The Seeds of Destruction
The Seeds of Destruction
The main objective of my project is to explore in depth, how the bio-piracy and biotech patent system affect the life of indigenous people of Third World countries, in relation to their rights to natural resources and knowledge that they have developed in common over centuries. I would focus on few important issues, including the enclosure of natural commons, such as seeds and plants on one hand, and the exploitation of the worker, his labor and knowledge about them, on the other. In addition, a critique of the monopolization of the market economy and its negative effect on the poor and their “enslaving” by the rich corporations would be covered in some of my thoughts.
Important fact that needs to be explained, before going into details with the problems caused by the seeds of destruction and their patents, is explanation of what actually the Intellectual Property Rights are. Therefore, similar to copyrights, these are rights to control production and use of biological resources like genes and plants (in this case) for a limited time, for example seventeen to twenty years. Historically, society has given the inventors these rights in exchange for public disclosure (making new knowledge available) and avoiding trade secrecy. Today, however, many industrialized countries claim that collected information as their own, and through the patents they don’t allow ordinary people like farmers to use these raw materials unless they pay a high price for them. In other words, “…the patent process followed in the United States is a system whereby the wealthy steal resources from the poor. Instead of a seed belonging to everyone (i.e. "community property"), ownership of that seed is now granted to one entity (a corporation) which can then charge the people for using it. This sort of patenting is nothing more than a fabricated system of ownership that funnels wealth from the hands of the many to the pockets of the few” (Adams, Mike). Related to the
The main objective of my project is to explore in depth, how the bio-piracy and biotech patent system affect the life of indigenous people of Third World countries, in relation to their rights to natural resources and knowledge that they have developed in common over centuries. I would focus on few important issues, including the enclosure of natural commons, such as seeds and plants on one hand, and the exploitation of the worker, his labor and knowledge about them, on the other. In addition, a critique of the monopolization of the market economy and its negative effect on the poor and their “enslaving” by the rich corporations would be covered in some of my thoughts.
Important fact that needs to be explained, before going into details with the problems caused by the seeds of destruction and their patents, is explanation of what actually the Intellectual Property Rights are. Therefore, similar to copyrights, these are rights to control production and use of biological resources like genes and plants (in this case) for a limited time, for example seventeen to twenty years. Historically, society has given the inventors these rights in exchange for public disclosure (making new knowledge available) and avoiding trade secrecy. Today, however, many industrialized countries claim that collected information as their own, and through the patents they don’t allow ordinary people like farmers to use these raw materials unless they pay a high price for them. In other words, “…the patent process followed in the United States is a system whereby the wealthy steal resources from the poor. Instead of a seed belonging to everyone (i.e. "community property"), ownership of that seed is now granted to one entity (a corporation) which can then charge the people for using it. This sort of patenting is nothing more than a fabricated system of ownership that funnels wealth from the hands of the many to the pockets of the few” (Adams, Mike). Related to the
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