Nerica - another trap for small farmers in Africa  (363 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
January 2009
Nerica rice varieties, a cross between African and Asian rice, are being hailed as a “miracle crop” that can bring Africa its long-promised green revolution in rice. A powerful coalition of governments, research institutes, private seed companies and donors are leading a major effort to spread Nerica seeds to all the continent’s rice fields. They claim that Nerica can boost yields and make Africa self-sufficient in rice production. But outside the laboratories, Nerica is not living up to the hype. Since the first Nerica varieties were introduced in 1996, experience has been mixed among farmers, with reports of a wide range of problems. Perhaps the most serious concern with Nerica is that it is being promoted within a larger drive to expand agribusiness in Africa, which threatens to wipe out the real basis for African food sovereignty-- Africa’s small farmers and their local seed systems. |
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Seized: The 2008 landgrab for food and financial security (207 kb)
(209 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
October 2008
Today's food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global landgrab. On the one hand, “food insecure” governments that rely on imports to feed their people are snatching up vast areas of farmland abroad for their own offshore food production. On the other hand, food corporations and private investors, hungry for profits in the midst of the deepening financial crisis, see investment in foreign farmlands as an important new source of revenue. As a result, fertile agricultural lands are becoming increasingly privatised and concentrated. If left unchecked, this global landgrab could spell the end of small scale farming, and rural livelihoods, in numerous places around the world. |
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Latin America’s Free Trade Agreements with the European Union - An agenda for domination ( 2.2 MB)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 2008
The European Union is promoting “association agreements” or “cooperation agreements” with Latin American countries. These agreements appear weaker and more flexible than the equivalent agreements that the USA is signing with countries in the region. But behind this affable facade the EU is tough: it is insisting that the countries agree to extend periodically what has been agreed and to undertake an undefined number of legal, administrative, economic, technical and social reforms, the objective of which is to grant European countries ever more favourable conditions in all aspects of national life.
This amounts to a new Conquest (as the 1492 European “discovery” of the Americas is often referred to). It will lead to transantional corporations taking control over communications, water, the banking system, oil, biodiversity, all kinds of raw materials and fishing, as well as being able to use Latin American countries as bases for exports. Eventually European companies will take the place of state companies and be responsible for establishing norms, certification and patents. Tariff barriers, taxes, phytosanitary standards, quality controls and any other regulation seen as a barrier to the expansion of Euopean companies and their trade will be swept away.
If these agreements are negotiated in secret and their implementation becomes the responsibility of the executive branch of government, civil society and the parliaments of the countries involved will not be allowed to protest or to investigate properly what is going on.
It is hoped that this briefing will promote disucssion about what is happening and help Latin American society to stand up to the new European invasion. |
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Whose harvest? The politics of organic seed certification (239 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
January 2008
Millions of farmers around the world practice organic agriculture and over a billion people get most of their food from these farms. Currently only a small portion of what they produce is labeled as certified organic, but the global market for such foods is growing. While some believe that certification is needed to create market opportunities for small farmers others fear that existing systems are doing the reverse -- setting the stage for agribusiness to take over. Now these tensions are coming to a head with seeds. Today, new regulations governing seeds in organic farming, more attuned to the needs of seed corporations than seed savers, are popping up everywhere, with potentially devastating consequences for farmer seed systems. This Briefing provides the first global overview of regulations concerning seeds in organic farming and assesses what such regulations mean to the future of organic farming and the millions of farmers who sustain it. |
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A new Green Revolution for Africa? (153 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
December 2007
For some time now, there's been talk of a new Green Revolution for Africa – because "Africa missed the first Green Revolution" or because "the first Green Revolution missed Africa". Now a new project, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), is trying to put the concept into operation. This paper aims to describe what a Green Revolution really signifies, why such projects haven't worked before and why AGRA won't work either, in order to help people trying to take positions at the local, national and regional levels.
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The end of farm-saved seed? Industry’s wish list for the next revision of UPOV (434 kb)
(95 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 2007
The big players in the world seed industry are grumbling about loopholes in the plant variety protection system, which was the alternative to patenting that they set up in the 1960s. The Europeans want to get rid of farmers’ limited entitlement to save seed. The Americans want to restrict the exemption by which breeders have the free use of each other’s commercial varieties for research purposes. In both cases, the point is to reduce competition and boost profits. In the short term, the victims will be farmers, who will probably end up paying the seed giants an additional US$7 billion each year. But in the long run, we will all lose from the growing corporate stranglehold over our food systems. This briefing traces the recent discussions within the seed industry and explores what will happen if a plant variety right becomes virtually indistinguishable from a patent. |
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Bilateral biosafety bullies (272 kb)
Author:
GRAIN and and the African Centre for Biosafety Date:
October 2006
Across the world, the use of bilateral trade instruments to prise open markets for genetically modified (GM) crops is escalating. To expand business overseas, the biotech industry needs stronger intellectual property rules and weaker biosafety standards. Bilateral trade deals are an effective way to get this. This report looks specifically at how the world’s grain and oilseed traders, who account for the bulk of the world’s GM crop production and trade today, use bilateral trade channels to prevent countries from building strong biosafety regulatory environments. |
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FTAs: Trading away traditional knowledge (442 kb)
Author:
GRAIN in collaboration with Dr Silvia Rodríguez Cervantes Date:
March 2006
Traditional knowledge is increasingly popping up in bilateral and regional free trade agreements. What's going on?
Traditional knowledge has come up in a dozen or so free trade agreements (FTAs) over the last couple of years. In numerous cases, specific provisions on traditional knowledge were signed. The pattern at play is simple. When facing the US, trade negotiators concerned about "biopiracy" try to put limits on when and how researchers and corporations can get patents on biodiversity or traditional knowledge in the United States. When the US is not involved, governments carve out space to define their own legal systems of "rights" to traditional knowledge. In all cases, however, FTAs are framing traditional knowledge as intellectual property – a commodity to be bought and sold on the global market. |
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Fowl play: The poultry industry's central role in the bird flu crisis (198 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 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 highly self-regulated 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. This paper presents a fresh perspective on the bird flu story that challenges current assumptions and puts the focus back where it should be: on the transnational poultry industry. |
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USAID: Making the world hungry for GM crops (421 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
April 2005
This briefing examines how the US government uses USAID to actively promote GM agriculture. The focus is on USAID's major programmes for agricultural biotechnology and the regions where these programmes are most active in parts of Africa and Asia[1]. These USAID programmes are part of a multi-pronged strategy to advance US interests with GM crops. Increasingly the US government uses multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements and high-level diplomatic pressure to push countries towards the adoption of many key bits of corporate-friendly regulations related to GM crops. And this external pressure has been effectively complimented by lobbying and funding from national and regional USAID biotech networks.
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Fiasco in the field - An update on hybrid rice in Asia (91 kb)
(224 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
March 2005
Hybrid rice, a new technology Asian governments are aggressively promoting to feed their population, is not wanted, not needed and will end up destroying rural areas. This report shows that hybrid rice is being rejected by farmers across Asia. Hybrid rice is expensive, heavily reliant on fertilisers and pesticides, and a very poor techno-fix to increase yield. The main countries turning to hybrid rice are China, Vietnam, Philippines, Bangladesh and India. This is an independent update on a 2000 report |
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Bilateral investment agreements: Agents of new global standards for the protection of intellectual property rights? (303 kb)
Author:
Carlos M. Correa Date:
August 2004
This study was commissioned by GRAIN as an independent exploration into the implications of bilateral investment treaties, and free trade agreements with chapters on investment, in terms of international standards for the protection of intellectual property rights. GRAIN is making this study publicly available, through its website, as a resource for further research and analysis. |
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GM cotton set to invade West Africa - Time to act! (372 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
June 2004
This briefing is the result of research undertaken by GRAIN in collaboration with several national and regional partners in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. GRAIN interviewed dozens of scientists, farmers and representatives of professional organisations from the cotton sector in each of these countries, and spent time with them reflecting on the significance of Bt cotton for their communities, their countries and West Africa in general. The briefing also draws heavily on the experiences of other countries where Bt cotton has already been introduced, such as India and South Africa. This briefing is designed to help farmers and local communities, researchers, NGOs, policy-makers and media people understand the implications of Bt cotton for West Africa. |
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The disease of the day: Acute treatyitis - The Myths and Consequences of free trade agreements with the US
Author:
GRAIN Date:
June 2004
This briefing describes some of the myths about free trade negotiations and agreements plus outlines the texts that are being imposed by the US - the country which is most agressively pushing for these bilateral deals. |
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Bt Cotton at Mali's Doorstep: Time to Act!
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 2004
With the illicit introduction of Bt Cotton into Mali, GRAIN exposes the effect this will have on West Africa. |
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One global patent system? WIPO's Substantive Patent Law Treaty (160 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
August 2003
For three years, a new international patent treaty has been under negotiation at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. This Substantive Patent Law Treaty (SPLT) would remove most of the remaining national flexibility in patent systems and pave the way for a future world patent granted directly by WIPO. This is an appealing prospect for transnational corporations and large powers like the US and the EU, who see patents as as the primary means to control a globalised economy. But a world patent system is bad news for developing countries and their citizens, who would lose even the limited freedom left by the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement 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. |
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The TRIPS review at a turning point? (37 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 2003
Will there finally be some adjustments to the TRIPS life patenting regime as a result of the Cancun trade summit? After more than four years of stalemate between developed and developing countries, there are signs of movement… |
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FARMERS' PRIVILEGE UNDER ATTACK (149 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
June 2003
The legal ability to reuse IPR-protected seed is called the “farmers’ privilege”. Under plant variety protection (PVP) law, the totally ordinary act of saving seed or tubers becomes a privilege, a legal exception. The farmers’ privilege is a hot issue because the seed industry wants to control who produces seeds – they want to control the market. It’s also a hot issue because the seed industry is working hard to secure legal systems that restrict seed saving by farmers, be it through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), bilateral trade agreements or direct lobbying of governments. PVP or plant breeders’ rights legislation is all about taking power away from farmers to produce and reproduce seeds. And these laws are gaining ground. |
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TRIPS-plus must stop (36 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
March 2003
The European Union caught in blatant contradictions - This month, a new bilateral agreement between the EU and Lebanon entered into force. Under this treaty, Lebanon must join UPOV within the next four years. If this is championing farmers’ rights to save seeds, then something is really messed up. |
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Open letter to Pascal Lamy on TRIPS 27.3(b) review (159 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 2003
Last September, the EU sent a concept paper to the TRIPS Council on the review of Article 27.3(b). While we didn't see much new in it back then, it is now making the news. To counterbalance some of the misguided media reports, we are issuing an open letter to Pascal Lamy, the EU's Commissioner for Trade. |
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Traditional knowledge of biodiversity in Asia-Pacific: Problems of piracy and protection (730 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
November 2002
A new briefing on the state of traditional knowledge and biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific region. GRAIN's 30-page briefing provides details, with numerous examples, of the changes that are occurring in Asia-Pacific; from international agreements, and regional initiatives to action taken by farming communities. Many people at the grassroots level are working to fight back and protect their resources and knowledge from blatant exploitation. Emerging strategies on what communities and organisations could do to further ensure the strengthening of community rights are outlined. |
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Genetically Modified Crops in African Agriculture: Implications for Small Farmers (792 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek Date:
August 2002
The briefing looks at the push to bring genetically modified (GM) crops and technologies to Africa and shows the implications for farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa. Is this new technology appropriate for African agricultural systems and what are the implications if it is taken up? 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? |
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Intellectual Property Rights in African Agriculture: Implications for Small Farmers (751 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek Date:
August 2002
This briefing aims to provide rural community workers, farmers and policy makers in Africa with information that will contribute to their understanding of the implications of IPRs on plant genetic resources for small farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa. It situates the emergence of IPRs on plant genetic resources within a larger history, in which the innovative strength and traditions of African farming communities have been consistently disregarded. It concludes that the emergence of IPRs in African agriculture is highly detrimental to local food production and small farming systems, and that a reorientation of policies is urgently needed. |
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WIPO moves toward 'world' patent system (28 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 2002
In the last few years the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a United Nations body mandated to promote intellectual property rights, has started building a “world patent” system. It may mean the end of patent policy as a tool for national development strategies and is likely to overtake the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPS agreement. Any deviation from its rules would be subject to some kind of sanction: it would be the final word. |
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A challenge for Asia - the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources (40 kb)
Author:
GRAIN and Kalpavriksh (India) Date:
April 2002
This briefing looks at the implications of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources on Asian farmers. |
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International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources: The Final Stretch (167 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
October 2001
This short briefing provides an easy-to-read analysis of the final steps in the IU negotiations and comes at a crucial time for the protection of the planet's agricultural genetic resources. Several issues in the final stretch of the IU still remain unresolved. The briefing provides details of the unanswered issues important for farmers and food security, and the facts on acceptable and unacceptable solutions. |
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NO PATENTS ON RICE! NO PATENTS ON LIFE!
Author:
Statement from peoples' movements and NGOs across Asia Date:
August 2001
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TRIPS-plus through the back door (182 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 2001
GRAIN has done a sample survey of bilateral agreements between developed and developing countries in five areas to see how TRIPS-plus standards are being pushed on developing countries with respect to biodiversity… |
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The IU - Hanging on its Last Brackets
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 2001
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IPR AGENTS TRY TO DERAIL OAU PROCESS (44 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
June 2001
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Intellectual Property Rights: Ultimate control of agricultural R&D in Asia (199 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek, Biothai (Thailand), GRAIN, KMP (Philippines), MASIPAG (Philippines), PAN Indonesia, Philippine Greens and UBINIG (Bangladesh), Dr Romeo Quijano and Dr Oscar B. Zamora Date:
March 2001
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Grains of delusion: Golden rice seen from the ground (79 kb)
Author:
Biothai (Thailand), CEDAC (Cambodia), DRCSC (India), GRAIN, MASIPAG (Philippines), PAN-Indonesia and UBINIG (Bangladesh) Date:
February 2001
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ISAAA in Asia: Promoting corporate profits in the name of the poor (87 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek, Biothai (Thailand), GRAIN, KMP (Philippines), MASIPAG (Philippines), PAN Indonesia, Philippine Greens and UBINIG (Bangladesh), Dr Romeo Quijano and Dr Oscar B. Zamora Date:
October 2000
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Andean community adopts new IPR law (24 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
October 2000
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Blast, biotech and big business: Implications of corporate strategies on rice research in Asia (68 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek, Biothai (Thailand), GRAIN, KMP (Philippines), MASIPAG (Philippines), PAN Indonesia, Philippine Greens and UBINIG (Bangladesh), Dr Romeo Quijano and Dr Oscar B. Zamora Date:
August 2000
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The Long March for Biodiversity. Mobile campaign on the threat of GMOs and the promise of peoples' alternatives for food security and agricultural biodiversity in Asia (6-16 September 2000)
Author:
Biothai, GRAIN Date:
August 2000
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Of patents & pi®ates
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 2000
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BB rice: IRRI's first transgenic field test (651 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek, Biothai (Thailand), GRAIN, KMP (Philippines), MASIPAG (Philippines), PAN Indonesia, Philippine Greens and UBINIG (Bangladesh), Dr Romeo Quijano and Dr Oscar B. Zamora Date:
May 2000
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Privatising the Means for Survival: The commercialisation of Africa's biodiversity (767 kb)
Author:
Rachel Wynberg, Biowatch, South Africa with contributions from GAIA/GRAIN Date:
May 2000
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Biodiversity for Sale: Dismantling the hype about benefit sharing ( 1.0 MB)
Author:
GAIA/GRAIN Date:
April 2000
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Against the grain
Author:
GRAIN Date:
March 2000
Date: March 2000
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Hybrid rice in Asia: An unfolding threat (93 kb)
Author:
Devlin Kuyek, Biothai (Thailand), GRAIN, KMP (Philippines), MASIPAG and Dr Oscar B. Zamora(Philippines), PAN Indonesia, Philippine Greens and UBINIG (Bangladesh), Dr Romeo Quijano Date:
March 2000
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For a full review of TRIPS 27.3(b) (107 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
March 2000
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Engineering solutions to malnutrition (177 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 2000
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Plant variety protection to feed Africa? Rhetoric versus reality (96 kb)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
October 1999
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Patenting life? A primer on the TRIPs review (373 kb)
Date:
September 1999
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Whose agenda? The corporate takeover of corn in SE Asia
Author:
Biothai, GRAIN, MASIPAG and PAN Indonesia Date:
August 1999
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Beyond UPOV
Author:
GRAIN Date:
July 1999
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TRIPS versus biodiversity: What to do with the 1999 review of Article 27.3(b)
Author:
GRAIN Date:
May 1999
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Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity: The Economic Myths
Author:
GAIA/GRAIN Date:
October 1998
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Biopiracy, TRIPS and the Patenting of Asia's Rice Bowl
Author:
Assisi Foundation, Biothai, CEC, GRAIN, Greens Philippines, Hayuma, MAPISAN, MASIPAG, PAN Indonesia, PDG, SIBAT, TREE, Dr Romy Quijano (University of the Philippines) and Dr Oscar Zamora (University of the Philippines). Date:
May 1998
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The European Patent Directive: License to Plunder
Author:
GRAIN Date:
May 1998
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Ten reasons not to join UPOV
Author:
GAIA/GRAIN Date:
May 1998
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TRIPs versus CBD
Author:
GAIA/GRAIN Date:
April 1998
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SIGNPOSTS To Sui Generis Rights
Author:
Biothai, GRAIN Date:
March 1998
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THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF THE SUI GENERIS RIGHTS DEBATE
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 2 - EMERGING NATIONAL RESPONSES
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 3 - STRATEGY IDEAS FOR THE 1999 TRIPS REVIEW & BEYOND
Author:
GRAIN Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 4 - The TRIPS Agreement and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varieties
Author:
Dan Leskien & Michael Flitner Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 5 - TRIPS AND THE PROTECTION OF COMMUNITY RIGHTS
Author:
Carlos M. Correa Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 6 - SUI GENERIS OPTIONS: THE WAY FORWARD
Author:
Gurdial Singh Nijar Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 7 - SUI GENERIS RIGHTS: A BALANCE MISPLACED
Author:
Dr Owain Williams Date:
February 1998
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SIGNPOSTS TO SUI GENERIS RIGHTS 8 - SUI GENERIS RIGHTS: HISTORY OF A STRUGGLE
Author:
Professor Dr. Yos Santasombat Date:
February 1998
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Investing in Destruction - The World Bank and Biodiversity
Author:
GRAIN Date:
November 1996
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GEF - An Unsuitable Vehicle for Biodiversity Conservation
Author:
GRAIN Date:
November 1996
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The Global Plan of Action
Author:
GRAIN Date:
May 1996
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Towards a Biodiversity Community Rights Regime
Author:
GRAIN Date:
December 1995
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International Transfer of GMOs - The Need for a Biosafety Protocol
Author:
CEAT Clearinghouse on Biotechnology, European Coordination Friends of the Earth and GRAIN Date:
July 1994
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