SEED ROBBERY-
(Excerpt from the article "Great Seed Robbery" by Dr. Vandana Shiva that appeared in Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad, India, on 27 April 2011, Wed. She is the executive director of the Navdanya Trust.)
"Monsanto, which controls 95 per cent of the cottonseed market, has pushed the price of seed from Rs.7-per kg. to Rs.3,600- per kg. with nearly half being royalty payments. It was extracting Rs. 1,000- crores per annum as royalty from Indian farmers before Andhra Pradesh sued it in the Monopolies and restrictive Trade Practices Commission.
The commodified seed is ecologically incomplete and ruptured at two levels. First, it does not reproduce itself, while, by definition, seed is regenerative resource. Genetic resources are thus, through technology, transformed from a renewable into a non-renewable resource. Second, it does not produce by itself; it needs the help of purchased inputs. And, as the seed and chemical companies merge, the dependence on inputs will increase.
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While public resources will be freely given away to Monsanto as a subsidy, Monsanto's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) monopolies will be protected. This is an MoU for "Monsanto takes all, the public system gives all".
It is clearly an MoU for privatization of our seed and genetic wealth, our knowledge, and a violation of farmers' rights.
Seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. Seed freedom is the foundation of food freedom. The great seed robbery threatens both. It must be stopped."
9 May 2011 Premji Bhanushali
