Approvata una legge che impedisce agli agricoltori di riutilizzare i semi, il mercato passa nelle mani dei big dell'agribusiness. Per il sito "Grain" e l'osservatorio "Focus on the Global South" si tratta di : "Un attentato alla sovranita' alimentare del paese".

Secondo una nuova relazione prodotta da Grain e Focus on the Global South in Iraq gli USA hanno fatto approvare una nuova legge che rischia di danneggiare gravemente la sovranità alimentare del paese. La nuova legge impedisce il riutilizzo delle sementi da parte degli agricoltori e passando la parola al mercato dell'agri-business e, in pratica, alle grandi ditte sementiere (prevalentemente statunitensi). Gli autori della relazione sottolineano che mentre la sovranità politica rimane un'illusione, la sovranità alimentare del popolo iracheno è stata resa quasi impossibile da queste nuove disposizioni.

Secondo Shalini Bhutani di Grain, una delle autrici della relazione "Gli Stati Uniti hanno imposto i loro brevetti in tutto il mondo grazie a trattati commerciali. In questo caso, hanno prima invaso il paese, e poi imposto i loro brevetti. Questo è immorale e inaccettabile." Le leggi approvate rispecchiano la visione statunitense dell'agricoltura del futuro, quella di un sistema industriale completamente dipendente dai grandi gruppi che forniscono sementi e mezzi tecnici. Nel 2002, la FAO stimava che il 97% degli agricoltori iracheni utilizzasse semi del raccolto precedente o acquistati nei mercati locali.

Quando entrerà in vigore la nuova legge sulla plant variety protection (PVP), diventerà illegale conservare i semi e il mercato sarà monopolizzato da varietà PVP-protected, inventate e brevettate dai colossi dell'agribusiness. Secondo la relazione, la nuova legge non tiene assolutamente conto del contributo dato dagli agricoltori iracheni allo sviluppo di specie importanti quali il grano, l'orzo, i datteri e i legumi. Le conseguenze saranno la perdita della libertà degli agricoltori iracheni e la messa in pericolo della sovranità alimentare del Paese. (da Green Planet , Traduzione di Marina Littek )

Ulteriori informazioni su Grain e sul sito di Iraq coalition

http://www.socialpress.it/breve.php3?id_breve=517

Articolo originale da Grain (in inglese)

World Food Day: Iraqi farmers aren't celebrating

NEWS RELEASE For immediate release
http://www.grain.org/nfg/?id=253

When the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) celebrates biodiversity on World Food Day on October 16, Iraqi farmers will be mourning its loss.

A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations. This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through trade deals. In this case, they invaded the country first, then imposed their patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable", said Shalini Bhutani, one of the report's authors.

The new law in question [2] heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large corporations providing inputs and seeds.

In 2002, FAO estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against the Iraqi farmer.

"If the FAO is celebrating 'Biodiversity for Food Security' this year, it needs to demonstrate some real commitment", says Henk Hobbelink of GRAIN, pointing out that the FAO has recently been cosying up with industry and offering support for genetic engineering [3]. "Most importantly, the FAO must recognise that biodiversity-rich farming and industry-led agriculture are worlds apart, and that industrial agriculture is one of the leading causes of the catastrophic decline in agricultural biodiversity that we have witnessed in recent decades. The FAO cannot hope to embrace biodiversity while holding industry's hand", he added.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

From GRAIN Shalini Bhutani in India [Tel: +91 11 243 15 168 (work) or +91 98 104 33 076 (cell)] or Alexis Vaughan in United Kingdom [Tel: +44 79 74 39 34 87 (mobile)]

From Focus on the Global South Herbert Docena in Philippines [Tel:+63 2 972 382 3804]

NOTES [1] Visit
http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6.
GRAIN and Focus' report is entitled "Iraq's new patent law: a declaration of war against farmers". Against the grain is a series of short opinion pieces on recent trends and developments in the issues that GRAIN works on. This one has been produced collaboratively with Focus on the Global South.

[2] Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety Law of 2004, CPA Order No. 81, 26 April 2004,
http://www.iraqcoalition.org/regulations/20040426_CPAORD_81_Patents _Law.pdf

[3] GRAIN, "FAO declares war on farmers, not hunger", New from Grain, 16 June 2004,
http://www.grain.org/front/?id=24