IP Imperialism

[n_huffhines]

Never heard of this notion before:

Another astounding example of American intellectual imperialism is in – not so surprising – Iraq

The American Administrator of [Iraq] 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, the standard farming practice for thousands of years across human civilizations, newly illegal. Instead, farmers will have to obtain a yearly license for genetically modified seeds from American corporations. These GM seeds have typically been modified from IP developed over thousands of generations by indigenous farmers like the Iraqis, shared freely like agricultural ‘open source.’ Other IP provisions for technology in the law further integrate Iraq into the American IP economy.24

Communists like Lenin used to argue that monopolistic capital breeds war because it needs the support of the imperialistic state to acquire new markets and grab economic resources. As a theory of wars and as an argument in favor of socialism, this is as dumb as it gets. It does no good to either capitalism or democracy, though, to have rent-seeking monopolists and their lawyers make dumb theories look reasonable to the alienated masses of poor people by following dumb policies. - Against Intellectual Monopoly

Sick burn on our foreign relations and IP law, IMO.

 

[MG1968]

any idea if anything Bremer did 10 years ago is still in effect?

it was a crap thing to do (if true in the first place)

 

[n_huffhines]

No, though the book was written in 2005, and the version I'm reading was revised in 2007. I'd hope if that change was made, the authors would have amended. So I'm going to guess this was at least still in effect as late as 2007.

 

[MG1968]

any idea if Iraqi farmers are currently buying GM seeds from US suppliers?

 

[n_huffhines]

any idea if Iraqi farmers are currently buying GM seeds from US suppliers?

I'll keep searching but I quickly found this article from 2007:

Anyone hearing about central India's ongoing epidemic of farmer suicides, where growers are killing themselves at a terrifying clip, has to be horrified. But among the more disturbed must be the once-grand poobah of post-invasion Iraq, U.S. diplomat L. Paul Bremer.

Why Bremer? Because Indian farmers are choosing death after finding themselves caught in a loop of crop failure and debt rooted in genetically modified and patented agriculture -- the same farming model that Bremer introduced to Iraq during his tenure as administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American body that ruled the "new Iraq" in its chaotic early days.

Monsanto's Bullying: Why Iraqi Farmers Might Prefer Death to Paul Bremer's Order 81

 

[n_huffhines]

Here's another website commenting on it as late as 2010. I can't find anything saying it's been reversed.

Order 81, Iraq, and the Decimation of Traditional Seeds | Farm Wars

 

[MG1968]

do you think that an obscure agriculture reform plan would make front page news if the Iraqi government quietly killed it as part of other legislation to reverse or repeal some of the other crap Bremer instituted?

I thought it funny that one of the comments on the Farm Wars site states that Monsanto has spies that will go onto farms and dig up seeds to have them tested. Something tells me that some agriculture nerd has better things to do than travel around a country who's population is armed to the teeth.

 

[n_huffhines]

Yeah, the news might've missed it, but I doubt it. Yeah, Farm Wars wasn't the most reputable source.

 

[milohimself]

Monsanto at work, yet again. They might as well be the standard oil of this generation.

The world according to monsanto is a good read.