Today I was forwarded an article that hit me in the gut. "U.S. declares Iraqis can not save their own seeds"
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KHA501A.html (Please see the beginning of article below)
I know this is just one example of many provisions inserted into Paul Bremer's rule-book by the big boys of the corporate world to suck a little more profit out of the occupation, but it truly makes me sick. So, we bomb this industrialized, well-educated populace down to nothing (in some places anyway) and then we tell them they can't grow their own food without the permission of our corporate henchmen? I realize the WTO is suing to prevent seed-saving everyplace it can. But in this case it seems particularly eggregious.
It's late and my thoughts aren't flowing, but this is the type of detail which if covered is sunk on page 95 of the NYT. I hope it gets wider coverage.
From
Centre for Research on Globalisation.
The article begins:
"As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save
their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds
of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations. That is
because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own
many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short
time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo:
Pay Monsanto, or starve ."
"The American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority)
government, Paul Bremer, updated Iraq's intellectual property law to 'meet current internationally-recognized standards of protection'. The updated law makes saving seeds for next year's harvest, practiced by 97% of Iraqi farmers in 2002, and is the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human
civilizations, to be now illegal.. Instead, farmers will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically modified (GM) seeds from American corporations. These GM seeds have typically been modified from seeds developed over thousands of
generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, and shared freely like agricultural 'open source.'..."