Quick Reads

Launching a new phase in the campaign to 'Terminate Terminator (seed sterilization) Technology', RAFI is sending personal letters to more than 550 ministers and senior officials responsible for agriculture, environment, and patent offices in 140 countries. The letters ask cabinet officers to assert national sovereignty over their seed supply and to ban the seed sterilization technology outright. The letters also ask ministers to reject each individual Terminator-type patent pending within their jurisdiction. Ministers are receiving a status report on key Terminator patents in their countries. Many governments are unaware that the World Trade Organization allows countries to reject individual patents on the grounds that they are contrary to ordre public (public morality and/or a threat to health or the environment)," Pat Mooney, RAFI's Executive Director says, "The WTO also allows governments to ban the entire technology. Both steps should be taken."

A new report from RAFI details over two dozen "terminator II" patents that link suicide seeds to proprietary chemicals genetically-weakened plants, and the patented power to make genetically-nonviable plants rise from the dead.

Fifteen Francophone African states, among them some of the poorest countries in the world, are under pressure to sign away the right of more than 20 million small-holder farmers to save and exchange crop seed. The decision to abandon Africa's 12,000-year tradition of seed saving will be finalized at a meeting February 22-25 in the Central African Republic. The 15 governments have been told to adopt draconian intellectual property legislation for plant varieties in order to conform to a provision in the World Trade Organization (WTO) that obliges signatories to protect" plant varieties. The legislation (a kind of legal "Terminator" because it prohibits farmers from replanting "protected" seed) is also known, euphemistically, as "Plant Breeders' Rights". If adopted, the legislation will throw some of Africa's poorest countries into an intellectual property cartel dominated by a handful of OECD states led by the USA, the UK, and Japan.

Quinze pays francophones de l'Afrique, dont certains comptent parmi les pays les plus pauvres de la planète, subissent des pressions pour céder le droit de plus de vingt millions de petits cultivateurs à conserver et à échanger les semences. La décision d'abandonner la tradition africaine vieille de 12 000 ans de conservation des semences sera entérinée à une rencontre qui se déroulera du 22 au 25 février prochain en République centrafricaine. Les quinze gouvernements auraient reçu la directive d'adopter une loi draconienne sur la propriété intellectuelle touchant les espèces végétales afin de se conformer à une disposition de l'Organisation mondiale du commerce (OMC) qui oblige les signataires à "protéger" les obtentions végétales. La loi (dite de type "Terminator", car elle interdit aux agriculteurs de semer des graines "protégées") est également connue, par euphémisme, sous le nom de "Droits de protection des obtentions végétales". Si elle est adoptée, cette loi emporteraient certains des pays les plus pauvres de l'Afrique dans un cartel de propriété intellectuelle dominé par une poignée d'États de l'OCDE menés par les États-Unis, le Japon et le Royaume-Uni.