(Editor’s Note: Monster readers know that I have been inside the labyrinth for a little over two months now.  The size and scope of the web that surrounds us grows each day that I read reports from the World Bank, IMF, FAO, Treasury Department, State Department, etc., and dig through legislation that is decades old.  I have come to the conclusion that breaking it down into smaller pieces may allow readers to grasp more without becoming totally overwhelmed.  American Patriots are going to take the Congress and White House back from the globalists, but what then?  We need to educate ourselves on how wide the web reaches, and to do that, you need to be looking at the scope on an international level, and at the United Nations.  The battle starts with our own Federal Reserve and branches out from there.  Abolishing the Federal Reserve cuts the head off the beast that is draining our wealth and enriching America’s true enemies.)

This is a very important French documentary about Monsanto that I urge you to watch in it’s entirety as you will be getting base knowledge for upcoming posts on Monsanto, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  The documentary is from 3.11.2008 and has a run-time of not quite 2 hours.  Please keep in mind that in 2004, Iraq Patent Law made it illegal for farmers to save seeds, yet in 2005, the FAO stated that the country’s seed industry had collapsed and it wasn’t able to meet farmers’ needs. Why does Iraq matter?  The massive transnational agriculture corporations are moving on these two countries and only GMOs are being supplied for crops as they are ‘high-quality’ and ‘high yield’.  Yet, the farmers aren’t allowed to retain seed; buying new each year, and there is emerging evidence that the GMOs are harmful to the environment and humans.  The corporations already control you through debt; now they get to control the food supply.  Add Codex Alimentarius and Agenda 21; our gooses are cooked…

I have never seen a situation where one company could have such overwhelming influence at the highest levels of regulatory decision making as the example of Monsanto with it’s GM food policy and the government.  – Jeremy Rivkin, Pres. of the Foundation For Economic Trends

The World According To Monsanto:

IRAQI FARMERS FARM-SAVED SEED AND FREE INNOVATION TRADITION
NOW RULED ILLEGAL UNDER NEW CORPORATE FRIENDLY PATENTING LAW

FOCUS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND GRAIN, COALITION AGAINST BAYER, CBG NETWORK:
For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This has been made illegal under the new law.

The seeds farmers are now allowed to plant — “protected” crop varieties brought into Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction — will be the property of the corporations. While historically the Iraqi constitution prohibited private ownership of biological resources, the new U.S.-imposed patent law introduces a system of monopoly rights over seeds.

Inserted into Iraq’s previous patent law is a whole new chapter on Plant Variety Protection (PVP) that provides for the “protection of new varieties of plants.” PVP is an intellectual property right (IPR) or a kind of patent for plant varieties which gives an exclusive monopoly right on planting material to a plant breeder who claims to have discovered or developed a new variety.

So the “protection” in PVP has nothing to do with conservation, but refers to safeguarding of the commercial interests of private breeders (usually large corporations) claiming to have created the new plants.

To qualify for PVP, plant varieties must comply with the standards of the UPOV Convention, which requires them be new, distinct, uniform and stable. Farmers’ seeds cannot meet these criteria, making PVP-protected seeds the exclusive domain of corporations. The rights granted to plant breeders in this scheme include the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, sell, export, import and store the protected varieties.

These rights extend to harvested material, including whole plants and parts of plants obtained from the use of a protected variety. This kind of PVP system is often the first step towards allowing the full-fledged patenting of life forms. Indeed, in this case the rest of the law does not rule out
the patenting of plants or animals.

The term of the monopoly is 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. During this time the protected variety de facto becomes the property of the breeder, and nobody can plant or otherwise use this variety without compensating the breeder.

This new law means that Iraqi farmers can neither freely legally plant nor save for re-planting seeds of any plant variety registered under the plant variety provisions of the new patent law. This deprives farmers what they and many others worldwide claim as their inherent right to save and replant seeds.

The new law is presented as being necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate Iraq’s accession to the WTO. What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical — the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe.

Eliminating competition from farmers is a prerequisite for these companies to open up operations in Iraq, which the new law has achieved. Taking over the first step in the food chain is their next move.

The new patent law also explicitly promotes the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) seeds in Iraq. Despite serious resistance from farmers and consumers around the world, these same companies are pushing GM crops on farmers around the world for their own profit. Contrary to what the industry is asserting, GM seeds do not reduce the use of pesticides, but they pose a threat to the environment and to people’s health while they increase farmers dependency on agribusiness.

FAO Newsroom:

Rebuilding Iraq’s collapsed seed industry

8 August 2005, Rome – Iraq’s seed industry has collapsed and the country is currently not able to meet farmers’ needs for improved crop varieties, FAO warned today. The lack of high-quality seeds could seriously threaten Iraq’s food security situation, the UN agency said.

High-quality seed is one of the most critical inputs for sustainable agricultural production. FAO has launched an appeal for a $5.4 million project to rebuild the national seed industry.

Iraq had a relatively stable and functioning public-sector controlled seed industry before the war in 2003. After the war, research and seed production facilities have greatly deteriorated.

Agricultural research centres were devastated and most of the equipment and machinery, including seed processing facilities and seed stocks, were looted or damaged. This has resulted in the loss of almost all generations of seeds of all crops. Moreover, much seed expertise was lost during the conflict.

As a result, Iraq can only cover four percent of the national demand for quality seeds from its own resources. Most seeds come from farmers’ own seed reserves, which are of low quality.