Bush's Ultimate War Crime: Iraqi farmers prohibited from saving seeds

The Ultimate War Crime: Breaking the Agricultural Cycle

Edited by Iman Khaduri, http://abutamam.blogspot.com/ January 2005
www.globalresearch.ca 25 January 2005

The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KHA501A.html

For the record: “U.S. declares Iraqis can not save their own seeds”

"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.'"

Iraq law Requires Seed Licenses November 13, 2004

"According to Order 81, paragraph 66 - [B], issued by L. Paul Bremer
[CFR], the people in Iraq are now prohibited from saving seeds and may
only plant seeds for their food from licensed, authorized U.S.
distributors.

The paragraph states, "Farmers shall be prohibited from re-using seeds
of protected varieties or any variety mentioned in items 1 and 2 of
paragraph [C] of Article 14 of this chapter."

Written in massively intricate legalese, Order 81 directs the reader
at Article 14, paragraph 2 [C] to paragraph [B] of Article 4, which
states any variety that is different from any other known variety may
be registered in any country and become a protected variety of seed -
thus defaulting it into the "protected class" of seeds and prohibiting
the Iraqis from reusing them the following season. Every year, the
Iraqis must destroy any seed they have, and repurchase seeds from an
authorized supplier, or face fines, penalties and/or jail time."

Iraqis Can't Save Seed January 19, 2005

The original article on this topic: Iraqi farmers aren't celebrating
October 15, 2004