft haar Voedselcrisisprogramma (GFRP) gereactiveerd en tot 760 miljoen dollar beloofd voor landen die het risico lopen op een nieuwe voedselcrisis. In 2007 en 2008 braken in diverse landen rellen uit door gebrek aan voedsel. De uitbreiding van het programma is een reactie op aanhoudende zorg in sommige landen over de volatiliteit van de voedselprijzen en onzekerheid op de voedselmarkt, zei Robert Zoellick, voorzitter van de Wereldbank, bij de aankondiging ervan. [..] Volgens Neil Watkins van ActionAid wordt de prijsvolatiliteit veroorzaakt door een internationale markt die steeds sterker beïnvloed wordt door de vraag naar biobrandstoffen, zoals ethanol uit maïs. Die markt is afhankelijk van de grillen van handelaren. "Omdat steeds meer investeerders zich op de voedselmarkt storten, wordt deze markt minder het terrein van echte kopers en verkopers en meer het terrein van de financiële wereld", zegt hij. Instituten beginnen volgens hem wel in te zien dat ze plaatselijke gemeenschappen minder kwetsbaar kunnen maken voor de grillen van de internationale markt. Dit kan door te investeren in kleine boeren die produceren voor de plaatselijke markt. http://www.duurzaamnieuws.nl/bericht.rxml?id=59768&title=Wereldbank%20vreest%20nieuwe%20voedselcrisis%
Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008 The commercial seed industry has undergone tremendous consolidation in the last 40 years as transnational corporations entered this agricultural sector, and acquired or merged with competing firms. This trend is associated with impacts that constrain the opportunities for renewable agriculture, such as reductions in seed lines and a declining prevalence of seed saving. To better characterize the current structure of the industry, ownership changes from 1996 to 2008 are represented visually with information graphics. Since the commercialization of transgenic crops in the mid-1990s, the sale of seeds has become dominated globally by Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta. In addition, the largest firms are increasingly networked through agreements to cross-license transgenic seed traits. The full report that is online available: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/1/4/1266/pdf
De wereld volgens Monsanto Film over de schandalen rond Monsanto.
Spirit Of Squatters Collective : This is solidarity action (like most of our videos). The solidarity is stronger when it is seen by as many people as possible.So...Please use it ! Pass this info to everybody who could be interested !!! Feel free to embed,link it,send it,screen it etc. Use it=don't loose it. Reclaim the media with us !
... So get inspired. TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER !!! http://www.youtube.com/user/spiritofsquatters Spirit Of Squatters Collective is always trying to report and support good things what are happening around us. We trying at least one time a week show You some news. Our goal is to do it daily but 1st we can not be everywhere and 2nd We don't have enough time mainly to edit ( there are many projects waiting for their time...) That's why we waiting for You to help us support good things with our video channel and with creating independent media.
and that's few words from our pages: With our activities we want to make this world a better place.Reclaim the media with us.Feel free to use our videos.Now all up to you !!!Real life is beginning when you turn off the tv, computer. See you on the streets in actions !!! If You think its important and good what we are doing You can donate what can help us to find more time to improve our activity. Click here: http://ourmediaindymedia.blogspot.com OR EVEN BETTER YOU CAN OFFER US WORK.Thanks !!! WATCH! READ! THINK! REALIZE! TALK! COMMUNICATE! LISTEN! DEFEND! DESTROY! CREATE! CHANGE! GET INSPIRED! RECLAIM MEDIA WITH US! JOIN US! FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS! LOVE !!! SQUAT!
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