Biopatenting: threat to food security

CIDSE PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 10 February 2000

Patenting of life is essentially about controlling the global food system. CIDSE offers report on food security and biopatenting to the senior European Commission officials responsible for TRIPs and Food Security.

"Every 3,6 seconds someone dies of hunger and three quarters of these are children under the age of five. Yet the scandal remains that there is plenty of food in the world for everyone to have a decent diet. Millions of people in the Third World fear escalating poverty as a few major life science corporations increasingly gain control of crops essential for their survival."

This warning comes today in a report, Biopatenting and the Threat to Food Security - A Christian and Development Perspective, published by International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE), the international Catholic development network.

CIDSE denounces the extension of the patent system to living organisms. Its research shows that patents on genetically modified crops enables major life science corporations to exploit crops at the expense of poor farmers and their families. These companies' investments in research and development, and their growing control over marketing and distribution leads to a few, commercial, actors dominating the food chain. Small farmers and local cooperatives are expected to compete on a very uneven playing field. Some have termed it a "killing field".

Two months after the collapse of the World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle, two weeks after the conclusion of the Biosafety Protocol in Montreal and two days before the opening session of UNCTAD X in Bangkok, the report urges the international community to review the multilateral trade rules in order to ban patenting of life forms. A large number of Third World nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America have strongly advocated such a stance. Opposition has come from, amongst others, the European Commission and EU Member States.

CIDSE is presenting a first copy of this report to two key European Commission officials: Mr Paul Vandoren, Head of the TRIPS Unit of DG Trade and Mr Uwe Werblow, Head of the Food Security Unit of DG Development. Copies will also be circulated to EU member states' governments and members of the European Parliament.

Key policy recommendations include (see also below):

* patenting of all forms of life should be banned * the Convention on Biological Diversity should take precedence over TRIPS * the WTO decision process must become equitable and transparent

Jef Felix, CIDSE's Secretary General, said: "The EU is currently supporting global trade rules on patents that permit huge life science companies to gain control over the earth's genetic resources. These rules result in the marginalisation and impoverishment of poor farmers and communities in the developing world. This contradicts and undermines the EU's own development policy which is aimed at the eradication of poverty and the promotion of food security. We can no longer tolerate such blatant examples of EU policy incoherence! Europe must ensure that international development commitments, made at various UN conferences over the past decade, including those dealing with food security and the protection of biodiversity, take precedence over commercial interests."

Complimentary press copies of Biopatenting and the Threat to Food Security - A Christian and Development Perspective are available free from CIDSE, rue Stévin 16, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium. The full text will be available on the CIDSE website by 15 February (
http://www.cidse.be
) . An annex summarising key proposals is attached below

CONTACT:

Bob van Dillen CIDSE Tel: (32-2) 233 37 51 Fax: (32-2) 230 70 82 Email: vandillen(at)cidse.be

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ANNEX - A SUMMARY OF CIDSE'S KEY PROPOSALS:

CIDSE (International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity) is a network of 15 Catholic non-governmental development organisations from Europe and North America. CIDSE's work is a practical expression of the social mission of the Catholic Church, and its preferential "option for the poor".

On the basis of ethical, development and gender concerns, CIDSE has developed a set of policy recommendations:

1. The provisions of TRIPs Article 27.3(b) should be rewritten to exclude all life forms from patenting and remove the requirement for plant variety protection. In the interim there should be a moratorium on the article's implementation.

Living organisms are essentially different from industrial products. The current process of commodification of the global public good, which has accompanied the drive for patents on biological resources, has turned commerce into an idol, instead of it being one factor among many. Food is not just another commodity, it is life. CIDSE thus fully supports the position of the African countries, presented by Kenya in August 1999. Other developing countries have added that they need more time to implement the TRIPs provisions.

2. The provisions of the CBD need to take precedence over TRIPs Article 27.3(b).

Genetic diversity in agriculture enables farmers in both developed and developing countries of the North and South to select varieties of plants and breeds of animals best adapted to changing climates and socio-economic pressures. Access to this diversity is vital for securing current and future agricultural production and food security. Yet each so-called improvement in farm crops tends to reduce biodiversity and marginalise the very crops the poor depend on but are regarded as unprofitable.CIDSE believes that humans have a duty to preserve creation and with this the wealth of biological diversity and resources that we are only beginning to understand and value. Though human intelligence has enabled us to modify creation, exercising our technical and rational capabilities becomes only ethical when it is done in a way that respects creation. This is what we call stewardship. Where there is some overlap and ambiguity, in our opinion the CBD should take precedence over TRIPs in order to protect farmers' rights and to promote food security in developing countries.

3. Traditional knowledge needs protection.

CIDSE emphasises that the patent system monopolises knowledge. Community-based and traditional knowledge embodied in farmers' varieties forms the basis of scientific plant breeding. The patent system does not compensate indigenous peoples for their accumulated knowledge and expertise. CIDSE denounces the present tendency to patent products based on traditional knowledge as this curtails the rights of indigenous peoples to trade the product to countries where the patent was granted.

4. Small scale agriculture needs to be promoted, in line with internationally agreed development targets.

Farming communities in the South depend on traditional varieties (landraces) which have a mix of genetic characteristics and ensure at least some yield even in difficult climatic circumstances. The commercialisation of farming leads to landraces being pushed out of the market, to farmers becoming dependent on uniform commercial varieties, and undermines small-scale mixed subsistence and local market-based production systems. This process is further reinforced by credit organisations' refusal to invest in "old technologies. This is a huge threat to small-scale agriculture with multiple roles as it could reduce the food security of millions of poor people dramatically.

5. The WTO negotiation process must become equitable and fully transparent. All stakeholders, especially women and the rural poor whose livelihoods are at stake, must be represented.

The impact of policies on the poor is crucial to CIDSE, and we therefore emphasise the need to ensure that all actors (including the poor) are full actors, participating in decisions on issues which affect their lives. They are denied this by poverty, hunger, disease, and lack of education which afflict so many millions in the South.

However, at present, there is a fundamental inequity in the formulation and revision of trade rules. The poorest and the highly indebted countries in the South account for only a tiny fraction of world trade, and find it hard to engage in multiple negotiations on debt, trade and other matters. Aid and loan conditionality can require changes in trade and market liberalisation policies. Aside from an unequal power relationship in negotiations, lack of resources also prevents these countries' full engagement in trade negotiations. Some do not have representation in Geneva, and may have to rely on aid money to attend meetings.

In Seattle, many NGOs again drew attention to the lack of transparency and the behind closed doors mentality which allows a few powerful actors to dominate the decision making process. Important stakeholders, such as poor farmers - the majority being women - are systematically excluded from trade talks, while TNCs have little difficulty in gaining access to trade negotiators.

6. Special and differential treatment should be extended in TRIPs.

GATT recognised that countries with very different economic circumstances and conditions should be treated differently - what it called the Principle of Special and Differential Treatment. Such a principle is not applied in TRIPs, except through providing a staggered timetable for implementation and offering some technical assistance to comply with the requirements. This should be further developed and extended.

7. Strong anti-trust codes are to be introduced in the WTO.

It is important to note that patents can have anti-competitive effects by strengthening the dominant position of the market leaders and thus limiting the entry of new competitors. If the dominant actor controls a pool of patents in a particular field, the pace of invention will slow down. CIDSE believes that granting a patent is unethical if the protection given to a small minority causes the majority to be denied the achievement of their full human development, especially when this applies to securing food and a basic livelihood.

At the moment, TNCs have the means to set prices, apply for patents anywhere they want (the costs of which are too high for small farmers), fight legal battles using teams of lawyers and steer privately funded R&D (research and development) in their commercially oriented direction. CIDSE endorses the call for rigorous anti-trust laws to prevent this small minority of firms from engaging in anti-competitive behaviour. Such a call has been put forward by the World Bank and others.