Earth matters - Tackling the climate crisis from the ground up (541 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2009

The way that industrial agriculture has treated soils has been a key factor in provoking the current climate crisis. But soils can also be a part of the solution, to a much greater extent than is commonly acknowledged. If we could manage to put back into the world’s agricultural soils the organic matter that we have been losing because of industrial agriculture, we would capture at least one third of the current excessive CO2 in the atmosphere.

Translated into: français   Español

La terre au secours de la Terre
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2009

L’importance des sols face à la crise climatique

Translated into: English   Español

Cuidar el suelo
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2009

Los suelos contienen también enormes cantidades de carbono, sobre todo en la forma de materia orgánica. A escala mundial, los suelos retienen más del doble del carbono contenido en la vegetación terrestre. El surgimiento de la agricultura industrial en el siglo pasado, por su dependencia de los fertilizantes químicos, ha provocado un desprecio generalizado por la fertilidad natural del suelo y una pérdida masiva de la materia orgánica presente en éste. Mucha de la materia orgánica que se pierde termina en la atmósfera, en forma de dióxido de carbono —el más importante gas con efecto de invernadero.

Translated into: English   français  

Le système alimentaire international et la crise climatique
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2009

Aujourd’hui, le système alimentaire mondial, malgré ses semences hi-tech et ses emballages sophistiqués, est incapable de nourrir le monde. L’énormité de l’échec est patente, mais on n’envisage pas, dans les coulisses du pouvoir, de changer de direction. Des mouvements de plus en plus importants réclament le changement à grands cris, mais les gouvernements et les agences internationales persistent dans le même sens : toujours plus d’agrobusiness, plus d’agriculture industrielle, plus de mondialisation. Alors que la planète entre dans une période de changement climatique précisément causé, en grande partie, par ce modèle d’agriculture, une telle incapacité à se décider sérieusement à l’action va rapidement faire empirer une situation déjà intolérable. Le mouvement mondial pour la souveraineté alimentaire est toutefois porteur d’espoir.

Translated into: English   Español

Cambio climático - El fracaso del sistema alimentario transnacional
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2009

El actual sistema alimentario mundial, con todas sus semillas de alta tecnología y sus bonitos paquetes, no es capaz de cumplir con su función principal: alimentar a las personas.

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The international food system and the climate crisis (383 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2009

Today’s global food system, with all its high-tech seeds and fancy packaging, cannot fulfil its most basic function of feeding people. Despite this monumental failure, there is no talk in the corridors of power of changing direction. Large and growing movements of people clamour for change, but the world’s governments and international agencies keep pushing more of the same: more agribusiness, more industrial agriculture, more globalisation. As the planet moves into an accelerating period of climate change, driven, in large part, by this very model of agriculture, such failure to take meaningful action will rapidly worsen an already intolerable situation. But in the worldwide movement for food sovereignty, there is a promising way out.

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The agribusiness lobby arrives in Copenhagen (497 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Grupo de Reflexión Rural, Biofuelwatch, EcoNexus, NOAH–FoE Denmark Date: October 2009

Until now, agriculture has been largely excluded from global carbon markets, but this is set to change in December 2009 at the Copenhagen conference. Agribusiness companies are lobbying hard to make a range of farming activities eligible for future funding under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). As a result, billions of dollars will almost certainly be invested in agriculture, mainly livestock production and plantations. What makes this prospect so alarming is that this huge investment, carried out in the name of mitigating the climate crisis, will be channelled largely to big agribusiness. And it is precisely their approach to farming and food production that has created so many of the problems we face today.

Translated into: français  

Le lobby agro-industriel arrive à Copenhague
Type: Article
Author: par le Grupo de Reflexión Rural, Biofuelwatch, EcoNexus et NOAH – Amis de la terre Danemark Date: October 2009

Jusqu’à maintenant, l’agriculture a été pour l’essentiel exclue des marchés carbone mondiaux. Toutefois, ceci est appelé à changer en décembre 2009 à la conférence de Copenhague. Les firmes agro-industrielles déploient actuellement un lobby intense pour obtenir qu’une série d’activités agricoles soient autorisées à bénéficier d’un futur financement dans le cadre du Mécanisme de développement propre (MDP). De ce fait, des milliards de dollars seront presque certainement investis dans l’agriculture, surtout pour l’élevage et les plantations. Ce qui rend cette perspective particulièrement inquiétante, c’est que ces énormes investissements, effectués au nom de l’atténuation de la crise climatique, bénéficieront pour l’essentiel aux grosses entreprises agro-industrielles. Et c’est justement leur approche de l’agriculture et de la production alimentaire qui a créé la majeure partie des problèmes auxquels nous sommes confrontés aujourd’hui.

Translated into: English  

Real problems, false solutions (722 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Grupo de Reflexión Rural, Biofuelwatch, EcoNexus, NOAH–FoE Denmark Date: October 2009

Three activities – no-till agriculture, biochar and more intensified livestock farming with reduced methane emissions – are likely to benefit from increased funding because of their alleged role in combating global warming. What is the evidence that these activities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions? What will happen to the world’s biodiversity and the global climate if these sectors are hugely expanded? And who is likely to benefit?

Translated into: français  

Vrais problèmes, fausses solutions
Type: Article
Author: par le Grupo de Reflexión Rural, Biofuelwatch, EcoNexus et NOAH – Amis de la Terre Danemark Date: October 2009

Trois activités (l’agriculture en semis direct, le biochar et l’élevage plus intensif avec des émissions de méthane réduites) vont sans doute bénéficier d’un financement supplémentaire du fait de leur rôle supposé dans la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique. Où sont les preuves que ces activités peuvent réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre ? Que va-t-il advenir de la biodiversité de la planète et du climat mondial si ces secteurs connaissent une énorme expansion ? Et qui va sans doute en profiter ?

Translated into: English  

Climate change in West Africa - the risk to food security and biodiversity (198 kb)
Type: Article
Author: OFEDI and GRAIN Date: October 2009

West Africa is extremely vulnerable to climate change, in part because its agriculture is essentially rain-fed. Deeply disturbing alterations in the climate are already being noticed, and worse can be expected. If cataclysmic upheavals are to be avoided, the region needs urgently to find ways of conserving precious ecosystems and of supporting peasant farmers and other groups to use their traditional knowledge to adapt to far-reaching changes.

Translated into: français  

Changements climatiques en Afrique de l’Ouest : risques pour la sécurité alimentaire et la biodiversité
Type: Article
Author: OFEDI et GRAIN Date: October 2009

L’Afrique de l’Ouest est extrêmement vulnérable au changement climatique, ce qui est dû en partie au fait que l’agriculture y est essentiellement pluviale. On remarque déjà des perturbations très préoccupantes et la situation ne peut qu’empirer. Si elle veut éviter des bouleversements cataclysmiques, la région doit de toute urgence trouver des moyens de préserver ses précieux écosystèmes et de soutenir les paysans et les autres producteurs, pour leur permettre d’adapter leurs savoirs traditionnels à des changements considérables.

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Farmers’ rights or fools’ bargain? (Short version) (201 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Guy Kastler Date: October 2009

The Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture held its third session on 1–5 June 2009 in Tunis. Guy Kastler, the European delegate to La Via Campesina’s Biodiversity Commission, and representative of the Réseau Semences Paysannes of France, explains what he sees as the failures of the Treaty and the opportunities and spaces for action emerging from Tunis.

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ITPGR: farmers’ rights or a fool’s bargain?
Type: Article
Author: Guy Kastler Date: October 2009

The Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR) held its third session on 1–5 June 2009 in Tunis. Many fine words and declarations of intent were addressed to farmers, while the seed companies consolidated both their unfettered access to all the farmers’ seeds on the planet and their monopoly over seed markets. Notwithstanding the sometimes lively clashes between countries of the South and those of the North, does this “seed treaty” offer any new opportunities to farmers?

Translated into: français  

TIRPAA : droits des paysans ou marché de dupes
Type: Article
Author: Guy Kastler Date: October 2009

L’Organe Directeur du Traité International sur les Ressources Phytogénétiques pour l’Alimentation et l’Agriculture a tenu sa troisième réunion du 1° au 5 juin 2009 à Tunis. Les paysans ont gagné de belles déclarations d’intention pendant que les firmes semencières ont consolidé leur accès gratuit à l’ensemble des semences paysannes de la planète et ont consolidé leur monopole sur les semences commerciales. Derrière des affrontements entre états du Sud et du Nord parfois assez vif, le « Traité sur les semences » offre-t-il de nouvelles opportunités aux paysans ?

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Saying 'no' to mining ( 2.0 MB)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2009

Over the last decade communities around the world have become more vociferous in their opposition to large mining projects that destroy their way of life, damage biodiversity and exacerbate the climate crisis. In this special feature, activists from India and Ecuador describe their struggles.

The struggle against IPR in the Andes (423 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2009

In Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, initiatives have been taken recently that raise hopes that mechanisms might be created to stop the further privatisation of knowledge and life. So far, progress has been disappointing, with fundamental problems remaining unsolved. Once again, it is up to local people to defend knowledge and biodiveristy against destruction and privatisation.

Translated into: français  

La lutte des pays andins contre les DPI
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2009

L’Équateur, la Bolivie et le Pérou ont récemment pris des mesures qui laissent espérer que certains dispositifs pourraient empêcher la poursuite de la privatisation des savoirs et du vivant. Jusqu’à présent, les progrès ont été décevants. Des questions fondamentales demeurent en suspens. Cette fois encore, c’est aux populations locales qu’il revient de défendre les savoirs et la biodiversité contre les risques de destruction et de privatisation.

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Empty coasts, barren seas ( 1.1 MB)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2009

Gaining access to the territorial waters of many developing countries has been a goal of expanding global capital in recent years. It comes in different forms and under different names but with the single objective of extracting profits for big business. The European Union (EU) is at the forefront of this drive. Through fisheries partnership agreements (FPAs), the EU is able to sustain its lucrative fishing industry and export its overfishing problems to other parts of the world – Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific – often with disastrous consequences for local small fishers. Now the EU is testing Asia’s waters. In this article, GRAIN investigates how Asia’s small fishers stand under the proposed EU–ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA).

Translated into: français   Español

Côtes dévastées et mers stériles
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2009

Au cours des dernières années, l’une des cibles de l’expansion du capital mondial a été l’accès aux eaux territoriales de nombreux pays en développement. Cet objectif a beau revêtir des formes différentes et porter plusieurs noms, il est pour les industriels d’extraire un maximum de bénéfices. L’Union européenne (UE) est en tête du mouvement : Les accords de partenariat de pêche (APP) permettent à l’UE de maintenir une industrie très lucrative et d’exporter ses problèmes de surpêche dans d’autres parties du monde - l’Afrique, les Caraïbes, le Pacifique - provoquant souvent pour les pêcheurs artisanaux locaux des conséquences désastreuses. L’UE a maintenant décidé de tester les eaux asiatiques. Dans cet article, GRAIN enquête pour savoir ce que signifie pour les pêcheurs artisanaux le projet d’accord de libre-échange (ALE) EU-ASEAN.

Translated into: English   Español

Costas vacías, mares estériles
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2009

Lograr el acceso a las aguas territoriales de numerosos países en desarrollo ha sido uno de los objetivos de la expansión mundial del capital en los últimos años. Ese proceso ha revestido formas diferentes y ha adquirido distintos nombres, pero todo con el mismo objetivo de obtener ganancias para las grandes empresas. La Unión Europea está al frente de esta ofensiva. Los acuerdos de colaboración en el sector pesquero permiten a la Unión Europea mantener su lucrativa industria pesquera y exportar sus problemas de sobrepesca a otras partes del mundo —África, el Caribe, el Pacífico— provocando a menudo consecuencias desastrosas para los pequeños pescadores locales. Ahora la Unión Europea está incursionando en las aguas asiáticas. En este artículo, GRAIN analiza la situación de los pequeños pescadores de Asia frente al tratado de libre comercio (TLC) propuesto entre la Unión Europea y los países de la Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático (ASEAN).

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Corporate candyland (639 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

One of the most destructive developments in agriculture over the past two decades has been the boom in soya production in the southern cone of Latin America. The corporations that led that boom are now moving aggressively into sugar cane, focusing on large tracts of land in southern countries where sugar can be produced cheaply. If these developments are not resisted, the impacts are likely to be severe: local food production will be overrun, workers and communities will face displacement and exposure to increased levels of pesticides, and foreign agribusiness will tighten its grip on sugar production. We look at the intersection between the development of genetically modified (GM) sugar cane and transformations in the global sugar industry.

Translated into: français   Español

Le monde merveilleux des multinationales - La menace de l’invasion de la canne à sucre GM
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

Le boom de la production de soja dans le Cône sud de l’Amérique latine constitue l’une des évolutions agricoles les plus destructrices des vingt dernières années. Les entreprises responsables de ce boom font aujourd’hui une percée agressive dans la canne à sucre, en se concentrant sur de vastes étendues de terre dans les pays du sud où ils peuvent produire du sucre à bon marché. Si ce développement ne provoque pas de réaction, l’impact risque d’être sévère : la production de nourriture locale sera écrasée, les travailleurs et leurs communautés seront déplacés et exposés encore davantage aux effets des pesticides et l’agrobusiness étrangère resserrera encore son étau sur la production sucrière. Nous essaierons dans cet article de voir le rapport entre le développement de la canne à sucre génétiquement modifiée et les transformations de l’industrie du sucre dans le monde.

Translated into: English   Español

Emporios del azúcar - La inminente invasión de la caña transgénica
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

Una de las tendencias más destructivas de la agricultura en los últimos veinte años es la expansión de las plantaciones de soja [o soya] en el cono sur de América Latina. Agresivamente, las empresas que estuvieron a la cabeza de ese “auge” se mueven ahora a la caña de azúcar, y fijan la mira en grandes extensiones de tierra en los países del sur, donde el azúcar puede producirse muy barato. De no oponerle resistencia, es probable que haya que enfrentar a graves impactos: la producción local de alimentos será menospreciada, habrá expulsión mano de obra y desplazamiento de comunidades o quedarán expuestos a crecientes niveles de plaguicidas. Las agroempresas extranjeras afianzarán su control del azúcar. A continuación analizamos la confluencia entre el avance de la caña de azúcar genéticamente modificada y las transformaciones de la industria azucarera global.

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The soils of war (Seedling article version) (413 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

In recent decades humanitarian aid has regularly been made conditional on the adoption of neoliberal economic policies. Recently, however, there has been a troubling tendency in war-ridden countries to interweave this aid, classified as “reconstruction”, closely with the military machinery of the invading powers. Afghanistan and Iraq have been the testing grounds for this militarised aid. In both countries the distinction between the US’s civilian and military activities has been completely, and deliberately, blurred. (For a fuller version of this article, see GRAIN Briefing, “The soils of war – The real agenda behind agricultural reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq”, March 2009, http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=217)

Corporations are still making a killing from hunger (201 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

In April 2008 GRAIN published a short report on the huge profits that agribusiness was making from the food crisis. Another year has passed. More financial results are in. So has anything changed?

Translated into: français   Español

Las corporaciones siguen especulando con el hambre
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

En abril de 2008, GRAIN publicó un breve informe sobre los enormes beneficios que la agroindustria está percibiendo de la crisis alimentaria. Ha pasado otro ejercicio. Con más resultados financieros. Así que ¿nada cambió?

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Le commerce de la faim : les grandes entreprises persistent et signent
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

En avril 2008, GRAIN a publié un rapport sur les sommes énormes qu’a engrangées l’agrobusiness en profitant de la crise alimentaire. Une année est passée. Les nouveaux résultats financiers sont là. Les choses ont-elles changé ?

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Indonesia fights to change WHO rules on flu vaccines
Type: Article
Author: Edward Hammond Date: April 2009

The WHO’s global surveillance system acts as a free virus collection and R&D department for the world’s largest vaccine companies, yet gives very little benefit back to the developing countries in terms of available vaccines. Angered by the inequity, Indonesia decided in 2007 to suspend its sharing of viruses with the WHO. This action sent shock waves around the world. It alerted many developing nations to the need for reform, while provoking companies and the developed nations to fight to maintain the status quo. The outcome is still to be determined, while the world awaits the next pandemic.

Translated into: français   Español

L’Indonésie s’efforce de faire changer les règles de l’OMS sur les vaccins contre la grippe
Type: Article
Author: Edward Hammond Date: April 2009

Le système de surveillance mondial de l’OMS assure gratuitement la collecte de virus et le rôle d’un département de “recherche et développement ” pour les grands fabricants de vaccins, mais n’offre aux pays en développement qu’une piètre compensation en termes de disponibilité des vaccins. Furieuse de cette injustice, l’Indonésie a décidé en 2007 de suspendre le partage des virus avec l’OMS. Cette décision a véritablement choqué le monde et a mis en lumière pour beaucoup de pays en développement la nécessité d’une réforme, tout en poussant les grandes entreprises et les pays riches à se battre pour maintenir le statu quo. Le monde attend la prochaine pandémie, mais ce conflit n’est pas encore résolu.

Translated into: English   Español

Indonesia lucha por cambiar las normas de la OMS sobre las vacunas contra la gripe
Type: Article
Author: Edward Hammond Date: April 2009

El sistema de vigilancia global de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), actúa como colección gratuita de virus y como departamento de investigación y desarrollo para los fabricantes de vacunas más grandes del mundo y, no obstante, brinda muy pocos beneficios a los países en desarrollo que tienen muy disponibilidad de estas vacunas. Ante tal inequidad, en 2007 Indonesia decidió dejar de compartir muestras de virus con la OMS. Su acción conmocionó a todo el mundo y alertó a muchos países en desarrollo sobre la necesidad de reformas profundas, y provocó que las grandes compañías y los países desarrollados lucharan por mantener el estatus quo. Aún no se conoce en qué terminará ese asunto, pero el mundo espera una nueva pandemia.

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Seeds of information (287 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2009

This section of Seedling is devoted to short topical items. We welcome contributions from readers.

El combate a la contaminación transgénica en todo el mundo
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Desde que los transgénicos se introdujeron por primera vez a mediados de la década de 1990, grupos de agricultores y ong advirtieron que contaminarían otros cultivos. Como se predijo, esto ya ocurrió. En este artículo analizamos que estrategias para combatir la contaminación están ideando en distintas partes del mundo las comunidades que la sufren.

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La lutte contre la contamination par les OGM dans le monde
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Dès la première introduction des OGM au milieu des années 1990, des groupes d’agriculteurs et des ONG avaient mis en garde contre les risques de contamination des autres cultures. Et c’est ce qui s’est passé, exactement de la façon prédite. Nous nous intéressons dans cet article à la façon dont les communautés des différentes parties du monde qui ont été confrontées à une contamination ont élaboré des stratégies pour la combattre.

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The new weapons of genetic engineering (329 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Over the last few years biotech laboratories and industry have developed two new techniques – artificial minichromosomes and transformed organelles – which, the industry claims, will allow it to overcome the problems it has faced until now with GMOs, especially their low efficiency and genetic contamination. But basic biology and maths indicate that, contrary to what the industry claims, the new technology will not prevent genetic contamination in plants. In fact, as the two technologies converge, the frightening possibility arises that contamination will reach a new level of toxicity, and occur not only within organisms of the same species but also between species as different from each other as plants and bacteria, or plants and fungi.

Translated into: français  

Les nouvelles armes du génie génétique
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Au cours de ces dernières années, les laboratoires et le secteur de la biotechnologie ont développé deux nouvelles techniques, les minichromosomes artificiels et les organites transformés, qui, selon l’industrie, permettront de surmonter les problèmes auxquels elle a été confrontée avec les OGM, notamment leur faible rendement et la contamination génétique. Toutefois, des données de base en biologie et en mathématiques montrent que, contrairement aux allégations de l'industrie, les nouvelles technologies n'empêcheront pas la contamination génétique chez les végétaux. En fait, comme les deux technologies convergent, une possibilité effrayante se profile à l’horizon : qu’une contamination atteigne un nouveau degré de toxicité et ne concerne pas seulement des organismes de la même espèce, mais qu’elle intervienne entre des espèces aussi différentes les unes des autres que le sont des plantes et des bactéries, ou des plantes et des champignons.

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The food crisis in Guadeloupe (173 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Pamela Obertan Date: January 2009

In 2008 many developing countries were severely affected by the food crisis, which led to sharp increases in the price of many staple foods. People and organisations examined the situation in their own countries and questioned the policies adopted by their governments. In this article an activist from the small island of Guadeloupe, situated in the Caribbean but integrated into France, explains how the crisis has affected her country.

Translated into: français  

La crise alimentaire en Guadeloupe
Type: Article
Author: Pamela Obertan Date: January 2009

En 2008, de nombreux pays en développement ont été sévèrement touchés par la crise alimentaire, avec pour conséquence une augmentation importante du prix des denrées alimentaire de base. Des habitants et des organisations ont examiné la situation depuis leurs pays, remettant en question les politiques de leurs gouvernements. Dans cet article, une activiste de la petite île de Guadeloupe, située dans les Caraïbes et rattachée administrativement à la France, explique comment la crise a affecté son pays.

Translated into: English  

Twelve years of GM soya in Argentina - a disaster for people and the environment (384 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Genetically modified soya was introduced into Argentina in 1996 without any kind of debate either in Congress or among the public. Since then, its cultivation has spread across the country like wildfire. Today more than half of the country’s arable land is planted with soya. No other country in the world has devoted such a large area to a single GM crop. Argentina provides a unique opportunity to investigate the consequences for a country of intensive GMO cultivation.

Translated into: français  

Douze ans de culture du soja OGM en Argentine : un désastre pour les populations et pour l’environnement
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Le soja génétiquement modifié (GM) a été introduit en Argentine en 1996 sans le moindre débat, que ce soit au Congrès ou au niveau du public. Depuis cette date, sa culture s’est répandue dans l’ensemble du pays comme une traînée de poudre. Aujourd’hui, plus de la moitié des terres cultivables du pays sont plantées en soja.Aucun autre pays au monde n’a consacré une superficie aussi importante à une culture génétiquement modifiée unique. L’Argentine offre une opportunité exceptionnelle d’étudier les conséquences de la culture intensive d’un OGM dans un pays.

Translated into: English  

Biodiversity or dams? An Amazon community fights for its land (397 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

For the last five years the people of Mangabal, a small community beside the Tapajós river in the Brazilian Amazon, have been trying to win definitive rights over their land. They won their case in court, but now they are in more danger than ever of being expelled from their land: the territory they occupy is wanted to make way for hydroelectric power stations to supply energy to big mining companies. But the very process of fighting this latest threat is empowering the community. Mangabal’s ribeirinhos or riverbank dwellers have in the past viewed neighbouring indigenous groups as rivals or enemies, but now they are learning that they face many problems in common, and that only by mobilising together will they make real advances.

Translated into: français  

La biodiversité ou les barrages ? Une communauté amazonienne se bat pour ses terres
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Depuis cinq ans, les habitants de Mangabal, une petite communauté proche de la rivière Tapajós, en Amazonie brésilienne, cherchent à obtenir des droits définitifs sur leurs terres. Ils ont gagné devant les tribunaux, mais ils sont maintenant plus que jamais menacés d’être expulsés de leurs terres : le territoire qu’ils occupent est convoité pour laisser la place à des centrales hydroélectriques destinées à fournir de l’énergie à de grandes compagnies minières. Mais le processus même de la lutte contre cette dernière menace est en train de renforcer l’autonomie de la communauté. Les ribeirinhos (c’est-à-dire les habitants des rives de la rivière) de Mangabal considéraient autrefois que les groupes autochtones voisins étaient des rivaux ou des ennemis, mais maintenant ils comprennent qu'ils sont confrontés à de nombreux problèmes communs et que seule une mobilisation collective leur permettra réellement de progresser.

Translated into: English  

L’aide en semences, l’agrobusiness et la crise alimentaire
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2008

La crise alimentaire mondiale, hâtivement définie par ceux qui sont au pouvoir comme un problème de production insuffisante, est devenue le Cheval de Troie par lequel les semences industrielles, les engrais et, subrepticement, les mécanismes du marché, pénètrent dans les pays pauvres. Comme l’expérience passée le montre, ce qui semble être une « aide en semences » à court terme peut masquer ce qui est en fait une « aide en agrobusiness » à long terme. Nous faisons le point ici sur ce qui est en train de se passer.

Translated into: English  

TRIPS - Close call in Geneva (227 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2008

The collapse of the WTO talks has somewhat unexpectedly created a further opportunity to fight a last ditch battle against the proposed patenting of life in the TRIPS Agreement. The patenting of life is a fundamental negation of the way in which countless generations of rural communities around the world have protected their biodiversity and handed down knowledge about it. Under their stewardship biodiversity and knowledge have evolved and adapted. Privatising these precious resources would threaten the very basis on which society has sustained itself for millennia.

Resisting transnationals – the experience of farming families in south-west Benin (464 kb)
Type: Article
Author: JINUKUN, Synergie Paysanne, GRAIN Date: October 2008

For several decades now, the multinationals have been trying, one way or another, to control the way Africa uses its genetic resources, especially its seeds. Among the strategies they have used has been: to introduce chemical inputs, with all the problems these create; to sponsor national and/or regional laws, mostly copied from European models; and to implement programmes such as the US-backed African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Millennium Challenge Account. Local communities, however, are resisting in a calm and dignified manner by transmitting from generation to generation their own cultural practices. Some examples gathered during a trip to south-west Benin show how communities are still able to control their seed use and to manage their genetic resources.

Translated into: français  

La résistance aux multinationales : l’expérience des familles paysannes au Sud-Ouest Bénin
Type: Article
Author: JINUKUN, Synergie Paysanne, GRAIN Date: October 2008

Depuis plusieurs décennies, les multinationales essaient par tous les moyens de contrôler la manière dont l’Afrique utilise ses ressources génétiques, ses semences en particulier. Les stratégies qu’elles ont employées incluent l’introduction d’intrants chimiques avec tous les problèmes que cela peut entraîner, l’adoption de lois nationales et/ou régionales inspirées pour la plupart des modèles européens et la mise en place de programmes soutenus par les Etats-Unis, tels que la Loi sur la croissance et les possibilités économiques en Afrique (l’AGOA) ou le Fonds pour les défis du millénaire  (le Millennium Challenge Account ou MCA). Les communautés locales, en revanche, résistent avec calme et dignité en transmettant leurs propres pratiques agricoles de génération en génération. Des exemples relevés durant un voyage au Sud-Ouest Bénin montrent ainsi comment les communautés parviennent encore à contrôler leur utilisation des semences et à gérer leurs ressources génétiques.

Translated into: English  

Ulrich Oslender (330 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Interview by GRAIN Date: October 2008

Ulrich Oslender, a political geographer at the University of Glasgow, has carried out research into social movements and spaces of resistance in Latin America. He currently works as an EU-funded Marie Curie Research Fellow investigating the forced displacement of Afro-Colombians from Colombia’s Pacific coast region, which he explains through a methodological framework he calls “geographies of terror”. Since the mid-1990s, he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Colombia and has worked closely with the social movement of the country’s black communities. He can be reached at: Ulrich.Oslender@ges.gla.ac.uk

Lessons from a Green Revolution in South Africa (573 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2008

The latest rescue plan for Africa is another Green Revolution. GRAIN, alongside a host of others, has written and commented extensively on the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) and the impact it will have on the continent. In the meantime, this model of a Green Revolution has already been implemented for the past five years in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It provides us with a case study and an indication of the likely outcome of such an approach in other parts of Africa.

Translated into: français  

Leçons d'une Révolution verte en Afrique du Sud
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2008

Le dernier plan de sauvegarde pour l'Afrique est de nouveau une Révolution verte. GRAIN, avec un grand nombre d'autres, a écrit et commenté abondamment sur l'Alliance pour une révolution verte pour l'Afrique (AGRA) et sur les impacts qu'il aura dans le continent.[1] En attendant, ce modèle de Révolution verte a déjà été mis en place ces cinq dernières années dans la province orientale du Cape en Afrique du Sid. Cela nous fournit un exemple et une indication des résultats probables d'une telle approche dans d'autres endroits d'Afrique.

Translated into: English  

Mismanaging avian flu in Benin (349 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Patrice Sagbo Date: July 2008

A highly pathogenic variety of the H5N1 type of avian flu was first reported in the West African country of Benin in December 2007. Even though this type of flu has been known for more than four years, the authorities in Benin, rather than learning from others’ experiences, have repeated many of their mistakes: they have dealt with the outbreaks secretively; they have blamed wild birds, with no supporting evidence; they have failed to ban the import of poultry. Worse still, they are refusing to pay compensation and thus causing huge economic problems for thousands of small farmers who have lost their livelihoods.

Translated into: français  

Food safety - rigging the game (482 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2008

As the push toward neoliberalism advances, and quantitative measures to protect local markets, such as tariffs and quotas, disappear, industrial powers are turning to qualitative measures such as food safety regulations to further skew trade in their favour. In the food safety arena, both the US and the EU are pressing their standards on other countries. For Washington, even though its own food safety system is widely criticised as too lax, this means getting countries to accept GMOs and US meat safety inspections. For Brussels, whose food safety standards have a much better reputation, it means imposing high standards on countries that cannot meet them. Bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) have become a tool of choice to push through the changes.

Translated into: français   Español

Sécurité sanitaire : les dés sont pipés
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2008

Au fur et à mesure des avancées de l’offensive néolibérale et de la disparition des mesures quantitatives de protection des marchés locaux, comme les droits de douane et les quotas, les grandes puissances industrielles ont recours à des mesures qualitatives comme les réglementations sur la sécurité sanitaire des aliments pour continuer à fausser le jeu de la concurrence à leur avantage. Sur la scène de la sécurité sanitaire, les États-Unis comme l’UE tentent de faire adopter leurs normes par les autres pays. Pour Washington, dont le propre système de sécurité sanitaire est souvent accusé de laxisme, c’est une manière d’amener les pays à accepter les OGM et les inspections sur la sécurité sanitaire des viandes. Pour Bruxelles, dont les normes de sécurité sanitaire ont bien meilleure réputation, cela se traduit par l’imposition de normes très strictes à des pays qui ne peuvent les respecter. Les accords de libre échange (ALE) bilatéraux sont devenus un instrument privilégié pour faire passer les changements.

Translated into: English   Español

Normas sanitarias y fitosanitarias: ¿Una estrategia para amañar el mercado de alimentos?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2008

A medida que la ofensiva del neoliberalismo avanza y se eliminan las medidas de protección para los mercados locales tales como los aranceles y los cupos de importación, las potencias industriales ponen la mira ahora en medidas cualitativas tales como las reglamentaciones relativas a la inocuidad de los alimentos para continuar sesgando así el mercado a su favor. En materia de sanidad animal y vegetal, tanto Estados Unidos como la Unión Europea están tratando de imponerle sus normas a los demás países. Para Washington eso significa conseguir que otros países acepten los transgénicos y sus normas de inspección de sanidad animal e inocuidad de la carne, a pesar del hecho que el sistema regulatorio estadounidense de sanidad animal y vegetal es ampliamente criticado como demasiado laxo. Para Bruselas, que se rige por normas de inocuidad de los alimentos que gozan de mucha mejor reputación, significa imponerle normas de alta calidad a países que no pueden satisfacerlas. Los tratados de libre comercio (TLC) bilaterales son hoy la herramienta predilecta para forzar esos cambios.

Translated into: English   français  

Seeds of passion ( 1.7 MB)
Type: Article
Author: Verónica Villa Date: April 2008

A couple of years ago it seemed as if mass-based movements throughout the world had won the battle to ban Terminator seeds. But the biotechnology companies are back on the offensive, arguing that the urgent need to combat global warming makes it imperative to use Terminator technology. Many peasant farmers around the world believe this to be yet another spurious argument used by the companies to gain acceptance for their unnecessary and dangerous technology. In the run-up to COP 9 in May 2008, we reproduce an edited version of an article first published in our sister Spanish-language magazine, Biodiversidad

Translated into: Español

New threat from covert GMOs (714 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Guy Kastler Date: April 2008

The battles lines in the power struggle over seeds are shifting in Europe. Authorities are dropping plans to push US-led “first generation” genetically modified organisms (GMOs), so that European companies can develop “covert” GMOs and new “double-locked” seeds instead. In 2008, the Sarkozy regime will use the French presidency of the European Union to promote its own corporate-led agenda on these issues. It is becoming more important than ever that farmers assert their collective rights over seeds. Guy Kastler of the Peasant Seed Network in France explains.

Agrofuels in India, private unlimited ( 1.9 MB)
( 3.4 MB)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2008

Responding enthusiastically to the world agrofuel frenzy, the Indian government has promised a flurry of initiatives to encourage the large-scale planting of agrofuel crops, particularly jatropha. Without waiting for the government support to be spelt out, corporations are already moving in, taking over resources that have traditionally been used by rural communities. As a result, local people will find it harder to satisfy their food and fuel needs. Once again, it is the rural poor who will bear the cost of the agrofuel boom, while reaping few of the benefits.

Livestock breeding in the hands of corporations (933 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Susanne gura Date: January 2008

Scarcely noticed by the general public, the global livestock industry is going through a rapid process of concentration. Company takeovers and co-operation agreements proliferate and technology is changing fast. Patents are flying out for genetic material, and other proprietary strategies are being vigorously pursued. In a process that bears an uncanny resemblance to what has happened to the global seed market, the breeding sector – now renamed “livestock genetics” – is becoming the nerve centre of the industry and extending its control over livestock farming. Quick to seize the opportunity, agro-giants such as Monsanto are moving in.

Translated into: français  

Le monde de l’élevage aux mains des multinationales
Type: Article
Author: Par Susanne Gura Date: January 2008

Quasiment ignorée du grand public, l'industrie mondiale de l'élevage est soumise à un processus extrêmement rapide de concentration. Les reprises et les accords de coopération entre entreprises se multiplient et la technologie évolue rapidement. Les demandes de brevets concernant le matériel génétique s'envolent et d'autres stratégies d'appropriation sont déployées avec ardeur. Au cœur d'une évolution qui ressemble étrangement à celle qu'a connue le marché mondial des semences, le secteur de la sélection animale, désormais re-baptisé « génétique de l'élevage » , est devenu le nerf de la guerre pour l'industrie et poursuit sa domination sur le monde de l'élevage. Avec leur opportunisme habituel, les géants de l'agro-industrie comme Monsanto arrivent sur le terrain.

Translated into: English  

Mongolian herders demand their rights (763 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN with Dorj Borjigin and Yangjain Tegusbagar Date: January 2008

As part of the carve-up of the world that followed the end of the Second World War, the Chinese were able to bring under their sphere of influence an area to the south of Mongolia, which they called Inner Mongolia. Although today the region formally remains autonomous, the Chinese effectively control it. Two Mongolians – Dorj Borjigin and Yangjain Tegusbagar – talked to GRAIN about the problems they face in their country, which they call Southern Mongolia.

Translated into: français  

Des pasteurs mongols réclament leurs droits
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

 Dans le cadre du découpage du monde qui eut lieu après la seconde guerre mondiale, la Chine réussit à inclure dans sa sphère d’influence une région au Sud de la Mongolie qu’elle a appelée Mongolie intérieure. Quoique cette région soit aujourd’hui officiellement indépendante, elle est effectivement sous le contrôle chinois. Deux Mongols, Dorj Borjigin et Yangjain Tegusbagar, ont parlé à GRAIN des problèmes qu’ils rencontrent dans leur pays qu’ils appellent la Mongolie méridionale.

Translated into: English  

Contract farming in the world’s poultry industry (683 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

Over the last 40 years the world has witnessed a remarkable increase in the consumption of poultry, pork and beef. Multinational meat processing companies have been able to respond to the hugely expanded export trade only by tying hundreds of thousands of small farmers into production contracts. In this article we examine contract farming in the poultry sector of two leading producing countries – Brazil and Thailand.

Translated into: français  

L’élevage sous contrat et l’industrie de la volaille dans le monde
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

 Au cours des quarante dernières années, le monde a connu une augmentation considérable de la consommation de poulet, de porc et de bœuf. Seules les contraintes imposées dans leurs contrats de production à des centaines de milliers de paysans ont permis aux multinationales de la transformation de la viande de répondre à l’expansion gigantesque du marché des exportations. Cet article analyse l’élevage de volailles sous contrat dans deux grands pays producteurs, le Brésil et la Thaïlande.

Translated into: English  

Viral times - The politics of emerging global animal diseases (600 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

The world is in the midst of big changes with respect to global animal diseases. We are heading for more diseases, more deadly types of disease, and more capacity for these diseases to spread. There is also a greater probability of the emergence of zoonotic diseases and global pandemics.Yet the international response to this situation has so far failed by a large measure to reflect the seriousness of the crisis. The fault lies in governments’ unwillingness to confront the dominant powers of industrial livestock farming – whether it be the pharmaceutical corporations and their patents or the industrial meat corporations and their factory farms.

See also the Bird flu resource page

Translated into: français  

L’époque des virus - La politique des maladies animales émergentes dans le monde
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

Le monde entier est secoué par d’importants changements concernant les maladies animales. Nous allons devoir affronter encore davantage de maladies, des types de maladies plus mortelles et une capacité de propagation accrue. Nous sommes aussi face à une plus grande probabilité qu’émergent zoonoses et pandémies mondiales. Pourtant, la réponse internationale à cette situation nouvelle est très loin jusqu’à présent de refléter l’ampleur de la menace. Faute en est aux gouvernements qui n’ont pas la volonté de confronter les pouvoirs en place qui dominent l’élevage industriel, depuis les compagnies pharmaceutiques et leurs brevets jusqu’aux industriels de la viande et leurs élevages intensifs. 

Translated into: English  

Germ warfare - Livestock disease, public health and the military–industrial complex (424 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

Animal diseases that threaten human health - the global reaction by governments to this is plagued by three key problems: information (a lack of transparency and poor media coverage); privatisation (of viruses, vaccines and related materials and technologies for commercial purposes); and military use (the growing intrinsic connection between health research and development and military use).

See also the Bird flu resource page

Translated into: français  

Guerre bactériologique
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

Les maladies animales, la santé publique et le complexe militaro-industriel L'intégration globale grandissante du marché de la viande, et plus généralement celle des économies nationales,ont placé les maladies du bétail au centre des préoccupations internationales.

Translated into: English  

Livestock diversity still threatened - Interlaken conference ducks the issues (209 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2008

An international conference to debate the future of animal genetic resources was organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) from 3 to 7 September 2007 in Interlaken, Switzerland. It was attended by almost 300 people from more than 100 countries. Governments adopted the “Interlaken Declaration” and agreed on a “Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources”. This was the first major intergovernmental conference to address the problem of how to reduce the rapidly dwindling diversity of livestock breeds of the few dozen animal species that are used in agriculture and pastoralism for food, fibre, fuel and power, as well as for social, cultural and environmental purposes.

CAFTA and the Budapest Treaty - The debate in Costa Rica (330 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Silvia Rodríguez Cervantes Date: January 2008

Bilateral trade agreements are the latest tool to spread patents on life worldwide. They may be used to force countries to provide patents on plants and animals or to join the UPOV Convention’s softer system of plant variety rights. Or they may include an obligation to sign the little-known Budapest Treaty on the patenting of micro-organisms. This was the option chosen for Central America and the Dominican Republic, which, through their free-trade agreement with the USA, are having the Budapest Treaty forced upon them. But the debate is far from over, for many Costa Ricans are determined to stop this happening.

Non à la folie des agrocarburants ! (182 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: November 2007

Le pouvoir des entreprises: les agrocarburants et l’expansion de l’agrobusiness (244 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2007

L’intérêt des multinationales pour les agrocarburants est passé au cours de ces quelques dernières années d’un trot nonchalant à une ruée échevelée. Pour les hommes d’affaires comme pour les hommes politiques, les agrocarburants représentent certainement l’une des plus acceptables des énergies “renouvelables” car ils peuvent facilement se caser dans l’économie basée sur le pétrole qui existe actuellement.  Mais ils offrent aussi des occasions de réaliser des profits dont le nouvel ordre du marché « vert » des affaires n’a pas tardé à s’emparer. D’énormes sommes d’argent affluent actuellement dans les projets d’agrocarburants dans le monde, avec des conséquences considérables.

Translated into: English   Español

Les agrocarburants en Asie – Ils alimentent la pauvreté, la déforestation et le changement climatique. (139 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Almuth Ernsting Date: October 2007

Translated into: English   Español

Le jatropha – l’agrocarburant des pauvres ? (82 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2007

Le jatropha curcas est un arbuste à fleurs rouge vif, natif d'Amérique centrale, que les commerçants portugais importèrent d’Afrique vers l’Asie comme plante décorative. Ses graines oléagineuses peuvent être utilisées pour produire du biodiesel. Puisqu'il pousse sur des sols pauvres, le jatropha est largement promu en Asie et en Afrique comme la plante idéale des petits cultivateurs. En Afrique et en Asie, il y a de sérieuses préoccupations au sujet de l'impact environnemental et social du jatropha. L’Australie occidentale l’a même interdit à cause de sa toxicité sur les humains et les animaux et à cause de sa capacité de devenir rapidement difficile à contrôler, une herbe envahissante.

Translated into: English  

La nouvelle ruée vers l’Afrique (170 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2007

L’Afrique, avec ses vastes terres et sa main-d’oeuvre bon marché, est une cible de choix pour les promoteurs d'agrocarburants. Comme aime à le souligner un certain groupe de pression européen favorable aux agrocarburants, rien que 15 pays africains – surnommés l’“OPEP vert” (voir carte) – réunissent ensemble une surface arable disponible aux cultures d’agrocarburant supérieure à la surface de l’Inde elle-même. Et déjà, sur ce continent, des millions d’hectares de terres soi-disant “en friche” ont été prospectées et affectées aux agrocarburants.

Translated into: English   Español

Les agrocarburants en Amérique latine (87 kb)
Type: Article
Author: João Pedro Stedile Date: October 2007

L’Amérique du Sud est en train de devenir une zone clé pour les agrocarburants, que ce soit pour l’éthanol produit à base de canne à sucre, pour le biodiesel, produit à base d'huile de soja, ou même pour l’huile de palme, à un moindre degré. Les activistes latino-américains, qui furent les premiers à utiliser le terme agrocombustible (agrocarburant), ont également été parmi les premiers à dénoncer ce qui est en train de se produire. Ils expliquent ici, avec leurs propres mots, comment la ruée sur l’agrocarburant affecte leur continent.

Translated into: English  

La connexion soja en Amérique du Sud (110 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2007

En parallèle à l'expansion rapide de la production d'éthanol, largement fabriquée à partir de canne à sucre, l'Amérique du Sud commence aussi à jouer un rôle clé en tant que producteur de biodiesel. Le principal produit de départ est le soja et, pour les cultivateurs de soja et les multinationales céréalières, qui éprouvaient des difficultés dues à la surproduction, ce nouveau débouché est une véritable aubaine. Il leur donne le prétexte parfait pour continuer leur prise de contrôle sur le continent.

Translated into: English   Español

Killing fields the global push for hybrid rice continues (241 kb)
(132 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2007

The seed industry will do whatever it takes to stop farmers saving seeds. The only way it can make big money from seeds is to force farmers to buy from seed companies every year. With rice, one of the world’s most important crops, it is no wonder that there is a relentless push for a hybrid variety that is essentially sterile. Suicide seeds, so to speak. Of course, the seed industry wants people to believe that there are other reasons behind the push for hybrid rice. They talk of higher yields and big profits for farmers. But if you look at the situation in the fields, none of that turns out to be true.

Wholesale rejection of EC seed directive (111 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2007

Eight years ago directive 98/95/EC was issued to cover the whole of the seed industry within the European Community. It was recognised at the time that special conditions must be established for so-called “conservation varieties” of seeds, regarded as important for genetic conservation. It is this enabling legislation, spelling out what directive 98/95/EC means in practice, which was finally published in April.In the end, this enabling legisation has turned out to be highly restrictive.

Stop the agrofuel craze! (472 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2007

An introductory article that, among other things, looks at the mind-boggling numbers that are being bandied around: the Indian government is talking of planting 14 million hectares of land with jatropha; the Inter-American Development Bank says that Brazil has 120 million hectares that could be cultivated with agrofuel crops; and an agrofuel lobby is speaking of 379 million hectares being available in 15 African countries.

Translated into: français   Español

Corporate power: Agrofuels and the expansion of agribusiness (793 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2007

Corporate interest in agrofuels has gone from a casual trot to a full-on stampede over the last few years. For business and politicians alike, agrofuels are certainly one of the more palatable “renewable” forms of energy because they fit easily into the existing petroleum-based economy. But they also present opportunities for profit that the new order of “green” business has wasted no time in capturing. Big money is now flowing into agrofuel projects across the world – with big consequences.

Translated into: français   Español

Agrofuels in Asia: Fuelling poverty, conflict, deforestation (517 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Almuth Ernsting Date: July 2007

In no other region in the world is the absurdity of the frenzied rush into agrofuels more blatant than in Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. Far from helping to reduce global warming, it is leading to a big increase in global carbon emissions. Just as serious, it is cementing the control over large areas of land of industrial groups that are amongst the most ruthless in the world in terms of environmental destruction, labour conditions and human rights abuses.

Translated into: français   Español

Jatropha – the agrofuel of the poor? (160 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2007

Translated into: français  

The new scramble for Africa (762 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2007

Africa, with its large land area and cheap labour, is an obvious target for agrofuel developers. As one European agrofuel lobby group likes to point out, just 15 African countries have a combined arable land base larger than India available for agrofuel crop production. And already millions of hectares of the continent’s so-called “fallow” lands have been surveyed and allocated for agrofuels.

Translated into: français   Español

Latin America - João Pedro Stedile (450 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2007

South America is becoming a key area for agrofuels, both ethanol made from sugar cane and biodiesel produced from soya oil and, to a lesser extent, palm oil. Latin American activists, who were the first to come up with the term agrocombustible (agrofuels), have also been among the first to denounce what is going on. Here they explain in their own words how the agrofuel craze is affecting their continent.

João Pedro Stedile is one of the leaders of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Brazil’s Landless Movement. In its recent conference in Brasilia, attended by 18,000 activists, the MST spoke out strongly against the damage being caused by agrofuel monoculture (http://www.mst.org.br).

Translated into: français  

Latin America - Soya nexus in South America (219 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2007

Along with the rapid expansion of ethanol production, largely manufactured from sugar cane, South America is also beginning to play a key role as a producer of biodiesel. The main feedstock is soya and, for the soya farmers and the multinational grain companies, who were facing problems of overproduction, the new market outlet is a godsend. It gives them the perfect pretext for continuing their take-over of the continent.

Translated into: français   Español

Fear over growing WIPO-FAO links (178 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Geoff Tansey Date: July 2007

Farmers’ and peasants’ lives are increasingly affected by international rules made by governments at remote international meetings. For some time transnational corporations have been using intergovernmental forums to extend their influence over food and farming policies in the developing world. For example, the introduction of rules on intellectual property (e.g. patents and plant variety protection) in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and, via WTO, into agriculture was very much a corporate-driven project. But sometimes smaller, stealthier steps can have an equally disturbing impact. We look at what is going on in two international organisations.

Sorghum: a crop to feed the world or to profit the industry? (616 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2007

When maize withers and rice shrivels, people in many parts of the world depend on sorghum. Apart from eating the grain, farmers can make beer and use the stalks to build houses and fences, as well as produce animal feed and medicine.They have nurtured and adapted sorghum for 5,000 years, and it has spread along trade routes from its origin in Ethiopia. GRAIN reports on Ethiopian wheat and sorghum farmers who recovered from famine and on Indian farmers who came through the Green Revolution to restore their food sovereignty. Their stories contrast starkly with biotechnologists’ plans to turn yet another food crop into an export commodity.

Turkey’s new seed law (265 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2007

In October 2006 the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament) passed a far-reaching law on seeds which, if it is fully implemented, will erode the farming practices of all those who work on the land: more than 35 per cent of Turkey’s population. The new law is part of a drive to bring the country’s legislation into line with the European Union, which Turkey’s government hopes eventually to join.

Bread of life (247 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Hélène Zaharia Date: April 2007

In their effort to improve the taste and nutritional value of their bread, a group of French paysans boulangers (peasant bakers) are seeking out old varieties of wheat, many of which had not been planted for more than half a century. Experimenting with them, they are discovering that some have unexpected advantages, such as provoking a much lower level of gluten intolerance among consumers than industrialised bread.

The bread we eat (412 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Andrew Whitley Date: April 2007

While the paysans boulangers have been baking nutritious bread from old varieties of wheat in France, a company in the north of England has been producing bread using recipes gathered from various parts of Europe. The Village Bakery was founded in 1976 by Andrew Whitley. Here he traces the history and diagnoses the ills of the industrialised bread produced in the United Kingdom.

Hybrid rice in China - A great yield forward? (866 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2007

Well over half of China’s total rice-growing area of some 15 million hectares is planted with rice hybrids, making the country by far the world’s largest producer of the crop. But little is known about the impact of the switch to hybrids. Are yields higher? Are farmers better off? Is the country losing its traditional rice varieties? Are farmers becoming dependent on the seed companies? GRAIN talked to rice farmers in the Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan to find out.

Nyéléni – Pour la souveraineté alimentaire
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2007

Des entretiens que nous avons eus avec deux militants actifs des mouvements sociaux, Mamadou Goïta du Mali et P.V. Sateesh d’Inde, avant le Forum mondial pour la souveraineté alimentaire (Nyéléni 2007). 

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Bt cotton - the facts behind the hype (416 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2007

It has been over ten years now since genetically modified Bt cotton was first commercialised. Since then it has been introduced or tested in more than twenty countries. The crop is a clear success for Monsanto, the leading Bt cotton company. But what has it meant for farmers? Today, a more complete picture is finally emerging of what is happening on the farm in many countries throughout the world.

Translated into: français  

Coton Bt: les faits derrière le battage publicitaire
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2007

Cela fait maintenant plus de dix ans que le coton génétiquement modifié Bt est commercialisé. Il a été depuis introduit et testé dans plus de vingt pays. Sa culture est un succès évident pour Monsanto, la principale entreprise de coton Bt. Mais qu'est que cela a signifié pour les agriculteurs? On peut avoir aujourd'hui une vision plus claire de ce qui se passe dans les fermes dans de nombreux pays à travers le monde.

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Swapping Striga for patents (871 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2006

Later this year some Kenyan farmers will be planting a new kind of maize seed – StrigAway – a maize seed that is resistant to the weed Striga. Are farmers simply swapping the stranglehold of the Striga weed for the treadmill of patented seeds and herbicides? GRAIN reports on the introduction of StrigAway in Kenya.

Translated into: français  

Echanger la Striga contre des brevets
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2006

A la fin de l'année, des agriculteurs Kenyans vont planter une nouvelle sorte de maïs, le StrigAway, une semence de maïs résistant à la mauvaise herbe "Striga". Ces agriculteurs ne sont-ils pas simplement en train d'échanger l'étranglement par la Striga contre le mécanisme infernal des semences et herbicides brevetés? GRAIN rend compte ici de l'introduction du StrigAway au Kenya.

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Haloa (518 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Walter Ritte and Bill Freese Date: October 2006

Genetic modification and bioprospecting threaten not only local farmers’ control over their natural resources but also the culture that sustains their communities. Walter Ritte and Bill Freese describe the Hawaiian experience.

Sharing FTA experiences (284 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2006

As FTAs (free trade agreements) are being signed around the world, their impact on society as a force pushing for deregulation and privatisation is starting to be felt. And grassroots struggles are fighting back. But these struggles, on varying issues, are often cut off from each other. So in July 2006 a workshop brought together 60 participants, from 19 countries, all of whom have been fighting FTAs, to share their experiences and to build a strategy to fight FTAs.

Plantations, GM trees and indigenous rights (881 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle Date: July 2006

The damaging effects of monoculture tree plantations are being resisted around the world. Timber plantations have occupied large tracts of indigenous and agricultural land and have been responsible for the loss of biodiversity and the pollution and depletion of water and soils. Such plantations are owned by large corporations with little concern for the surrounding communities or environment. Now, the addition of genetically modified (GM) tree plantations can only make the situation worse. This article argues that the development of GM trees needs to be stopped now.

Voices in the green desert (313 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Silvia Ribeiro Date: July 2006

In March 2006 women entered the tree nursery at the Aracruz Celulosa pulp mill in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and destroyed a million eucalyptus seedlings and its laboratory. This was a protest against the serious social and environmental impact caused by the expansion of the “green desert” – the vast eucalyptus monocultures that are spreading across southern Brazil.

Fairtrade and global justice (311 kb)
Type: Article
Author: James O'Nions Date: July 2006

Until very recently, ‘fairly traded’ goods were only available at shops run by development charities like Oxfam, and church bazaars. The range was small, and awareness of the fair trade concept limited. Yet recently fair trade – or Fairtrade, as it has branded itself – has become big business. You can choose Fairtrade coffee in mainstream outlets like Starbucks across the global North, and in the UK, more than 1,000 products are now certified as Fairtrade with awareness of what the mark means now at 50% of the population according to a recent poll. On an international level, the industry estimates it benefits five million producers worldwide. Yet with multinationals moving to cash in, and supermarkets approaching Fairtrade as just another niche market, can it avoid being co-opted by the market system it was set up to challenge?

Commerce équitable et justice globale
Type: Article
Author: James O'Nions Date: July 2006

Jusqu'à récemment, on ne pouvait trouver les produits du "commerce équitable" que dans des boutiques gérées par des ONG du développement comme Oxfam et dans les ventes de charité religieuses. Le choix de produits était réduit et la prise de conscience du concept de commerce équitable limitée. Mais récemment, le commerce équitable ou «Commerce Equitable», comme il s'est lui-même attribué le label, est entré dans le monde des affaires. Vous pouvez choisir du café du "Commerce Equitable" dans les principaux centres commerciaux du Nord globalisé comme Starbucks, et au Royaume Uni, plus de 1000 produits sont maintenant certifiés "Commerce Equitable", et selon un sondage récent, 50% de la population sait ce que le label veut dire. Au niveau international, on évalue que cette industrie bénéficie à cinq millions de producteurs dans le monde. Avec les multinationales qui commencent à s'en emparer pour en tirer des profits, et les supermarchés considérant le "Commerce Equitable" comme une niche commerciale de plus, peut-il éviter d'être récupéré par le système du marché qu'il voulait contester quand il a été lancé?

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Fishing profits, farming disaster: the cost of liberalising Asia’s fisheries (516 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2006

The tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean in December 2004 devastated coastal communities in 13 countries. The damage to lives, properties and livelihoods was staggering. Among the badly hit were Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka – countries where the liberalisation of the fishing sector has contributed to the intensification of more destructive and exploitative commercial fishing. Clearing natural coastal defences for industrial aquaculture production is a growing trend in these parts of Asia. Along with increased vulnerability of coastal and surrounding rural comunities, marine biodiversity is in serious decline, and there is an escalating dispossession of the small-scale and artisanal fishing sector. GRAIN investigates.

Translated into: Español

Bird flu crisis Small farms are the solution not the problem (339 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2006

Backyard or free-range poultry are not fuelling the current wave of bird flu outbreaks stalking large parts of the world. The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is essentially a problem of industrial poultry practices. Its epicentre is the factory farms of China and Southeast Asia and - while wild birds can carry the disease, at least for short distances - its main vector is the transnational poultry industry, which sends the products and waste of its farms around the world through a multitude of channels.

Yet small poultry farmers and the poultry biodiversity and local food security that they sustain are suffering badly from the fall-out. To make matters worse, governments and international agencies, following mistaken assumptions about how the disease spreads and amplifies, are pursuing measures to force poultry indoors and further industrialise the poultry sector. In practice, this means the end of the small-scale poultry farming that provides food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of families across the world.

Conservation Refugees: When conservation means kicking people out (455 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Mark Dowie Date: January 2006

It’s no secret that millions of indigenous peoples around the world have been pushed off their land to make room for big oil, big metal, big timber, and big agriculture. But few people realise that the same thing has been happening for a much nobler cause: land and wildlife conservation. It’s not just corporations that have a bad name amongst indigenous communities, but also, and increasingly, some international non-governmental organisations.

GM soybean: Latin America's new colonizer (344 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Miguel Altieri and Walter Pengue Date: January 2006

n Latin America, the frontiers to soybean production are being pushed back aggressively in all directions at a breathtaking rate. Driven by export pressures and supported by government incentives, soybean fields are taking over forests and savannah in an unprecedented manner. The implications of the monoculture model and its supporting machinery for the environment, farmers and communities are discussed below.

Translated into: Español

Software and seeds: lessons in community sharing (331 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Roberto Verzola Date: October 2005

In many countries, control over information has become a big issue. An underlying aspect of this control has been the use – or threat of use – of force to establish control. The aim is often to prevent information from being freely exchanged, creating an artificial scarcity that keeps information prices high. The fight to protect such freedoms is being fought out in many different arenas. Roberto Verzola explores the synergies, similarities and differences between those trying to protect the freedom of innovators in the worlds of software and seeds.

The FAO seed treaty: from farmers’ rights to breeders’ privileges (272 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2005

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture – sometimes called the ‘seed treaty’ – was adopted by UN Food and Agriculture (FAO) member states in 2001 and came into force in 2004. Governments that signed on are now working out implementation details. Far from its roots in the struggle to assert farmers’ rights as a counterforce to breeders’ rights, the Treaty has ended up being mainly about granting new privileges to industry. It will give seed companies free access to most of the world’s public genebanks without any obligation to share their own materials in return.

Translated into: français   Español

El tratado de semillas de la FAO: de los derechos de los agricultores a los privilegios de los obtentores (187 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2005

El Tratado Internacional sobre los Recursos Fitogenéticos para la Alimentación y la Agricultura –a veces denominado en forma abreviada como el ”tratado de semillas”— fue adoptado por los estados miembros de la FAO (Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura) en 2001 y entró en vigor en 2004. En este momento, los gobiernos que lo firmaron están elaborando los detalles acerca de cómo aplicar el Tratado, en especial las normas sobre acceso a los materiales genéticos asignados al sistema multilateral y las condiciones de un acuerdo de transferencia de material asociado a todos los intercambios de semillas. Alejado de sus raíces de luchar por afirmar los derechos de los agricultores como contraposición a los derechos de los obtentores, el Tratado se refiere principalmente al otorgamiento de privilegios nuevos para la industria semillerista. Le dará a las compañías privadas libre acceso a la mayoría de las colecciones mundiales de germoplasma público, sin obligación alguna de compartir a cambio sus propios materiales. En consecuencia, las variedades de cultivos que desarrollen serán suyas y podrán venderlas y lucrar con ellas, en la mayoría de los casos sin restricción alguna que obligue a las compañías a compartir las ganancias devengadas.

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Le Traité sur les semences de la FAO: des droits des agriculteurs aux privilèges des obtenteurs (185 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2005

Le Traité international sur les ressources phytogénétiques pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture - parfois appelé "traité sur les semences" pour faire plus court - a été adopté par les états membres de l'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO) en 2001 et est entré en vigueur en 2004. Actuellement, les Etats qui l'ont signé sont en train d'élaborer les détails de la mise en application du traité, en particulier les réglementations concernant l'accès aux ressources génétiques assigné au mécanisme multilatéral, et les termes d'un accord de transfert de matériel devant accompagner tout échange de semences. Loin des origines de sa lutte pour affirmer les droits des agriculteurs pour contrebalancer ceux des obtenteurs, le Traité concerne principalement l'attribution de nouveaux privilèges à l'industrie des semences. Il donnera aux entreprises privées un accès libre à la majeure partie des collections publiques de matériel génétique du monde sans aucune obligation de partager leurs propres ressources en contrepartie.

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Blue fishers, blue genes: fishy undercurrents in post-tsunami Asia (238 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2005

At the same time as Asia’s fisherfolk are urging their governments to help re-establish artisanal fisheries after last year’s tsunami, an international ‘tsunami-recovery’ consortium is suggesting that they should abandon their livelihoods and find employment elsewhere. The fisherfolk also face other challenges – from growing pressures to switch over to industrial aquaculture and fishering, and the introduction of genetically modified fish.

Entrevue avec Jack Kloppenburg
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2005

Jack Kloppenburg est professeur de sociologie rurale à l’Université du Wisconsin-Madison (États-Unis). Il s'est distingué pour son analyse des retombées sociales émergentes de la biotechnologie, ainsi que pour ses travaux sur la controverse mondiale concernant l’accès à la biodiversité et son contrôle.

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Seed laws: biases and bottlenecks (604 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Niels Louwaars Date: July 2005

Most countries of the world have some kind of seed law or seed regulatory system in place. In the countries of the South, they are largely patterned after the US or European models. Niels Louwaars, a Dutch researcher with the Centre for Genetic Resources in the Netherlands, has been studying and analysing seed laws in developing countries since 1992. He gives some background on how these systems work and highlights a few key issues related to diversity and small farmers' needs.

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Lois sur les semences: Travers et limites (237 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Niels Louwaars Date: July 2005

La plupart des pays du monde ont mis en place une forme ou une autre de loi ou de mécanisme de réglementation des semences. Dans les pays du Sud, ces systèmes s’inspirent largement des modèles des Etats-Unis ou de l’Union européenne. Niels Louwaars, un chercheur néerlandais du Centre de ressources génétiques des Pays-Bas, étudie et analyse les lois sur les semences dans les pays en développement depuis 1992. Il fournit ici un aperçu du fonctionnement de ces systèmes et met l’accent sur quelques questions clefs relatives à la diversité et aux besoins des petits agriculteurs.

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Seed laws in Europe: locking farmers out (723 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Guy Kastler Date: July 2005

In Europe, the commercial seed supply system is highly organised and controlled. European law on seed marketing has evolved over the years to ensure that only uniform seeds for industrial farming can be sold on the market, condemning farmers ' seeds and traditional varieties to the black market if not complete illegality. Together with strong intellectual property rules and the production of hybrids, European seed laws lock farmers out of the seed system. This article is an extract from a longer work by Guy Kastler. Kastler is a French farmer involved with the Réseau Semences Paysannes, the Confédération Paysanne and Nature et Progrès. The article focuses on France which has taken the strictest approach to implementing seed laws in Europe, and perhaps the world.

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Les variétés techniquement verrouillées (276 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Guy Kastler Date: July 2005

En Europe, et surtout en France, la sélection et la multiplication des semences sont fortement organisées par les gouvernements et dominées par les grosses entreprises. Les espèces cultivées sont souvent techniquement verrouillées, et le paysan est ainsi définitivement dépendant du semencier et de l’agroalimentaire industriel. Avec le catalogue Européen, les variétés sont sélectionnées par et pour les techniques de l’agriculture industrielle et non pour les besoins des petits agriculteurs. Les paysans ne peuvent pas inscrire leur "non variété" au catalogue et ils ne peuvent donc pas commercialiser « à titre onéreux ou gratuit » leurs semences. Même l’échange entre voisin est juridiquement interdit. En interdire l’échange, c’est interdire les semences paysannes. Guy Kastler est représentant du Réseau Semences Paysannes, Nature et Progrès et Confédération Paysanne.

Translated into: English   Español

India's new Seed Bill (885 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2005

A new Indian Seeds Bill in 2004 has been circulated by the government of India to overhaul the seed regulatory system. The stated objective of the proposed law is to regulate the seed market and ensure seeds of "quality". With the proposed changes the seed law would be harmonised with other seed laws around the world and ensure the Indian seed market is open to big business. This article clearly demonstrates that the losers are the millions of Indian small-scale farmers, whilst the winners are once again the transnational corporations. Whilst there is enormous pressure on the Indian government to embrace this new law, it is now time to ensure that voices in protest are heard.

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Le nouveau projet de loi sur les semences de l’Inde (729 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2005

Un nouveau projet de loi sur les semences a été mis en circulation en 2004 par le gouvernement indien pour remanier le système de réglementation des semences. L’objectif fixé par la proposition de loi est de réglementer le marché des semences et de garantir des semences de « qualité ». Avec les changements proposés, la loi sur les semences devrait s’harmoniser avec les autres lois sur les semences existant dans le monde et faire en sorte que le marché indien des semences soit ouvert aux grandes entreprises. Cet article démontre clairement que les perdants sont les millions de petits agriculteurs indiens, alors que les gagnants sont une fois de plus les multinationales. Alors qu’il y a une pression énorme pour que le gouvernement indien adopte cette nouvelle loi, il est désormais temps de faire en sorte que les voix qui protestent soient entendues.

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Africa's seeds laws: red carpet for corporations ( 2.6 MB)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2005

Up until the 1990s, seed regulations in Africa were generally organised around public seed programmes, with seed laws, where they existed, mostly limited to import and export restrictions. There was little coordination between countries, with regulations often heavily influenced by the respective donors and very little enforcement on the ground. Indeed, with few exceptions, the vast majority of African farmers have hardly been affected by seed laws or regulations. But out of the larger context of structural adjustment programmes, trade liberalisation, and the consolidation of a transnational seed industry desperate to expand markets, processes have sprouted up over the past decade that are fast-forwarding the implementation of industry-friendly regulations and laws, with scant regard for the impacts on farmer seed systems.

Translated into: français   Español

Lois sur les semences en Afrique : Un tapis rouge pour les sociétés privées (271 kb)
(11 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2005

Si nous considérons l’état des lois sur les semences en Afrique, nous voyons des gouvernements poursuivre un projet qui aurait tout aussi bien pu être conçu à Wall Street. Les anciens systèmes ont pu être erronés, mais au moins leur priorité était d’améliorer la qualité des semences pour les agriculteurs. Les lois actuelles sur les semences sont toutes faites de manière à dérouler un tapis rouge pour l’industrie multinationale des semences - une industrie dominée par quelques entreprises de pesticides qui ne s’occupent strictement que de quelques cultures et variétés GM. Ces entreprises ne produisent pas de semences répondant aux besoins des petits agriculteurs africains et ne peuvent par conséquent jouer qu’un rôle limité.

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Latin America: privatising seed laws (579 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2005

New seed laws are being introduced throughout Latin America. While government intervention in market processes continues to decline in the region, when it comes to seed legislation the states have been laying down some strict laws. These laws vary considerably between each country, but a universal theme that unites them is to provide better protection of private seed varieties developed by companies and sideline farmers’ own seeds. In many cases, farmers’ own seeds are, or will become, illegal.

Translated into: français   Español

Amérique latine: la litanie de la privatisation (234 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2005

De nouvelles lois sur les semences sont en train d’être introduites partout en Amérique Latine. Alors que l’intervention des gouvernements dans les mécanismes du marché continuent de faiblir dans la région, les états ont mis en place des lois très strictes en matière de législation sur les semences. Ces lois varient considérablement d’un pays à l’autre,mais elles ont toutes un point commun, celui d’apporter une meilleure protection aux variétés de semences développées par les compagnies privées et d’écarter complètement les semences produites par les agriculteurs. Dans de nombreux cas, les semences produites par les agriculteurs sont, ou seront, considérées comme illégales.

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Souveraineté alimentaire: un bouleversement du système alimentaire mondial
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2005

La souveraineté alimentaire est une alternative solide à la pensée dominante actuelle concernant la production alimentaire. La lutte pour la souveraineté alimentaire recouvre une grande diversité de questions comme la réforme foncière, le contrôle des territoires, les marchés locaux, la biodiversité, l'autonomie, la coopération, la dette, la santé, et de nombreuses autres questions d'une importance cruciale si on veut pouvoir produire l'alimentation localement.

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Re-situating the benefits from biodiversity (828 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2005

In 2004, the members of the Convention on Biological Diversity started negotiating an "international regime on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing". Many developing country governments are enthusiastic about this process. They speak about it as something which will put an end to biopiracy and finally realise the "fair and equitable sharing of benefits" derived from biodiversity, long promised by the CBD. In reality, the regime will have very little to do with benefit-sharing at all, much less with fair and equitable sharing. The focus will remain where it has always been in the CBD's discussions: on access to genes for research and commercialisation, and on setting a price for such access. The only new element likely to materialise in the regime is some form of international enforcement for national access legislations, possibly a system of certificates to prove that a genetic resource has been lawfully acquired.

Translated into: français  

Resituer la question des bénéfices tirés de la biodiversité
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2005

En 2004, les membres de la Convention sur la diversité biologique ont commencé à négocier un “ régime international d’accès aux ressources génétiques et de partage des bénéfices ”. Beaucoup de gouvernements de pays en développement voient ce processus avec beaucoup d’enthousiasme. Ils en parlent comme d’un moyen de mettre fin à la biopiraterie et de réaliser enfin le “partage juste et équitable des bénéfices” dérivés de la biodiversité, depuis longtemps promis par la Convention sur la diversité biologique. En réalité, le régime aura très peu à voir avec le partage des bénéfices, et encore moins avec un partage juste et équitable. La priorité restera ce qu’elle a toujours été dans les discussions de la Convention sur la diversité biologique: elle sera donnée à l’accès aux gènes pour la recherche et la commercialisation, et sur l’établissement d’un prix pour cet accès. Le seul nouvel élément susceptible de se concrétiser dans ce régime est une certaine forme de mise en vigueur internationale pour des législations nationales sur l’accès, sans doute par un système de certificat prouvant qu’une ressource génétique a été acquise légalement.

Translated into: English  

Bt cotton in South Africa: the case of the Makhathini farmers ( 1.2 MB)
Type: Article
Author: Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss Date: April 2005

This article summarises the results of five years of research undertaken by Biowatch South Africa on the socio-economic impact of Bt cotton on small-scale farmers in South Africa. It forms part of a comprehensive research paper on the topic that will be published later this year.

(This paper has been written by Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss, a researcher with Biowatch South Africa. The research has been done with the assistance of Lawrence Mkhaliphi, Charles Louw, Wendy Forse and Gwendolyn Wellmann.)

USAID in Africa: 'For the American Corporations' (673 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2005

This article examines how the US government uses the International Agency for Development (USAID) to advance a global agenda for GM agriculture. The focus is on USAID’s major programmes for agricultural biotechnology in Africa.

Translated into: français   Español

No, air, don’t sell yourself … (795 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2005

The concept of “environmental services” has become popular over the last decade and has crept insidiously into our collective consciousness without setting off the alarm bells it should have done. Environmental services pro-vide the means of taking privatisation to a new level – a means of privatising many things that have as-yet been unavailable for privatisation: air, water and all sorts of other ecological processes. What has been undertaken so far in the name of environmental services, and what are the implications of turning such basic elements into commodities?

A Global Week of Action against GM, in Andhra Pradesh, India (198 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN & DDS Date: April 2005

Fiasco in the Field: an update on hybrid rice in Asia (392 kb)
(224 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2005

A new report from GRAIN follows up on the fate of hybrid rice in Asia. An earlier study in 2000 saw the push for hybrid rice coming from the seed industry as a stepping-stone to genetically modified (GM) rice. The report looks at how hybrid rice has fared with farmers and the shifting dynamics and ambitions of those pushing hybrid rice in the region. Despite continued enthusiastic support from seed companies and international agencies, hybrid rice continues to be viewed by farmers as a pretty useless technology and the area planted has increased little in the last five years .

Corporate conquest, global geopolitics: Intellectual property rights and bilateral investment treaties (481 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Aziz Choudry Date: January 2005

Since the breakdown of World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun in September 2003, there has been much talk of the rise of bilateralism. But bilateral trade and investment agreements aren’t so much replacing the multilateral agreements that have foreshadowed them in the last decade as working with them to create a ratcheting system to increase the levels of intellectual property protection worldwide. Interestingly, and perhaps more significantly, bilateral trade and investment agreements are also proving to be quite effective in pushing the foreign policy goals of the US and EU.

Translated into: Español

Uncultivated food: food that money can't buy (347 kb)
Type: Article
Author: SANFEC Date: January 2005

The presence of uncultivated food in the food systems of South Asia is a survival issue for many of the poorest families, some of whom rely on uncultivated food for 100% of their dietary needs. This article underlines the critical connection between the conservation of the local diversity of food sources and the broader social goals of poverty alleviation, livelihood enhancement and sustainable development.

Argentina’s torrid love affair with the soybean (424 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Lilian Joensen and Stella Semino Date: October 2004

Soybean production in Argentina has increased from 0.01 million to more than 14 million hectares in 30 years, making it the world's third largest producer. The rise of the soybean has been accompanied by massive increases in hunger and malnutrition in a country long accustomed to producing 10 times as much food as the population required. The consequences of growing GM soya include a massive exodus from the countryside and ecological devastation. Now soya is being imposed on Argentineans as an alternative to traditional foods. Despite all indications to the contrary, the government continues to see the export of GM soya as key to servicing the country's massive debt.

The black sheep of Rajasthan (407 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Ellen Geerlings Date: October 2004

The Raika represent one of the largest groups of livestock herders in India. Through their innovativeness, flexibility and specialised knowledge, they have managed to thrive in a harsh, semi-desert environment. They have developed hardy livestock breeds and a complex social web that revolves around their animals. But external factors are pushing the Raika to the limits of their resourcefulness and threatening their livelihood with extinction.

Science meets its soul: the promise of participative breeding (319 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Réseau Semences Paysanne Date: October 2004

The farmer and researcher may be lost soul mates, but reuniting them may not be an easy task. Having been compartmentalised and isolated for decades, they now speak different languages and have contrasting worldviews. But there is an urgent need to bring the farmer back into the research arena, particularly in the arena of public research, which is running the risk of subjugating itself completely to industry's agenda. Challenging though this will be, the rewards will be many – for consumers, the environment and biodiversity.

Entretien avec Ibrahim Ouédraogo
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2004

Ibrahim Ouédraogo est le Secrétaire Général d’INADES-Formation, qui rassemble l’Institut africain pour le développement économique et social et le Centre africain de formation. Il s’agit d’une association panafricaine qui regroupe des organisations nationales partageant des objectifs, des stratégies et des ressources financières et s’occupant principalement de communautés rurales dans dix pays de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, de l’Afrique Centrale et de l’Afrique de l’Est. M. Ouédraogo déclare, « L’INADES n’arrive pas dans les communautés rurales avec un programme prédéterminé. Ce qui nous intéresse, c’est de soutenir la réalisation des projets que les communautés ont pour leur propre société et nous proposons de les aider, particulièrement dans des domaines comme la sécurité alimentaire, la gestion des ressources naturelles, le crédit rural, et les marchés agricoles, et de soutenir les couches les plus vulnérables de la population, notamment les femmes et les jeunes ».

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Communautaires ou marchandises: quel avenir pour les savoirs traditionnels?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2004

Avons-nous besoin que la propriété intellectuelle soit protégée pour sauvegarder le développement continu des systèmes de savoirs traditionnels?

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The day the sun dies: contamination and resistance in Mexico (762 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Silvia Ribeiro Date: July 2004

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Twelve reasons for Africa to reject GM crops (544 kb)
(210 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Zachary Makanya Date: July 2004

Africa is in danger of becoming the dumping ground for the struggling GM industry and the laboratory for frustrated scientists. The proponents of GM technology sell a sweet message of GM crops bringing the second green revolution and the answer to African hunger, but a closer look makes it clear that GM crops have no place in African agriculture. Here are twelve reasons why.

12 raisons pour l'Afrique de rejeter les OGM
Type: Article
Author: Zachary Makanya Date: July 2004

L'Afrique court le danger de devenir le dépotoir de l'industrie controversée des organismes génétiquement modifiés et le laboratoire des chercheurs frustrés. Les défenseurs de la technologie du génie génétique diffusent l'argument attractif de cultures génétiquement modifiées apportant la deuxième révolution verte et la réponse à la faim en Afrique, mais un examen plus attentif montre clairement que les cultures génétiquement modifiées n'ont rien à faire en Afrique.

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Glossary No. 2: Agricultural Research: What's in a name? (More than you might think) (739 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2004

Many of us often have to struggle with words and concepts that are used as though they have one single and simple meaning, while in reality they hide strong bias and very specific worldviews. Not surprisingly, they are usually biased towards the worldviews of those in power. There have also been words and concepts which were well-intentioned when coined but that have been corrupted over time through inappropriate usage, thereby acquiring more complicated connotations and implications. When we use these words, we often unwillingly but unavoidably become trapped in political and philosophical frameworks which block our ability to challenge the power that backs those views.

In the following pages, GRAIN takes a critical look at some such key concepts related to agricultural research. This follows an earlier effort to look at key concepts related to knowledge, biodiversity and intellectual property rights that we undertook in the January 2004 Seedling . Many of the following words and phrases look innocent enough at a first glance, but on deeper examination, we can see how they are used to serve particular agendas. Some are used to constrain us and lock us into a particular way of thinking, and others are used against us. This is not an exercise aimed at drawing final conclusions, but an invitation to deconstruct some definitions and start the search for new terminology and ways of thinking that may help us untangle some of the conceptual traps we are stuck in. Your comments are welcome.

Translated into: Español

Confronting contamination : 5 reasons to reject co-existence (410 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2004

It's time for some straight talk on contamination and co-existence. The co-existence of genetically modified (GM) crops and non-GM crops is not possible and policy makers need to stop pretending that it is. Genetic contamination is an inevitable consequence of GM agriculture and a debliberate ploy by the industry to make the global acceptance of GM crops a fait accompli. Forget co-existence, we must say no to GM crops altogether.

Translated into: français   Español

Face à la contamination: cinq raisons de rejeter la coexistence
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2004

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A short history of farming in Latin America (720 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Walter Pengue Date: April 2004

Between 2001 and 2003, GRAIN commissioned a series of reports from various countries in Latin America to examine the takeover of food and farming by transnational corporations. This is the summary report from the project. What emerges is a picture of lost opportunity – a continent well endowed to be self-sufficient in food that is systematically giving up its food sovereignty to foreign corporate interests. In doing so, it is undermining food security across the continent.

To eat or not to eat? An obscure UN agency tries to provide an answer (672 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Phil Bereano and Eliott Peacock Date: April 2004

As the politics around genetically modified (GM) food and crops intensifies, the regulatory scene is also becoming more complicated. One of the instruments that could play a significant role in the future is the UN's Codex Alimentarius. The authors outline Codex's relationship to other relevant treaties, and argue for strong lobbying from civil society to help give Codex the teeth it needs to be an effective instrument for the regulation of GM foods.

Bt cotton on Mali's doorstep (353 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2004

The world's biggest agrochemical companies and the US government are rushing to introduce genetically modified (GM) crops into West Africa, starting with cotton. Bt cotton has already hit Burkina Faso and Senegal, and Mali is next. Benin and Ivory Coast are also on the list of targets. For many of these countries cotton is the top export crop, and national and community livelihoods are closely tied to cotton revenues. Will Bt cotton fulfil its promises of increased profits for farmers?

Redefining 'property': Private Property, the Commons, and the Public Domain (518 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Brewster Kneen Date: January 2004

Brewster Kneen analyses the "culture of turning everything and anything into commodities that can be bought and sold". The commons and the public domain have been diminished. Kneen looks at what "the commons", "public domain" and "private property" really mean and even compares our current notions of property with those of the Romans. Interestingly, the Romans only had different types of public property as opposed to the capitalist notion of private property. "There is nothing absolute about these five [Roman] categories, but the characterisation does make the point that there is a far greater range of property-holding arrangements possible than either those of us who oppose privatisation or those who support it have been considering". "Now is the time for legal and institutional creativity, not defensiveness or retrenchment. Now is the time to give new meaning to the ‘commons’ and ‘public domain’ in practice."

Good ideas turned bad? A glossary of rights-related terminology (731 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2004

GRAIN takes a critical look at some such key concepts related to knowledge, biodiversity and intellectual property rights. Many of these words and phrases look innocent enough at a first glance, but on deeper examination, we can see how they have been twisted, manipulated, usurped, devalued and/or denatured. Some are used to constrain us and lock us into a particular way of thinking, and others are used against us. This is not an exercise aimed at drawing final conclusions, but an invitation to deconstruct some definitions and start the search for new terminology and ways of thinking that may help us untangle us from some of the conceptual traps we are stuck in.

Translated into: français   Español

De bonnes idées qui ont mal tourné ? Glossaire des termes relatifs aux droits
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2004

Nombre d'entre nous doivent souvent se battre avec des termes et des concepts employés comme si leur sens était unique et simple alors qu'en réalité ils cachent des préjugés importants et des visions du monde bien spécifiques. Ils reflètent en général la vision du monde de ceux qui sont au pouvoir, ce qui n'a rien d'étonnant. Ce sont aussi des termes et des concepts qui reposaient sur de bonnes intentions quand ils ont été définis mais qui ont été déformés avec le temps à cause d'un emploi inapproprié, acquérant ainsi des connotations et des implications plus compliquées. Quand nous utilisons ces termes, nous nous trouvons involontairement mais inévitablement piégés dans des conceptions philosophiques et politiques qui font obstruction à nos capacités à contester le pouvoir qui soutient ces opinions.

Dans les pages suivantes, GRAIN examine de manière critique certains de ces concepts clés relatifs au savoir, à la biodiversité et aux droits de propriété intellectuelle. Beaucoup de ces termes et ces phrases paraissent assez innocents à première vue, mais si on les examine de plus près, on peut constater combien ils ont été déformés, manipulés, usurpés, dévalués et/ou dénaturés. Certains sont utilisés pour nous restreindre et nous enfermer dans une certaine façon de penser, et d'autres sont utilisés contre nous. Ce n'est pas un exercice destiné à tirer des conclusions définitives mais une invitation à déconstruire certaines définitions et entreprendre la recherche d'une nouvelle terminologie et de nouvelles façons de penser qui peuvent nous aider à nous sortir de certains des pièges conceptuels dans lesquels nous sommes coincés.

Comme les lecteurs vont le constater, un des concepts clés manque: celui des droits. Après en avoir discuté, nous avons conclu que ce concept est si central aux débats actuels, tellement chargé en valeurs implicites, et sa représentation ancrée si profondément dans nos esprits, qu’un examen plus long et plus attentif est nécessaire avant de pouvoir aborder un débat profitable sur le sujet. Nous comptons inclure une discussion sur la question des ‘droits’ dans un prochain numéro de Seedling. En attendant, vos commentaires sont les bienvenus.

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The great protection racket: imposing IPRs on traditional knowledge (548 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2004

Most Seedling readers will find the idea of using IPRs to protect traditional knowledge bizarre, if not offensive. IPRs are now routinely used by commercial interests to appropriate and exploit traditional knowledge. Experience tells us that IPRs rank among the major threats to its protection, not one of its defences. But a WIPO committee in Geneva is proposing just that: to create an entirely new form of IPR especially for traditional knowledge. How should indigenous groups, farmers and other holders of traditional knowledge respond?

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La formidable supercherie de la protection: imposer des droits de propriété intellectuelle sur les savoirs traditionnels
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2004

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When elephants fight over GMOs
Type: Article
Author: Tewolde Egziabher Date: October 2003

As the world’s attention was focusing firmly on the Cancun World Trade Organisation summit in September, an important international agreement quietly made its entry on the world stage, one which holds immense implications for developing countries. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety1, which aims to regulate trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), came into force on 11 September. The Protocol arrived after five long years of negotiations over intractable North-South issues that are set to continue to bedevil implementation. The tension around trade issues is highlighted most forcefully by the US’ move to take the European Union to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism over the EU’s insistence that US exporters clearly label all GM food sold to Europe. One of the US’ main complaints is that Europe’s stance forces Africa to reject GM foods and crops.

The next trade war? GM products, the Cartagena Protocol and the WTO
Type: Article
Author: Duncan Brack, Robert Falkner and Judith Goll Date: October 2003

The US-EU dispute over the EU’s de facto moratorium on GM crops and products has generated much heat on both sides of the Atlantic. The verdict of the WTO’s dispute panel will have significant implications for other countries thinking about rejecting GM crops. It may also be an important case to test the political muscle of the newly adopted Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which the EU may use in its defence.

Global patents for world domination?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2003

For three years, a new international patent treaty has been under negotiation at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. This treaty would pave the way for a future world patent granted directly by WIPO. This is bad news for developing countries and their citizens, who would lose even the limited freedom they have left to adjust patent systems to national development goals. However, it is not too late for the developing world to say ‘no thanks’ and stop the negotiating process.

Translated into: français   Español

Conservation International: privatizing nature, plundering biodiversity
Type: Article
Author: Aziz Choudry Date: October 2003

Conservation International’s corporate sponsor list reads like a list of the US’ top fifty transnational corporations. Biodiversity conservation is at the top of CI’s list of goals. But as the list of CI’s dubious ventures and questionable partners around the world grows, Aziz Choudry is starting to wonder if it is time to ‘out’ this ‘multinational conservation corporation’ and show its true colours.

Translated into: Español

Izwi neTarisiro – Zimbabwe’s Citizens Jury
Type: Article
Author: Elijah Rusike Date: October 2003

As Zimbabwe struggles with economic hard times and land reform problems, its farming sector is in disarray. A citizen’s jury was held in a bid to improve the quality and relevance of policies that affect smallholder farmers. At a time when GM crops are being billed as the road to food security for Africa, Zimbabwe’s citizen’s jury showed that for many farmers, seed of any kind is only one of a large number of factors that affect their ability to feed their families.

Translated into: français  

Seed security for Africa’s farmers
Type: Article
Author: Fulvio Grandin Date: October 2003

The World Food Summit of June 2002 was a catalytic event the Africa Biodiversity Network (ABN). Our frustrations with government and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s support for the genetic manipulation of agriculture inspired the ABN to get organised to represent and support sustainable practices for food security. ABN’s position was clear: seed and food security are inseparable for small-scale farmers throughout Africa, as the informal agricultural sector is largely dependant on an informal seed sector for its genetic resources.

Seeds of a new misery
Type: Article
Author: Roger Gbegnonvi Date: October 2003

As soon as he was out of prison for his ‘crimes’ of uprooting GM crops, the Frenchman José Bové went to Larzac. There he advocated civil disobedience to French farmers, in the face of continuing imposition of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the fields of agricultural globalisation. For José Bové and friends to sound the alarm in this way throughout the world, it means that the situation is serious. Do Africans who have been promised happiness – at last – through the use of GMOs know their fate?

Translated into: français  

Izwi neTarisiro - Le jury des citoyens du Zimbabwe
Type: Article
Author: Elijah Rusike Date: October 2003

Le Zimbabwe affrontant une situation économique difficile et des problèmes de réforme foncière, son secteur agricole est en plein désarroi. Un jury de citoyens s'est tenu pour tenter d'améliorer la qualité et la pertinence des politiques affectant les petits agriculteurs. A un moment où les cultures génétiquement modifiées sont présentées comme la solution pour la sécurité alimentaire de l'Afrique, le jury de citoyens du Zimbabwe a montré que pour beaucoup d'agriculteurs, la question des semences quelles qu'elles soient, représente seulement une partie de l'ensemble des nombreux facteurs affectant leur capacité à nourrir leurs familles.

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Unravelling the DNA myth
Type: Article
Author: Barry Commoner Date: July 2003

There is a crucial problem in molecular genetics and in its applications to agriculture, medicine and the production of pharmaceutical drugs. This science is based on a 50-year old theory that says DNA alone governs inheritance. Molecular genetics is now confronted with a growing disjunction between this widely accepted premise and an array of discordant experimental results that contradict it. But this disparity remains largely unacknowledged and experiments with transgenic plants and animals (many of which are not even recognised to be experiments) continue on a massive scale.

The Bt gene fails in India
Type: Article
Author: Abdul Qayam and Kiran Sakkhari Date: July 2003

Farmers in Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh were excited about planting Bt cotton, which they saw as a way out of the trap of pests, pesticides and debt they were stuck in. At the start of the season in 2002, many were optimistic and hopeful about the new crop, but as the season progressed their enthusiasm was transformed into disappointment and, for some, despair. Meanwhile, many women already disillusioned with Green Revolution agriculture, are rediscovering the virtues of biodiverse cropping systems and sharing their results with their neighbours.

Public research: which public is that?
Type: Article
Author: Aaron deGrassi and Peter Rosset Date: July 2003

Public research theoretically offers considerably more potential than the corporate, gene-focused approach to generate crops that meet the needs of farmers. But in practice, much public research, especially that undertaken by the world’s international research centres, has also been blinded by the gene. Aaron deGrassi and Peter Rosset assert that farmers need to be returned to centre-stage to re-assume their central role as custodians of the world’s agricultural resources and the directors of research and innovation

The promise of participation: democratising the management of biodiversity
Type: Article
Author: Michel Pimbert Date: July 2003

Technical advances in breeding – however impressive – are meaningless without farmers. The corporate research model seeks to turn farmers into serfs in a feudal agricultural system, a move which will be devastating to our future food supply. Michel Pimbert identifies some of the reforms needed to encourage democratic participation and more genuine local control in the management of agricultural biodiversity. Emphasis is placed on strengthening diversity, decentralisation and democracy through the regeneration of more localised food systems and economies.

No free Trade At All
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2003

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a free trade agreement being negotiated by all the governments of the American hemisphere except Cuba. Its objective is to impose common rules for the entire continent to open up national activities to the free flow of global capital. This agreement will be even more wide-reaching than the World Trade Organisation. The FTAA will result in many restrictions on the rights of all citizens, but especially wage earners, small farmers and indigenous peoples. In contrast, transnational investors will receive a level of protection never before experienced.

Translated into: français  

Non à la Zone de libre échange des Amériques et à tout libre échange
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2003

Translated into: English  

Contaminating Canada's seed supply
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2003

In Canada, the privatisation of farmer’s seeds continues to advance at a breathtaking pace. Canadian farmers have fewer and fewer varieties of seed to choose from, fewer places to buy it from and fewer rights to produce their own seed. Now they face another threat: the contamination of the entire seed supply with genetically modified seed.

Translated into: Español

Food Aid: Who is getting fed
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2003

In the last year, the UN’s World Food Programme has twice launched what it has described as the “largest humanitarian operation in history” – first in Southern Africa, and in recent weeks in Iraq. But how helpful have these interventions been and are they really reaching the people who need them? More than ever, the food aid agenda is being driven by the interests of donors rather than recipients. The issue of genetically modified food aid is now also being used by the US, the world’s largest food aid donor, to manipulate the agenda.

Translated into: français   Español

A qui profite l'aide alimentaire ?
Type: Article
Author: Matt Mellen Date: April 2003

 L'année dernière, le Programme alimentaire mondial des Nations Unies a lancé à deux reprises ce qui a été présenté comme "la plus vaste opération humanitaire de l'histoire" – d'abord en Afrique Australe et ces dernières semaines en Iraq. Mais jusqu'à quel point ces opérations ont-elles apporté de l'aide et atteignent-elles réellement les personnes qui en ont besoin? Plus que jamais, le programme d'aide alimentaire est mené dans l'intérêt des fournisseurs plutôt que dans celui des bénéficiaires. La question de l'aide alimentaire génétiquement modifiée est désormais utilisée par les Etats-Unis, le plus grand pourvoyeur d'aide alimentaire dans le monde, pour manipuler le programme.

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Poisoning the well: the genetic pollution of maize
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2003

The worst-case scenario envisioned, bythe introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops, has now taken place. GM maize has been planted in Mexico, the crop’s centre of origin and diversity, and it has been contaminating this priceless gene pool. Although many in the official circles are still in denial, GRAIN asks what must be done to clean up the mess.

Losing Livestock, Losing Livelihoods
Type: Article
Author: Susanne Gura and the League for Pastoral Peoples Date: January 2003

Although less talked about, the loss of biodiversity in domestic animals is even more acute than in crops, because the gene pool is already much smaller and because fewer wild relatives remain. Livestock conservation programmes have not been a priority and local breeds are continuing to disappear at an alarming rate. This neglect poses a serious threat to the global food supply and the millions of people who depend on domestic animals for their livelihoods

The native sheep of Chiapas: A story of fleeces, global markets and women in woollen skirts
Type: Article
Author: Raul Perezgrovas Date: January 2003

In Mexico, the boom time enjoyed after introducing crossbred sheep was short-lived as globalisation destroyed internal and external markets for the Mexican industry. But in the highlands of Chiapas, Tzotzil shepherdesses managed successfully to side-step globalisation and hold on to their cherished local breeds. Now Chiapas is one of the few remaining areas of Mexico where sheep - especially native sheep - are thriving.

Pastoral life in Iran: a changing landscape
Type: Article
Author: CENESTA Date: January 2003

Over recent decades Iran’s pastoralists have been experiencing changes that have totally altered the social, political and economic landscapes through which they must navigate. To discover the impact of these changes on local breeds, a group of pastoralists were gathered from throughout the country to discuss their experiences. The dialogue was facilitated by Taghi Farvar and Maryam Rahmanian of Iran’s Centre for Sustainable Development (CENESTA)

Biopiracy by another name?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2002

Several years ago, an agreement was made between the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research to protect the world’s genetic resources - at least those tucked away in gene banks - from misappropriation and abuse. This important, but little talked about agreement, is up for renegotiation. What is the importance of this “trusteeship” agreement and where is it taking us?

''Better dead than GM fed?''
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 2002

The debate over the issue of genetically modified (GM) food has risen to new levels of intensity over recent months over the issue of GM food aid to Southern Africa. Most of this aid comes from the US, which is widely being seen as using the famine to force GM crops into Africa and elsewhere. GRAIN says “no” to GM food aid and argues for a strategy that is based around a long-term vision of food security in the region.

The past predicts the Future: GM crops and Africa’s farmers
Type: Article
Author: Devlin Kuyek Date: October 2002

Africa has become the latest target for empire-building biotechnology companies. What will the introduction of GM crops mean for Africa, and its small farmers in particular? Is there any reason to believe that the new ‘gene revolution’ will be any more successful than the failed ‘green revolution’ in Africa? This edited version of a new GRAIN briefing looks at the forces behind the push for Africa, asks whether GM crops are safe and questions the supposed benefits that some African farmers are anticipating.

The Biodiversity Convention: 10 years on
Type: Article
Author: Elizabeth Bravo Date: October 2002

At the Earth Summit in Rio ten years ago, the Biodiversity Convention was all people could talk about. There was something in it for everyone. Governments would benefit from becoming recognised as ‘owners’ of their genetic resources; local people from their role as custodians; companies from new profits to be made; and the whole world from novel medicines and other products. To cap it all, the world’s biodiversity would be protected and conserved. Ten years on, the pictures is not quite as rosy, says Elizabeth Bravo.

The Summit-to-Summit Merry-go-Round
Type: Article
Author: Erna Bennett Date: July 2002

The ‘rights’ issue around biodiversity has really taken off in the last 20 years. One of the first campaigners for a global programme to save crop genetic re-sources, Erna Bennett, looks back at the twists and turns the rights issue has taken since the introduction of Plant Breeders Rights in 1962. She argues that a change in strategy and direction is long overdue for all those fighting for more equitable access and rights in relation to agricultural biodiversity.

Translated into: Español

The Ecology of Action
Type: Article
Author: Camila Montecinos Date: July 2002

In this article, Camila Montecinos attempts to answer some of the challenges she put forward five years ago. If sui generis is a dead-end alley and the tried and tested strategies of summitry and ‘participation’ have failed, where should we go now? Here, she outlines the need to reclaim our reference points and find a more rewarding and more resonant place for ourselves in the world from which to act.

Growing Diversity
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 2002

One of the most significant positive changes that has occurred in the field of biodiversity over Seedling’s 20-year lifetime is a global awakening to the importance of the local custodianship of biodiversity. Farmers and indig-enous peoples finally began to feature in international treaties, policy docu-ments and programme plans. The ‘Growing Diversity Project’ was launched to strengthen and exchange experiences in this field. After many years of planning and two busy years of activities, Growing Diversity has come to its official end with an international workshop held in Brazil in May.

DIVERSITY ON THE DECCAN PLATEAU by CARINE PIONETTI AND SURESH REDDY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 2002

The poor growing conditions on the Deccan plateau in Southern India require the implementation of careful and complex farming strategies in order for farmers to produce enough food to sustain their families throughout the year. In such environments biodiversity and food security are inextricably intertwined. This article provides some clear insight how farmers in the region develop their diverse cropping systems in order to maximise the soil's potential. It also highlights the critical role of women is sustaining biodiversity in their cropping strategies, and their rationale for doing so.

SAVING THE SEED: EUROPE'S CHALLENGE
Type: Article
Author: ALVARO TOLEDO Date: April 2002

The 1990s have not been a good decade for agricultural biodiversity in Europe. Lack of helpful reform in the Common Agricultural Policy, new legislative restrictions on seeds and a persistent move towards private industry controlling the seed markets has led to further intensification of agriculture and the disempowerment of farmers. But individuals, farmers, communities and non-government organisations are fighting back. Their actions are sometimes even supported with new national and European legislation and funding opportunities.

A dissapointing compromise
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2001

After seven long years of stormy negotiations at the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, a deal was finally struck on the rules of the game for sharing, conserving and using the world's crop genetic resources. But government delegates and NGOs alike were left feeling that many of the central issues remain unresolved and open to interpretation.

Translated into: français  

Bt Cotton....through the back door
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2001

Despite the absence of commercial approval for genetically engineered Bt cotton in any Asian country outside China, it is spreading fast. This article summarises the state of play in Thailand, India and Indonesia, and considers the consequences for small-scale farmers, who have historically been important contributors to the global cotton harvest.

Translated into: français  

Protecting Asia's most valuable resource
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2001

This article discusses the implications of recent developments in relation to the US company RiceTec's patent claims on Basmati rice. It also draws attention to a more recent case of attempted biopiracy of Thailand's prized Jasmine rice.

Un compromis décevant
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2001

Le Traité international sur les ressources génétiques des plantes enfin conclu

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Discrète introduction du coton Bt en Asie du Sud-Est
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2001

Translated into: English  

Change and the CGIAR: a contradiction in terms?
Type: Article
Author: Susanne Gura Date: September 2001

This article points to the challenges the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)continues to face after a decade of calls for environmentally sustainable agriculture, for an approach to science that acknowledges farmers’ research, and for defending public goods from corporate appropriation.

Translated into: français  

Apomixis: the plant breeder's dream
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: September 2001

In discussions of the benefits genetic engineering can bring to small farmers, proponents love to point to apomixis - the production of cloned seed. This article examines apomixis research, and the main implications that transferring apomixis into crops may have for industry, farmers and the environment. It also looks at how the apomixis research agenda is being up led by the private sector through patent applications, licensing agreements and confidential research projects.

The impact of soybean expansion in Argentina
Type: Article
Author: Walter Pengue Date: September 2001

In the past two decades, soybean production has increased sharply in the Pampas region of Argentina. Genetically modified (GM) soybeans have been particularly popular to the extent that all soybean production is now GM. This article provides a resume of the original article by Pengue on the socio-economic and environmental implications of the exponential growth of transgenic soybean production in one of the world’s leading soybean-producing countries.

Translated into: Español

Expansión de la soja en Argentina.
Type: Article
Author: por Walter A. Pengue Date: September 2001

Translated into: English  

Un changement au sein du Groupe consultatif pour la recherche agricole internationale est-il possible ?
Type: Article
Author: S. Gura Date: September 2001

Translated into: English  

The Free Trade Area of the Americas
Type: Article
Author: Maude Barlow Date: June 2001

Last April, all but one of the governments of the Americas met in Quebec, Canada, for the third summit on the negotiations for a free-market regional trade agreement. It stands to have a dramatic impact on peoples' lives, while strengthening corporate control over all aspects of government.

Laos at the crossroads
Type: Article
Author: Isabelle Delforge Date: June 2001

Having stuck its heels in to resist the Green Revolution, Lao farmers are coming under increasing pressure to adopt the industrial agricultural model and to join the global market place.

Dernière chance pour un régime de libre accès ?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 2001

Ultime étape de négociations sur les ressources génétiques des plantes à la FAO

Translated into: English  

THE DISAGREEMENT ON AGRICULTURE
Type: Article
Author: Peter Einarsson Date: March 2001

The World Trade Organisation’s agriculture agreement is coming up for its first renegotiation. Now is the time to turn the talks on their head and draw up new rules that emphasise food security and sustainability.

Translated into: français  

KEEPING THE SUGAR BARONS SWEET
Type: Article
Author: Robin Jenkins Date: March 2001

Genetically-modified sweeteners have not significantly impacted the sweetener market as yet. The highly protected nature of the cane and beet markets means that sugar remains king. The question is, for how long?

Le désaccord sur la question agricole
Type: Article
Author: Peter Einarsson Date: March 2001

Redéfinir les priorités pour la sécurité alimentaire à l’OMC

Translated into: English  

EAT UP YOUR VACCINES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2000

Edible vaccines are being touted as an example of the benefits genetic engineering can bring to the South. They promise to be cheap, accessible and safe ... and too good to be true?

TRADE AND HUNGER
Type: Article
Author: John Madeley Date: December 2000

A new report finds that so-called 'free' trade as promoted by the World Trade Organisation benefits only the rich, while making the poor more vulnerable to food insecurity.

POTATO: THE NEW GLOBAL TRAVELLER
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2000

Traditionally grown for domestic markets, the meteoric rise of the fast-food industry is increasing global demand and turning the potato into a big export commodity for the seed companies .

Ressusciter la révision des Accords pour les droits de propriété intellectuelle liés au commerce
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 2000

Translated into: English  

CAN’T SEE THE TREES FOR THE WOOD
Type: Article
Author: Viola Sampson and Larry Lohmann Date: September 2000

Genetically-modified trees present an even more serious threat to the environment and local communities than modified crops. Industry ploughs on regardless with the increasing support of public research.

URUGUAY’S DESTRUCTIVE PLANTATION MODEL
Type: Article
Author: Carlos Pérez Arrarte Date: September 2000

Uruguay has been earmarked for dramatic expansion of its tree plantations. Such a move will have tremendous implications for the traditional gaucho lifestyle, rural livelihoods, the environment and biodiversity.

POTATO: A FRAGILE GIFT FROM THE ANDES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: September 2000

Commercial and traditional farmers in the South are being encouraged to plant ‘modern’ potato varieties with a narrow genetic base and high chemical dependence to serve growing domestic and export markets.

LAST CHANCE FOR AN OPEN ACCESS REGIME?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 2000

The International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is being re-negotiated. Is this a now or never opportunity to set up the rules of the game to allow free access to agricultural genetic resources?

Translated into: Español

CORN AND NAFTA: AN UNHAPPY ALLIANCE
Type: Article
Author: Alejandro Nadal Date: June 2000

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is pushing up the price of Mexico’s main staple. It is also threatening to eradicate Mexico’s small farmers, the curators of corn’s genetic pool, from the agricultural landscape.

LORDS OF POISON: THE PESTICIDE CARTEL
Type: Article
Author: Devlin Kuyek Date: June 2000

The pesticides industry is remodelling itself to regain the ground it has lost in the agricultural production chain. The South is becoming an increasingly important focus, both as a market and a production site.

BATTLE ROYALE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Type: Article
Author: Kristin Dawkins Date: March 2000

Two key intergovernmental meetings at the turn of the millennium have raised hopes that the seemingly unstoppable train of globalisation may actually be forced to slow down after all.

ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS TO MALNUTRITION
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 2000

Vitamin A is being engineered into crops to help overcome malnutrition. Will these crops really help counter micronutrient deficiency or do they just represent an public relations opportunity for out-of-favour gene giants?

Translated into: français  

GENOMICS: WHOLE GENOME, TOTAL CONTROL
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 2000

Bold promises are being made about the contributions plant genomics research will make towards feeding the world and even increasing agrobiodiversity. This critical assessment suggests otherwise.

Des réponses technologiques à la malnutrition
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 2000

Translated into: English  

PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION TO FEED AFRICA?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1999

Plant Variety Protection is being heavily promoted in Africa in the name of food security, agricultural sustainability and protection of the environment and biodiversity. But reality appears to suggest otherwise.

Translated into: français  

TANZANIA’S FORGOTTEN FARMERS
Type: Article
Author: Esbern Friis-Hansen Date: December 1999

Agricultural research has marginalised farmers’ knowledge in Tanzania. Yet it remains invaluable at the local level and the country’s formal institutions would benefit greatly from opening up to this valuable resource.

FAIR AND EQUITABLE: WHERE DID THEY GO?
Type: Article
Author: Isaac Rojas Ramirez Date: December 1999

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s long awaited discussions on access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits thereof finally came to the fore at an experts meeting in Costa Rica.

La protection des obtentions végétales pour nourrir l’Afrique ? Rhétorique contre réalité
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1999

Translated into: English  

BRAZIL’S TRANSGENIC-FREE ZONE
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: September 1999

The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul is intent on becoming a transgenic-free zone. As a leading producer of soybeans for the global market, making such a move presents both problems and opportunities.

TURNING THE PADDY GOLD: CORN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Type: Article
Author: BIOTHAI, MASIPAG, PAN Indonesia and GRAIN Date: September 1999

Corn is being transformed from an important staple for farmers and poor families in the region into an industrial commodity. In the process, regional food security is becoming increasingly threatened.

GÈNOPLANTE: A STRATEGIC ERROR
Type: Article
Author: Jean Pierre Berlan et al. Date: September 1999

A major new research initiative in France designed to bring together agribusiness and public research institutions threatens to stifle independent public research and direct it towards the interests of agribusiness.

UPOV ON THE WAR PATH
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1999

Southern governments are being led to believe that they have to join the Union for the Protection of Plant Varieties in order to meet their TRIPs obligations, when there are many other options open.

Translated into: français  

RECLAIMING DIVERSITY, RESTORING LIVELIHOODS
Type: Article
Author: Women Sanghams of the Deccan Development Society, PV Satheesh and M Pimbert Date: June 1999

Women farmers in dryland India have set up an innovative and highly successful agricultural scheme which has dramatically enhanced local food security, community resilience and biodiversity.

Translated into: français  

BIODIVERSITY: A PERSPECTIVE FROM WITHIN
Type: Article
Author: Arturo Escobar Date: June 1999

Like other social movements around the world, black communities from the Pacific rainforests of Colombia are crafting their own definitions and visions of biodiversity conservation and use.

Les sanghams de femmes de la Société de développement du Deccan
Type: Article
Author: P.V. Satheesh et M. Pimbert Date: June 1999

Translated into: English  

L’UPOV sur le sentier de la guerre
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1999

Translated into: English  

BACTERIA BECOME BIG BUSINESS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1999

Diversa, one of new breed of bioprospecting companies which specialises in seeking out novel products and enzymes, is having considerable success in courting the industrial giants.

GM FOODS TURN POLITICAL HOT POTATO
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1999

A modest experiment in Scotland has catalysed one of the biggest public outcries against GM foods. The scandal has revealed some sinister connections between industry, governments and scientific institutions.

FOOD? HEALTH? HOPE?
Type: Article
Author: CornerHouse Date: March 1999

Genetic engineering is being widely touted as the cure for world hunger. But genetically-engineered crops are likely to make the world a hungrier place, not a happier; full-bellied one.

THE CGIAR'S SYSTEMWIDE REVIEW
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1998

It was a long time coming, but was it worth the wait? The CGIAR's third external review does little to shake the system up and sends mixed messages to members and donors about its future direction.

A GREENER THAN GREEN REVOLUTION?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1998

The CGIAR is preparing to usher in the gene revolution and is looking to the private sector for support. What are the implications for the CGIAR's research agenda and the millions of farmers around the world that it serves?

THE TRIPS REVIEW TAKES OFF
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1998

In 1999 the member states of the WTO are launching a review of the controversial TRIPS agreement. The review is gearing up to be the next battleground for the life patents issue.

WIPO'S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: September 1998

The World Intellectual Property Organisation has launched a controversial new programme to extend IPRs to new beneficiaries, such as indigenous peoples and local communities.

Translated into: français  

BT IN THE HOT SEAT
Type: Article
Author: Robin Jenkins Date: September 1998

The biopesticide Bt has become the latest starlet for the agrochemical and biotech industries. But fame is not likely to lead to fortune: more likely' it will result in the loss of an important pest control tool.

FIELDS OF DREAMS: GENE TECH GOES SOUTH
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: September 1998

The agrobusiness giants are dreaming of transforming huge tracts of South America into a Southern equivalent of the US Great Plains. Dreams are fast turning into reality as export revenues seduce governments into the game.

TUG OF WAR OVER LIFE PATENTS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1998

Recent international negotiations suggest that some governments are behaving more like industry’s handmaidens rather than champions of their people. But people all over the world are making it known that they will not sit back and allow corporate greed to appropriate their livelihoods.

GENETECH PREYS ON THE PADDY FIELD
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1998

Rice, the showcase of farmer innovation, has so far largely escaped the interests of the corporate sector. But new technologies mean that the world’s most important staple could become industry’s newest cash cow.

NURTURING THE SEED IN THE PERUVIAN ANDES
Type: Article
Author: Tirso Gonzales, Nestor Chambi and Marcela Machaca Date: June 1998

Although invisible in Western development paradigms, alternative cosmovisions are the frameworks within which the richness of agricultural biodiversity has largely been created.

The European Patent Directive: License to Plunder
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: May 1998

Ten reasons not to join UPOV
Type: Article
Author: GAIA/GRAIN Date: May 1998

Translated into: français   Español

JAPAN: GENETECH’S LATE BLOOMER
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1998

A look at the current development of Japanese genetic engineering technology and the implications of unleashing a booming Japanese biotech industry on farmers and consumers around the world.

THE PEOPLE VERSUS THE LIFE INDUSTRY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1998

Next June the Swiss will vote on a constitutional amendment that aims to protect human health and the environment from the possible risks of genetic engineering, a vote which could have important repercussions for the genetech industry, governments and consumers worldwide.

THE CHICKPEA SCANDAL: TRUST OR CONSEQUENCES?
Type: Article
Author: RAFI Date: March 1998

A squabble over chickpeas is turning into a moratorium on intellectual property claims on CGIAR germplasm and calls for an External Review of UPOV and the world’s faulty Plant Breeders’ Rights regime.

TOWARDS OUR SUI GENERIS RIGHTS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1997

In December a GRAIN/Biothai seminar in Thailand focused on the TRIPS Agreement of the WTO, and more specifically the implications of this agreement for rights over biodiversity and related knowledge. Included in this overview is "The Thammasat Resolution", a common position reached by the participants.

WILL THE U.S. BREADBASKET LAST?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1997

US trade and agriculture representatives like to present the US as the world's breadbasket, consistently producing ever-increasing amounts of safe and nutritious food for a hungry world. Close examination finds instead, that the endless drive to maximise production is taking its toll, on both US society and the environment.

ENGINEERING THE BLUE REVOLUTION
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1997

As the worldwide fishing crisis continues, the industry is regearing itself to secure a continued supply of luxury fish to lucrative markets. Aquaculture and genetic engineering are being heralded by proponents of the Blue Revolution, as the ideal solution. GRAIN examines the record so far and looks at the future implications.

EUROPEAN PATENTS STEP CLOSER
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1997

1996 was a year of unprecedented international attention for agricultural biodiversity. But was any tangible progress made? GRAIN looks back.

BIODIVERSE FARMING PRODUCES MORE
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1997

A wealth of evidence demonstrates that biodiverse farming can compete with industrial agriculture in terms of system-wide productivity and that it offers the important advantages of sustainability and risk reduction. GRAIN examines the case that the formal sector can no longer ignore.

TOMATO - GLOBAL FAME AND CORPORATE DESIRE
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1997

Growth from obscurity to biggest selling vegeatable in less than a century has made tomato an object of corporate attention. Intensive industrial producion has lead to genetic uniformity of the crop which is largely owned and consumed by the North.

BIOPIRACY'S LATEST DISGUISES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1997

While bioprospecting agreements continue to be heralded as the way towards conserving biodiversity and sustainable development, this article takes a critical look at some of those agreements, seen by many as legalised biopiracy.

THE PHILIPPINES: A BRIDLE ON BIOPROSPECTING?
Type: Article
Author: Oscar B. Zamora Date: June 1997

The Convention on Biodiversity says countries should regulate access to genetic resources. The mechanisms to do this are starting to emerge at the regional, subregional and national levels. A case study of the Philippines' now-famous Executive Order 247 governing bioprospecting.

SOYBEAN: THE HIDDEN COMMODITY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1997

Genetically-engineered herbicide-tolerant soybean gained worldwide public attention due to consumer opposition in Europe. As with many other crops, the soybean market is characterised by increasing consolidation of corporate control over it, specially through genetechnology R&D strategies.

THE YEAR OF AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY REVISITED
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1997

1996 was a year of unprecedented international attention for agricultural biodiversity. But was any tangible progress made? GRAIN looks back.

THE DIRECTIVE RISES AGAIN
Type: Article
Author: Steve Emmot Date: March 1997

Two years ago, the European Parliament rejected a law proposal to allow for the patenting of life forms. Today it is back again before the parliamentarians in slightly modified form. An update from Brussels.

ROUNDUP READY OR NOT
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1997

Monsanto's Roundup Readyâ Soybean is causing an uproar among agricultural, environmental and consumer organisations. As a stunning example of where biotech farming will take us. GRAIN provides a brief summary of the debate.

RECIPE FOR DISASTER
Type: Article
Author: Joel Bleifuss Date: December 1996

Agribusiness corporations are hoping to make genetically modified organisms a permanent feature of our daily diet. But to get to that point they have to overcome consumer, environmental and health organisation's opposition and get past Mother Nature's roadblocks.

INVESTING IN DESTRUCTION
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1996

In this article we review the impact of the World Bank operations on biodiversity over the last 30 years. Its current initiatives in that arena are, at best, merely attempts to put temporary band aids on the mortal wounds the Bank has inflicted on the world.

LOCAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER FOR FOOD SECURITY
Type: Article
Author: Samba Seck Date: December 1996

This story from Guinea-Bissau (West Africa) tells how an interethnic technology transfer improved food security and led to the use of better adapted seeds.

GEF - An Unsuitable Vehicle for Biodiversity Conservation
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: November 1996

SUI GENERIS - A DEAD END ALLEY
Type: Article
Author: Camila Montecinos Date: November 1996

A self-critical evaluation on NGO's efforts to devise `sui generis' intellectual property systems that really serve to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and farming or other local communities.

FREE TRADE VERSUS FOOD SECURITY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1996

The preparatory process to the World Food Summit has been paved with power plays between the different development agendas, with free-trade and globalisation proponents ready to eliminate self-sufficiency as the main food security strategy.

IRRI'S 15-TONNE SUPER RICE
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1996

For the first time since the early 1960s, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in Los Baños, The Philippines, is once again redesigning the rice plant. Deeply embedded in the malthusian myth, IRRI seems to have learnt little from the lessons of the Green Revolution.

FROM LEIPZIG TO BUENOS AIRES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1996

Governments and NGO's should take advantage of the CBD discussions on agricultural biodiversity, IPRs and the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples to counter further privatisation of genetic resources.

THE BIOTECH BATTLE OVER THE GOLDEN CROP
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1996

While maize is a major staple food for many countries in the South, in the North it is the main animal feed crop and, increasingly, a raw material for industrial use. An exploration of the infighting among the biotechnology actors for control over this "green gold".

EX SITU CONSERVATION: WHEN THE FRIDGE BREAKS DOWN
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1996

The Report on the State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources recently published by FAO confirms what NGOs have been arguing for years: the seeds are not necessarily safe in the genebanks.

CGIAR RENEWAL: BEYOND CATCHY WORDING?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1996

Evidence keeps accumulating to demonstrate that Green Revolution agriculture is unsustainable and that industrial agriculture is in crisis. However, a close look at the `renewal process' the CGIAR claims to have gone through leaves NGOs wondering if the new CGIAR agenda will not lead to more of the same.

UPOV: GETTING A FREE TRIPs RIDE?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: June 1996

Developing countries are being pressured by industrialised countries and the GATT-related TRIPs agreements to urgently adopt UPOV-like legislation providing for intellectual property rights on plant varieties. Yet governments should realise that they have both time and other options.

1996: THE YEAR OF AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1996

As a number of important internacional negotiations on agricultural biodiversity get underway, there is a political challenge to achieve a central position for the role and contribution of Third World countries and resource-poor farmers in the management of plant genetic resources.

NOVEL FOODS, OLD TRICKS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1996

The agrobiotech industry has finally started to bring its genetically modified products to the market, and, to smooth their path, it is concentrating its lobbying efforts in two main areas: deregulating the use and release of genetically manipulated organisms (GMOs) and minimising the labelling of its products.

THE VALUE OF SANGRE DE DRAGO
Type: Article
Author: Viki Reyes Date: March 1996

While companies like Shaman Pharmaceuticals use the traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities as part of their research strategies, the question remains as to whether the commercialisation of traditional genetic resources benefits those communities and biodiversity conservation.

ENGINEERED BT: FROM PEST TO MARKET CONTROL
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1995

As chemical pesticides are increasingly rejected, the agrochemical industry is rushing to develop alternatives suiting its corporate interests. Side-stepping predicted resistance problems, it is focusing investment on Bacillus thuringiensis. An update.

PEOPLE'S RIGHTS TO BIODIVERSITY DISCUSSED IN CBD
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1995

As it was seen at COP II in Jakarta, the Convention on Biological Diversity seems to be slowly moving towards the incorporation of some of the concerns of indigenous and local communities.

WILL INDIA PROTECT TRIBAL BIODIVERSITY RIGHTS?
Type: Article
Author: Ashish Kothari Date: December 1995

The discovery of anti-malarian activity in a plant used by the Onge tribe for medicinal purposes may lead to its expropriation unless India's government takes immediate measures.

GENETIC RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: December 1995

Since the Internet is also providing information in the area of plant genetic resources, Seedling will be including a regular part on the Internet in our section "Resources & Documentation".

TOWARDS A BIODIVERSITY COMMUNITY RIGHTS REGIME
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1995

As an alternative to Northern-style IPRs, GRAIN argues for a local community rights regime based on Heritage, Territoriality and Communality, which would be constructed into both the Biodiversity Convention and the FAO Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources.

THE POTATO BLIGHT IS BACK
Type: Article
Author: RAFI Date: October 1995

The late potato blight, P. infestans, which was responsible for the Great Irish Famine last century, is back in a deadlier form and many fear that the short-sightness of breeders and governments may jeopardise the food security of the millions of Third World families for whom potatoes are an important staple crop.

THE HIDDEN HARVEST
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1995

Until recently ignored by contemporary agricultural research, most of the world's rural population benefits from a "Hidden Harvest" of wild foods that constitutes an important nutritional and income source, and often makes the difference for survival in famine situations.

FISHING OUT AQUATIC DIVERSITY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1995

The industrialisation of fishing puts ever-growing pressure on marine ecosystems and the diversity they contain, and small-scale fishing communities and the poor are paying the price. Civil society must gain democratic control over these resources.

SWISS PLANT VARIETY PATENT REVOKED
Type: Article
Author: Miges Baumann Date: July 1995

A Swiss herb growers group has won an important court case: in a landmark decision that tested new policies to allow patenting of plants as such, the Federal Supreme Court decided that a camomile variety may not be patented.

DIVERSITY, A FEMININE NOUN
Type: Article
Author: Angela Cordeiro Date: July 1995

The diversity of agricultural systems is a fundamental step in fighting rural hunger and conserving genetic resources, and farm women are key players in any such strategy, according to field studies in Brazil.

THE DIRECTIVE IS DEAD
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1995

The European Parliament stopped a law proposal that would have made life patenting possible in Europe. We look at the background, the history and the implications.

BIODIVERSITY SELL-OUT IN THE ANDEAN PACT?
Type: Article
Author: Germán Vélez and GRAIN Date: March 1995

Some Andean Pact countries seem to be willing to hand over their biodiversity cheaply. Others are arguing for more control over access. NGOs fight for rights to local and indigenous communities.

THE GREEN REVOLUTION IN THE RED
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1995

The IARCs are in a financial and institutional crisis and a meeting was called to relaunch the system, with little success. NGOs call for a consultation process.

TOWARDS INDIGENOUS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS?
Type: Article
Author: Marcus Colchester Date: December 1994

In a world where free trade has become the official development buzzword, indigenous peoples are faced with enormous pressures to commercialise their traditional resources and knowledge, now that genetic resources have become the new building blocks of biotechnology. How can they gain control over the conservation and use of those resources in an legal environment essentially hostile to their cosmovision? Marcus Colchester, Director of the Forest Peoples Programme of the World Rainforest Movement, addresses some of these issues in the following article, prepared as a background paper for a brainstorming meeting on Community Rights and Biodiversity, hosted by GRAIN in Montezillon, Switzerland, 17-18 October 1994.

THREATS FROM THE TEST TUBES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN/CEAT Date: December 1994

Whereas by now most industrialised countries have adopted regulations concerning the safe handling and use of genetically engineered organisms, most developing countries still lack any regulations in this field. This imbalance is already stimulating companies to test their biotechnology products in the South, rather than in the North. Faced with many examples of such testing, there is a clear need for a binding regulatory mechanism to rule the testing, release and trade of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This article draws from a position paper prepared for the Second Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Convention on Biological Diversity by the CEAT (European Coordination Friends of the Earth) Clearinghouse on Biotechnology and GRAIN.

BRINGING FARMER & NON-FARMER BREEDERS TOGETHER
Type: Article
Author: Camila Montecinos Date: December 1994

In January of 1993, after many months of exchanging ideas and proposals, a group of governmental and non-governmental organisations from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe decided to develop an ambitious programme to work on the conservation and development of genetic resources at the community level, under the name of Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation Programme (CBDC). This initiative, which received financial support from some major Northern donors, is now ready to take off for a four-year first phase. Camila Montecinos from CET (Centro de Educación y Tecnología, Chile), who functions as the global coordinator for this programme, explains the ideas behind this important initiative.

U.S. CONGRESS RESTRICTS FARMERS ' RIGHTS
Type: Article
Author: Hope Shand Date: October 1994

As Seedling goes to press, the Clinton Administration is about to sign a bill amending the 1970 Plant Variety Protection Act. The bill, which just passed through Congress, will make it illegal for American farmers to save and sell seeds from proprietary crop varieties without permission from breeders and the payment of a royalty. It is also the precondition for the US to ratify the new UPOV Convention, as revised in 1991. Industry 's ruthless campaign against farmers ' rights to freely save seed in the United States, and the tough struggle NGOs and farming families are caught in to defend diversity in the American seed economy, is best exemplified by the now-famous “Winterboer case”. We asked Ms. Hope Shand of RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International) to report on these battles from home. RAFI has been working vigorously to defend farmers ' rights in the US in concert with farmers ' organisations, grassroots seed saving programmes and environmental groups.

REVIVING DIVERSITY IN INDIA'S AGRICULTURE
Type: Article
Author: Ashish Kothari Date: October 1994

As in other parts of the world, India 's agricultural genetic heritage is under seige. The push to “modernise” and “industrialise” India 's rural landscape has already taken a heavy toll on plant and animal diversity. In fact, the worse might be yet to come. Yet community organisations, independent farmers and NGOs are struggling at the local level to document, conserve and revive biodiversity in innovative farming systems throughout the vast country. Mr. Ashish Kothari of Kalpavrish, an environmental action group based in Delhi, kindly prepared an overview of what is going on for Seedling readers.

RECOVERING LOCAL MAIZE IN BRAZIL
Type: Article
Author: Angela Cordeiro and Breno de Mello Date: October 1994

The loss of genetic diversity in food crops is a serious threat to agricultural development. In Brazil, a group composed of local associations and farmers ' organisations — supported by NGOs of the PTA (Alternative Technologies Project) network and researchers from EMBRAPA (Brazilian Institute for Agricultural Research) — is working to develop farmers ' self-sufficiency in good quality maize seed, based on the conservation and use of local maize varieties. To date, the experience is showing that farmers can get equally good yields from locally-controlled maize varieties, debunking the myth about the superiority of hybrids. But the effort is threatened by new Brazilian legislation on patenting life. Angela Cordeiro and Breno de Mello, both involved in the programme, wrote this article for the first issue of Biodiversidad: Cultivos y Culturas, a new Latin American magazine co-published by REDES (Friends of the Earth Uruguay) and GRAIN.

TOWARDS A WORLD GENE BANK?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1994

Last month in Nairobi, governments gathered to discuss how to move forward on the Convention on Biological Diversity. To their surprise, a new issue was forced on to their agenda: news of a World Bank “coup” on the international crop germplasm collections held by the International Agricultural Research Centres of the CGIAR. NGOs present in Nairobi reported that the World Bank was intent on blocking a new agreement between the CG and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which would finally grant some legal status — “trusteeship” — to the currently unprotected and vulnerable collections. The governments rebuffed the Bank 's initiative and endorsed signature of the agreement as soon as possible. This article gives the story, but also dives into the core of the matter: how well are those collections currently managed? We wish to thank Pat Mooney of RAFI for providing some of the materials for this article.

A SYSTEM IN CRISIS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1994

Many people may not realise that behind the increases in food production — and all its accompanying environmental and socio-economic problems — achieved in many areas of the world over the past thirty years, lies a “system”. The “system” is a rather invisible network of international scientific research institutes, supported and controlled by its financial donors in the North. Thirty years after the launch of the Green Revolution, the “system” which was ostensibly set up to “feed the world” is mired in a deep and decisive crisis. One for which all minds need to be tapped to find a creative and bold solution.

THE NEED FOR ANOTHER RESEARCH PARADIGM
Type: Article
Author: Michel Pimbert Date: July 1994

International and national agricultural research is entrenched in a culture of top-down and often insensitive approaches to realities on the farm. This article by Dr. Michel Pimbert highlights the mismatch between the transfer of technology model of agricultural research and the needs and livelihood strategies of the poor. Michel is an agricultural ecologist and has conducted much research on biological pest control. He spent four years working at ICRISAT where his people-centred approach to research clashed against the internal norms of Green Revolution science. As Michel sees it, the professional challenge of the 1990s is to develop innovation systems and sustainable agricultures that support decentralisation, diversity and democracy rather than centralisation, uniformity and control.

A UNIVERSITY SEED PROGRAMME FOR SUSTAINABLE AG
Type: Article
Author: Pamela G. Fernandez Date: July 1994

Universities are a vital national resource in training, research and extension for agricultural development, North and South. Many of them, however, are geared toward reinforcing conventional, high-input chemical-based farming methods and a reductionist agenda of narrowly-defined productivity gains and technology transfer. Most of them are also becoming marginalised due to government budget cuts and the increasing role of the private sector. Despite the dominant culture, some institutions are susceptible to change and can be helped to change when advocates of pro-farmer, sustainable agriculture join forces. The University of the Philippines offers an example of this. Dr. Pam Fernandez and her colleagues at the Department of Agronomy in UP 's Los Baños campus are struggling to make the University an active proponent of sustainable agriculture for resource-poor farmers of Southeast Asia. As Dr. Fernandez spells out for Seedling readers, this requires a small revolution in mentalities — a revolution that has to germinate at home.

ANIMAL ALARM
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1994

The UN 's Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, has released a new and important alarm. Not only is the vital diversity of our crops and forests succumbing to erosion under the guise of “development” programmes, but one-third of the 4,000 or so breeds of animals used worldwide for food and farming are dangerously flirting with extinction. The issues surrounding animal genetic resources parallel in many ways the problems that have been plaguing plant genetic resources. However, we know a lot less about it. Animals — domesticated and wild — are extremely important components of people 's livelihoods systems. In this article we give a background overview of the status of animal genetic diversity and resource use, and what is being done to safeguard and improve the benefits people can derive through the riches of the animal world.

THE NEED FOR SUI GENERIS RIGHTS
Type: Article
Author: Vandana Shiva Date: March 1994

From the moment the GATT negotiations were concluded last December, NGOs and people 's organisations began trying to assess what space was available to promote positive rights for farmers and local communities engaged in the conservation, development and use of biodiversity, and the indigenous knowledge associated with it. While the Biodiversity Convention — which entered into force two weeks after GATT was signed — engages governments to take new action to protect biodiversity, recognising the role of local communities, that action still has to be thought out. More decisively, the GATT treaty obliges governments to provide for intellectual property rights on plants, be it in the form of patents, breeders ' rights or an “effective sui generis system”. As Dr. Vandana Shiva, the well-known Indian writer and activist, sees it, we have to use the sui generis option to test our governments ' commitments to biodiversity and the farming community, and to evolve novel legislation that deliberately recognises and protects community rights over biological resources and indigenous knowledge.

THE 'TRIALS' OF A MALARIA VACCINE
Type: Article
Author: Luis Angel Fernandez Hermana Date: March 1994

For millions of people in the Third World, the dream of an effective vaccine against malaria might be coming true. The story behind this dream, however, can be described as a veritable nightmare. The vaccine was developed by Manuel Patarroyo, a Colombian scientist, in the 1980s and has since met every thread of economic and political resistance from the mighty drug industry and medical community — not to mention some development agencies — of the so-called First World. As the final trials are now under way in Africa, we asked Luis Angel Fernandez, a Barcelona-based journalist who has been following the story for years, to put Patarroyo 's nightmare on paper. The hard line played by the scientific and industrial circles of the North against the work of this determined Colombian researcher is an illuminating — and terrifying — example of “profits before people 's health”.

PACKAGING AN AG BIODIVERSITY PLAN
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1994

Since the late 1970s, the member states of the UN 's Food and Agriculture Organisation have pioneered a global initiative to set up a more equitable system for the conservation and use of plant genetic resources. By the late 1980s, FAO 's work in this area was eclipsed by growing popular attention to biological diversity at large, and the political heat around the negotiations of the Convention on Biodiversity. While FAO maintains its historic foot in the crop scene, the Biodiversity Convention establishes new rules for all forms of genetic resources. To avoid overlap and promote a solid programme for biodiversity specifically important to food and agriculture, a new relation between FAO 's work and the Convention are necessary.

BARGAINING OVER THE BENEFITS OF BIODIVERSITY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1993

"Biodiversity prospecting" is being tooted as a new and viable framework to marry conservation of biological diversity with sustainable development. In the past months alone, we have seen an explosion of books, studies, reports and articles discussing the concept of "bioprospecting" and how it can be implemented. Its proponents, who are boisterously trying to secure financial and political support for this approach, claim that Third World countries will not generate or reap economic benefit from their ecological treasures unless they learn how to market the goods. The negotiators of the Biodiversity Convention seem to be talking about nothing else than that. But marketing national biological resources -- once considered a global commons, free for the taking -- also means marketing indigenous peoples ' knowledge about them. This article explores some of the fundamental problems underlying this new push to commodify and commercialise the planet 's biological and ethnobotanical treasure chest.

BRAZIL ABOUT TO PATENT LIFE?
Type: Article
Author: David Hathaway Date: October 1993

Brazil is one of the key developing countries under intense pressure from Northern governments to strengthen intellectual property protection over life forms. Transnational corporations are pushing strongly for Brazil to adopt a new patent bill that would make it possible for them to enjoy monopoly protection and huge profits over crop seeds, livestock, and drugs developed through biotechnology. The Western-led push to patent life in Brazil has spurred off intense debate over the impact on all layers of society and catalyzed new coalitions among the scientific, religious, farmer, environmentalist and NGO communities. David Hathaway, of AS-PTA, an NGO working to strengthen farmer control over local biodiversity, reports on the proposed bill and its likely impact on Brazilian society.

A MATTER OF MANIPULATION
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: May 1993

One year after the signing of the global Convention on Biological Diversity at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the industrialised countries are sharpening their tools to twist the treaty in favour of the biotechnology industry. The US government is moving forward to sign the Convention, but only on the basis of its "interpretation" of the sticky points. Under pressure from the industry, other OECD countries are equally trying to converge into a common power bloc as to how to "interpret" the Convention. After four years of polite negotiations, the real power politics begin.

IARC GENEBANKS UNDER AUSPICES OF FAO
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: May 1993

After 15 years of evading a response to the thorny question of who owns the genetic resources held in the genebanks of the International Agricultural Research Centres, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has decided to approach FAO to construct a global solution. At a meeting of the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources last month, the CG and FAO agreed to start negotiations to give the CG genebanks a firm legal status and FAO a role in their political and physical protection.

FAREWELL, CHRISTIAN
Type: Article
Author: Erna Bennett Date: May 1993

Next month, June 1993, the renowned Gatersleben genebank in the former East Germany will celebrate its 50th anniversary. One man will be missing from the festivities: Christian Lehmann, who devoted his life to genetic resources and the success of the genebank. For next month is also the first anniversary of Lehmann 's unexpected death, which came at a time in his life when he was gearing up to work more closely with NGOs and community-based conservation initiatives. The following farewell was written for "Seedling" by Erna Bennett, also one of the greatest geneticists of this century and a revolutionary woman committed to people 's control over genetic resources. Erna was a stone setter in the move to get a global genetic conservation scheme set up in the 1960s, but now works actively with NGOs all over the world to secure viable and equitable farmer based approaches. Christian was her personal friend and colleague, so it is only apt that Erna offers him our collective farewell.

A DECADE IN REVIEW
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: February 1993

Over the past ten years of Seedling 's history, what was once known as "the seeds issue" has passed from being a concern of very few individuals on this planet to the highlight of controversy among the 30,000 attendees of the UN Conference on Environment and Development -- the "Earth" Summit -- in Rio last June. To a large extent, the only progress traceable through Seedling 's trajectory over the past decade is the enormous growth of public awareness about the importance and causes of genetic erosion in world agriculture. The real work to effectively reverse this threat to global food security, to implement equitable and integrated strategies for genetic resources management, and to put farmers at the wheel of agricultural development, and their own destinies, still lies ahead of us.

PATENTS ON LIFE: OBVIOUSLY NOT
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1992

An increasing number of scientists and companies are starting to experience some of the negative implications of applying the patent system to life forms. Tremendous costs for law suits and huge time delays in getting products to the markets are just some of the factors that become apparent. The most recent controversy was triggered off by the US National Institutes of Health patent application for almost 3000 human gene fragments. The situation is getting to a point where companies are starting to argue that the whole thing might work against innovation. In the meanwhile, the European Parliament - not bothered by all of this - adopted a report that basically endorses the EC Commission 's proposal to allow for the patenting of life forms in Europe.

ETHIOPIA ' S FUTURE: HYBRIDS OR LANDRACES?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1992

Ethiopia is a country of tremendous genetic and cultural diversity. Local farmers have been maintaining and continuously adapting their indigenous crop resources, which now prove to also serve agriculture at the international level. The Ethiopian genebank is carrying out a challenging programme involving farmers in several stages of the seed-saving and breeding process, while encouraging farmers to maintain local varieties by improving the genetic performance of them. A diametrically opposed strategy is followed by Pioneer Hi-Bred, the worlds largest seed company, which recently started operations in the country. Pioneer also directs itself to the small farmers, but to convince them to buy imported hybrid seeds.

THE URGE TO MERGE
Type: Article
Author: Peter Einarsson Date: October 1992

This fall a major merger will become effective in the Swedish seed business scheme. Two major Swedish breeding operations, Svalöf and Weibull, became Svalöf-Weibull AB, with the new 100% owner being Svenska Lantmännen AB, which is the central holding company of the Swedish farmers ' cooperatives. The merger puts the new company high in the top ranking of seed corporations worldwide. It responds to the business logic of "Big is Beautiful", but what might be lost in the process is the unique public service that both Svalöf and Weibull provided to Swedish farmers over the past 100 years. Peter Einarsson followed the process from close by and reports for Seedling.

BIODIVERSITY AT RIO: CONSERVATION OR ACCESS?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1992

Controversy raised by the Bush administration 's refusal to sign the Convention on Biodiversity at the Earth Summit in Rio filled headlines of daily papers throughout the world. Yet while all eyes were on Rio, the real connection with Washington was absent from the horizon: not the U.S. State Department but the World Bank, house of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The Biodiversity Convention, a small step forward for conservation is a large step backward for Third World control over the valuable international crop germplasm collections run by the CGIAR Centres in the name of the international community. Due to last minute pressure from the U.S. government, the Convention excludes these genebanks from its scope. At the same time, the CG donors, again under pressure from the Americans, are working on a policy to let the Centres patent those collections. GRAIN would like to thank Pat Mooney of RAFI for his contributions to this article.

TOWARDS AN AGRICULTURE FOR THE FEW
Type: Article
Author: Hannes Lorenzen Date: July 1992

In what was hailed by the press as "the most radical overhaul of the Common Agricultural Policy in its 30-year history", EC ministers agreed last May to drastically reduce prices paid to farmers and install a system of direct compensation for them. The measures were presented as an important contribution to saving Europe 's environment, as they encourage farmers to take land out of production and offer subsidies to those who adopt environmentally-friendly activities. However, a close look at the reform shows that it might do just the opposite, with Europe 's genetic heritage being the first major casualty. Hannes Lorenzen of the European Parliament reports.

CONSERVATIONISTS OR CORSAIRS?
Type: Article
Author: Jack Kloppenburg and Silvia Rodriguez Date: July 1992

Last September, Costa Rica 's National Institute for Biodiversity (INBio) signed a million dollar with the largest drug company in the world, Merck, giving the multinational exclusive rights to develop new products from one of the world 's richest rainforests. The deal took many outsiders by surprise. To some, it looked like an eminently intelligent way to assert and exert national sovereignty over biological resources. To others, it seemed like a massive sell-out that would never benefit the rural communities of Costa Rica. To air the issues, GRAIN turned to Jack Kloppenburg, an American rural sociologist working at the University of Wisconsin, well-known for his research into what could be called "the commodification of the seed". We asked him to analyse for 'Seedling ' what was at stake with "the commodification of the rainforest". The following article is a piece he prepared for us with the assistance of Silvia Rodriguez, from the School of Environmental Sciences at the National University of Costa Rica.

AGENDA FOR ACTION?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 2002

The main product of the "Earth Summit" will be an agreed programme of action: Agenda 21. As the final Preparatory Conference for the Earth Summit gets under way this month in New York, we look at those parts of Agenda 21 which deal with the conservation and utilization of genetic resources: biodiversity, biotechnology and sustainable agriculture.

FUNDING THE EARTH SUMMIT
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1992

Key to the success of the "Earth Summit" is the funding mechanism. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), run by the World Bank, is the North 's candidate to take on this role. In this article we assess the need and possible mechanisms for funding, and conclude that the GEF, in its present form, does not match up to the challenges.

ANOTHER PROMISE DOWN THE DRAIN?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: March 1992

The race to get new biotech products to the market includes the development of biological pesticides and pest-resistant crops. However, pests continually evolve and tend to develop immunity against the new cures. This seems to be already the case with the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) which produces a toxin that kills harmful insects, and on which researchers have put their hopes for a chemical-free agriculture. This article looks at the background, points to the narrow focus of research and warns that, if current trends prevail, another promise of the new biotechnologies might prove to be an empty one.

IARCS WANT TO PATENT SEEDS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1991

In a move intended to facilitate access to increasingly privatised biotechnologies, the Green Revolution Institutes are now contemplating not "whether" but "how best" to start claiming intellectual property rights over seeds collected from farmers ' fields throughout the Third World. GRAIN and many other NGOs and scientists are deeply disturbed by the proposals and urge Seedling readers to present their concerns to the relevant centres.

SOUTHEAST ASIANS TAKE ACTION ON GENETIC RESOURCES & BIOTECHNOLOGY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1991

The past thirty years have witnessed an important deterioration of the farming systems and rural cultures of Southeast Asia. The miracle rices of the Green Revolution and government policies to promote monoculture and high yields have reinforced genetic erosion, indebtedness, landlessness and vast environmental damage. However, over the past years, a growing movement of non-governmental and people 's organisations is working to design alternatives and reorient public policy in favour of local control over resources, technology and information to make sustainable agriculture really possible. A regional dialogue among NGOs and government officials, held in Bangkok last August, shows a promising level of consensus on how to move forward.

SUSTAINING THE SUSTAINABLE
Type: Article
Author: Elizabeth Cromwell Date: October 1991

Substantial funding has been directed towards building up formal seed supply organizations in developing countries - both parastatal bodies and private companies. But it is becoming very clear that often a much more effective network of informal seed diffusion based on farmer-to-farmer seed exchange exists. Elizabeth Cromwell of London 's Overseas Development Institute reports on the findings of some recent research.

EUROPEAN NETWORK ON GENETIC RESOURCES MEETS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1991

On 24-30 June, GRAIN hosted the Second European Network Meeting on Genetic Resources and Biotechnology in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting brought together some 70 people from 50 European non-governmental organisations engaged in public information, campaign and practical activities to strengthen local control over genetic diversity and biotechnology. Four days of brainstorming yielded a range of new analyses and priorities for action on key issues in the fields of grassroots conservation, biotechnology, biodiversity and Farmers ' Rights.

EAST GERMAN GENEBANK IN LIMBO
Type: Article
Author: Renée Vellvé and Michael Flitner Date: July 1991

On October 3 1990, when West Germany declared "re-unification" with East Germany, the merger included one of history 's most spectacular seizures of valuable genetic resources. The East German germplasm collection is one of the best and oldest in all of Europe. Since the annexation, not only the genetic resources but the very future of East German farming is in a state of suspension. Renée Vellvé (GRAIN) and Michael Flitner (BUKO-Agrarkoordination) report.

PLANT PIRACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
Type: Article
Author: Nicanor Perlas and Rene Salazar Date: July 1991

The government of the Philippines is about to pass a new law making it possible to patent life forms. The Bill, which would allow for exclusive monopoly rights on asexually reproduced plants, is being pushed through without any public discussion whatsoever. On less than three sheets of paper, this amazing proposal sets no limits on the monopoly granted and penalises farmers who replant patented seeds with one to five years of prison. Nicanor Perlas and Rene Salazar, from CADI and SEARICE, two Filipino NGOs, spell out the concerns for their people.

KEYSTONE DIALOGUE CONCLUDES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1991

After an intensive three-year off-the record battle in plenaries, working groups and bilateral discussions, the Keystone International Dialogue on Plant Genetic Resources came to a final-final consensus at its last session in Oslo from 31 May to 4 June. As a result, a "Global Initiative" to urgently save the resources on which the world 's agricultural production depends, was launched into the public for international action.

FARMERS ' RIGHTS: TIME TO ACT
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 1991

From 15 to 19 April, the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources meets to continue the debate on how to manage the earth 's genetic resources. One of the main issues on the agenda is the implementation of Farmers ' Rights. If Farmers ' Rights is meant as a compensation to farmers for their impressive role in the conservation and development of germplasm, it has to provide for mechanisms that ensure that farmers really benefit from it. This article dives into the background and concludes that there is a gap between the consensus reached in FAO and the day to day practice in the farmers ' fields. It argues for a direct voice from grassroots organisations in the priority-setting and implementation of genetic resources activities. Most importantly, it stresses that the FAO diplomats now have the opportunity and the obligation the move beyond words and start acting.

WANTED ALIVE: 3.3 MILLION SEED SAMPLES!
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 1991

We are heading toward a frightening crossroads. The so-called international plant genetic resources community has spent the past 20 years putting together a world network of colossal, centralised "base collections" for major international crops: rice, wheat, maize, potatoes, pulses. Big food in big refrigerators in a couple of locations across the mighty globe: this is called food security. NGOs have all this time been critical of the ill-founded bases of the system: its technical shortcomings, political biases, unaccountability, mismanaged control and the sheer danger of dumping your eggs into one solitary and fragile basket. Without resolving any of those problems, the genebanks are now in the process of shifting strategy away from the failed mega-collections toward a sub-system of isolated and potentially arbitrary "crop networks" and "core collections" with perhaps even more dreadful consequences.

TRADITIONAL PLANTS IN KENYA: REVERSING THE APATHY
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 1991

As many of the trees, vegetables and fruits traditionally grown by farmers around the world are ignored by official research and extension services, indigenous knowledge about how they are grown and used for food, medicines and shelter is under threat too. But peoples ' organizations are striving to turn the tide. We report from Kenya where women farmers are showing renewed interest in these neglected crops.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: April 1991

Amongst the issues being considered by the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) are biological diversity and biotechnology. But will the "Earth Summit" truly address these issues and their underlying problems or merely confuse current initiatives? In this article we look at the preparations for UNCED '92 and the negotiations toward a Convention on Biological Diversity facilitated by UNEP.

GENES IN THE GULF
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: February 1991

As "Seedling" goes to print, armed conflict is once again besieging the Middle East, this time of untold dimensions. Open hostilities in the Gulf region could degenerate into a large scale tragedy involving chemical and biological warfare, as well as nuclear arms. While we all hold firm to the hope for a negotiated solution to the political problems of the region, GRAIN thought it valuable to acknowledge the important contribution that genetic diversity from the Middle East makes to world agriculture and review the region 's highly vulnerable conservation efforts. It is an area particularly rich in landraces and wild species of immense value for crop improvement and food production worldwide.

SAVING POTATOES IN THE ANDES
Type: Article
Author: Henk Hobbelink and Miges Baumann Date: February 1991

The home of the potato is to be found in the Andes, where many wild species grow alongside the indigenous varieties developed by local farmers. Throughout this majestic mountain chain, the potato is also the basis of the local diet. While farmers grow an impressive mosaic of different varieties, that diversity is under threat from several angles. The governments are pushing mainstream monoculture, but the people are working on other alternatives. GRAIN associates Henk Hobbelink and Miges Baumann travelled through Ecuador and give a firsthand report.

THE IPR EMPERORS ' NEW CLOTHES
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: February 1991

1991 will be the year of major decision-making in the world 's two lead international bodies governing intellectual property rights (IPRs): the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). UPOV is scheduled to revise its convention laying out the rules for the plant breeders ' rights (PBR) system in March, while WIPO hopes to adopt an International Patent Harmonisation Treaty in June. Both initiatives could result in stronger laws for IPR protection over plants worldwide, in the shadow of the GATT Uruguay Round 's current difficulties.

BIOFARMER DAVID VERSUS PHARMA GIANT GOLIATH
Type: Article
Author: Miges Baumann Date: October 1990

Herb grower Peter Lendi has filed a lawsuit against the first Swiss plant patent on a camomile variety. This struggle between an organic herb farmer and the German pharmaceutical company Degussa, who filed the patent could become a major test case in Switzerland. It is not only the camomile but the future of agriculture that is at stake. GRAIN Board member Miges Baumann reports on this fight between herb farmer David and pharma-giant Goliath.

BUILDING ON FARMERS ' KNOWLEDGE
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: October 1990

Farmers ' innovative capacity and their accumulated knowledge has provided the foundations for thousands of years of agricultural development. After being ignored for decades, it is now seen as the key to sustainable agriculture. But urgent measures are needed to ensure that indigenous knowledge is fully utilized for the benefit of Third World farmers themselves and not merely exploited for the short term profit in the North. Farmers ' knowledge must be protected, research institutions need to redirect their priorities to work with farmers, and funds should be made available to support local development initiatives.

BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE SOVIET UNION
Type: Article
Author: Vincent Lucassen Date: October 1990

With the breaking down of the Iron Curtain and widespread talk of "perestroika" and "glasnost", the political system in the Soviet Union is presently undergoing profound transformations. A search for the cause of fatal mistakes during the production of biotechnologically produced artificial proteins show some indications of what can happen if decisions on science and technology are left to a central bureaucratic apparatus only. However, the new winds blowing in the USSR do not only bring a more open discussion on these matters, but also revive interest of Western biotech companies to tap part of a huge unexploited market. The development of biotechnology in the flux of "perestroika" has its own dynamics. Vincent Lucassen of the Dutch Contact Group on Biotechnology and Society, and member of the GRAIN Board, went to the Soviet Union and reports on his findings.

Genes for the greenhouse?
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: July 1990