Environmental Alert: The crisis of seeds to aggression News
extracted from the "Citizen"
The debate on transgenics in Chile begins when the multinational Monsanto is ranked as the worst company in the world in 2010, has been authorized to operate in our territory.
The recent ratification of the controversial Senate UPOV 1991 revealed a chilling reality for Chileans: the U.S. firm Monsanto, in the short term, will own the majority of peasant and indigenous seeds of our country, this is because Sooner or later GM species-patented Monsanto will cross with native or pure, located in farms and fields neighbors, creating "mutant child" who will carry the trademark of the multinational owner of "hybrid."
This strategy is used by Monsanto in the world, since it allows in a short time, check the seed business. So ratifies Dan Ravicher, executive director of the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT, for its acronym in English), who during a recent claim made in the United States against transnational said that "some people think that GM seeds may coexist with organic, but history tells us that this is not possible, and today's financial interest is to remove the seeds Monsanto orgánicas para que puedan tener el monopolio total sobre nuestra cadena de alimentos”.
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De acuerdo con la información del sitio web de PUBPAT, efectivamente, algunos cultivos han resultado contaminados con semillas transgénicas de manera accidental, por ejemplo por polinización cruzada. Por ello aseguran que “parece perverso que un agricultor orgánico pueda ser acusado de infringir los derechos de patentes, pero Monsanto ya ha hecho previas acusaciones”.
Estas ideas yan han sido ampliamente difundidas por la periodista francesa y experta en agroalimentación, Marie- Monique Robin, quien publicó un libro sobre Monsanto, empresa que actualmente es líder global agrochemical and seed handling, and practically dominates the international food industry, it has rights to most agricultural varieties.
According to Robin, "in 1992, Monsanto got U.S. government allowed the patenting of seeds, and today the company has among its records more than 1,000 varieties, all with specific purposes. For example, in Catalonia and Andalusia are cultivated hundreds of acres of a variety called BT, Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium found in soil and is a natural insecticide. What Monsanto did was remove the BT gene that causes the defense to insects, and injected it into the genome of corn. The point is that the insect that attacks corn, called corn borer, is not the only one who is destroyed, also fall butterflies, insectivorous birds, soil microbes and other beneficial insects and pollinators. "
The French expert says that "the situation is just starting there, because some of the effects in humans are food allergies, eating pesticides without knowing it. Our bodies are toxins that can not assimilate. Furthermore, this corn is fertile and therefore merging with others, pollinating inbred varieties that are being lost. The topic is serious and very extensive, Monsanto has come legally through the world and have the laws in their favor. The scale of adverse competition. " CHILE
TRANSGENIC
in our country's refusal to ratify the UPOV 1991 has come from different sides. The National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women (ANAMURI) and the Terram Foundation were invited to express their views before the Senate, while the year 2010 in the Chamber of Deputies, the same ANAMURI, Ranquil, organic producers, the bishop of Aysén , Rapal, the Alliance for a Better Quality of Life, Grain, Olca, and other regional and local organizations, and had expressed their rejection of this agreement and the bill of breeders. For
executive director of the Terram Foundation, Flavia Liberona, everything starts with the signing of the 1978 UPOV Convention, which differs from the 1991-recently approved in the Senate, where the latter clearly states that require the authorization of the breeder (owner of the mark) for seed production or reproduction for any other purpose.
Liberona said "this has meant that not all countries have subscribed to UPOV 1978, acceded to UPOV 1991. We talk about Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Paraguay, Portugal and Uruguay. "
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties Plants, UPOV, is an organization promoted by the transnational marketing of seeds and supported by governments, of which Chile is a party. In the early years and today also produced transgenic hybrids. These are the companies Monsanto, which controls more than 90% of the transgenic seed market, Syngenta, Bayer and Dupont / Pioneer. CALL
UN intervention
Legislative Network for Indigenous and Public Policy, the UPOV Convention "reinforces an ownership leonina and abusive on plants and plant varieties are not patentable, but that can be appropriated through the so-called PBR plant. We do not understand how an international agreement, which is handled as a law, and has such severe effects on indigenous peoples, is not consulted as Convention 169 states signed the State of Chile "The Red
claim that" such Article 14 Issue 2) of the UPOV Convention 1991 states that require the authorization of the breeder or owner, ie the crime, for breeding and possession of proceeds of the harvest, including whole plants and plant parts is ie, foreign companies will now own the crops. "
Liberona of Terram Flavia adds to this criticism and notes that this "puts at risk of family farming and indigenous and traditional uses as varieties that have been developed by these communities could be registered by others and thus prohibiting their use. "
addition, both the Red and the Liberona agreed that "the UPOV Convention 1991 renunciation of the sovereignty of Chile as a country, since Article 10 provides that the State may not refuse to grant a breeder's right or limit its duration, arguing that protection for the same variety has not been requested or that it has been denied or has expired in another State or another international organization. " Fundacion Terram It says that this is checked out to small farmers and indigenous communities have developed varieties for use as the varieties could be registered by anyone, without respecting the rights of the true breeder. The Red
added that "the Government has acknowledged the 700 plant varieties appropriate Chile Chile, 615 are held by corporations. During the processing of the Convention, the agriculture minister, José Antonio Galilea, noted that current law be amended after the approval of the treaty to allow small farmers to keep some of what is appropriate for consumption by transnational corporations. And they will live the indigenous communities of the self? For us, this represents no security whatsoever, they are mere words of the minister. Then change it and get another minister to do something different. We are tired of lies. So we want consultation covered by ILO Convention 169 and monitored by the ILO and the UN. "
Therefore, members of the Network sent a letter to Guido Girardi, president of the Senate, to "do the steps as head of the legislature to implement urgently the indigenous consultation for all bills that encroach on the heritage ancestral of our peoples. "
signed that letter Bacian Ariel Leon, President Corporation Aymara Marka Aru Jach-a, Francisco Vera Millaquen, werken Pepiukelen huilliche community, and Raphael Tuki Tepano, Indian Minister for the Rapa Nui to the Conadi.
The debate has been, but more important is that the information could get out despite the media blackout that prevails in the mainstream media on this and other topics. Already thousands of people in social networks in Chile and Latin America expressed their rejection to the arrival of Monsanto's GM industry, another issue that our country is currently under environmental alert.
Links for this article:
http://contra-la-sociedad-del-malestar.blogspot.com/2011/04/transgenicos-lo-que-debes-saber.html
http://www.combat-monsanto.es/
http://www.biobioorganico.cl/2010/09/22/bill-gates-compra-500-mil-acciones-de-monsanto/
http://www.elciudadano.cl/2011/05/12/senado-vendio-a-monsanto-la-semilla-campesina-e-indigena/
