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Agricultural biotechnology is intensely concentrated in the hands of four or five life industry corporations. Provides a snapshot of five industry giants.

The final, 107-page report prepared by the US National Bioethics Advisory Commission on human cloning, accepted by President Clinton on 9 June, sends a clear signal to the biotech industry that it can move full speed ahead to commercialize the cloning of animals, including human beings," says Pat Mooney, Executive Director of RAFI. "The Commission seems to have sidestepped all the tough ethical issues," Mooney continues, "and has reduced the broad moral debate solely to a question of safety for mother and embryo."

The CGRFA held its  7th regular session in Rome from 15-23 May, 1997. the commission's 154 member countries had 2 tasks: to continue negotiations leading to a legally-binding International Undertaking covering plant genetic resources that could become an agricultural protocol to the Biodiversity Convention, and, to maintain the momentum achieved through last year's Leipzig Conference on Plant Genetic Resources. Most commission members exceeded their own expectations regarding the International Undertaking - but they fell short of the acceptable minimum on the second objectve.

In recent years, the CGIAR ( Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) has come under fire for a governance structure that far more reflects the orientation of scientists in the North than it does their counterparts in the South. At the time of the CG's second review in 1981, there were slightly more South trustees in the system than North. During the nineties however, the tables have turned, and the North now dominates the roster with most of the trustees and almost all of the key management positions. Since he took over the reins as Chair of the CGIAR in 1994, the World Bank's Ismail Serageldin has fought an uphill battle with the 16 International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCS) that form the CG network in order to increase the role of the South. Many credit Serageldin with limited, but praiseworthy, success.

RAFI contacted the inventors of the cloned sheep Dolly, confirming that that the worldwide patents on the cloning technology cover all animals, including humans.