BC The Organic Way by Marya Skrypiczajko
December 2004
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During the US occupation of Iraq, administrator Paul Bremer decreed 100 orders pertaining to Iraq’s economic, political and social future. These orders are now in place until revised or repealed by a new Iraqi regime. Since the new Iraqi government is tied to the US government, it is not expected to be revising Bremer’s orders any time soon.
Order 81 is a new patent law that includes a chapter on plant variety protection. The gist of this chapter is that Iraqi farmers are now only allowed to plant “protected” crop varieties defined as new, distinct, uniform and stable. The heritage seeds Iraqi farmers have been saving since the time of Babylon do not meet these criteria; those that do are products of multi-national seed companies and include transgenic seeds. In addition, this order gives plant breeders that claim to have discovered the new varieties the exclusive rights to all production and sales of the “protected” varieties in seed and harvested plant form.
This monopoly will last 20 years for crop varieties and 25 for trees and vines. Basically, it gives the large biotech companies control over Iraq’s seed trade and thus, a significant part of their agricultural system. Furthermore, it forces Iraqi farmers to become dependant on these companies. These amendments are not at all in line with Iraq’s previous patent law, which prohibited private ownership of biological resources.
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In Iraq, all this is being touted as “agricultural reconstruction.” The officials who enacted this law claim it is to ensure Iraq has a steady supply of good quality seeds and to make it easier for it to become a member of the WTO. They then tie this in to their goal of claiming to help better feed the citizens of Iraq.
Hmmm. Iraqi farmers previously used seeds they had specifically designed for their growing conditions. North American and European members of the WTO do not have to abide by similar restrictions on seed use. Hunger has so far not been solved in any other under-privileged country by corporate control of that country’s seed market. It seems clear that this is actually about the control and commercialization of Iraq’s agriculture system, not about helping the Iraqi people.
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These decrees can be found at http://www.cpa-iraq.org/regulations/#Regulations
It becomes obvious to anyone reading the Bremer Decrees that the “model country” that the president bush plans to create in Iraq is going to be based on the failed “neo-liberal” policies that have already ruined several countries. To be blunt, the president bush has sold out Iraq from under the Iraqis to his corporate allies. I believe there is something in the Geneva Conventions about this. Oh. That’s right. I forgot. Mr Gonzalez, our new Attorney General says they’re outmoded and “quaint”.
This particular decree makes the farmers of Iraq nothing more than indentured servants to the bio-tech corporations, and is just a small example of what the president bush envisions for Iraq. Its economy has already been sold out. These decrees have the effect of reducing Iraq to nothing more than a fiefdom of the US.
It remains to be seen how independent the new government of Iraq is going to be, or rather, allowed to be. If these decrees are left in place, and the US maintains its military presence in Iraq, as the administration says it is (and the permanent military bases we’re building says we are), there is not going to be much “independence” or “sovereignty” for the Iraqi people.
Meanwhile, the administration trots out the recent election, and new schools, and happy smiling Iraqis, and points to this as justification for its obscene invasion. The US has killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi people. Look at your family tonight, and picture them with their heads blown off, and their guts spilling out on the ground. That’s what the president bush has done.
The US has poisoned the ground, the buildings, the Iraqi people, and even our own military, with the hundreds of tons of depleted (DU) munitions. That’s going to last thousands of years. The Iraqis are still suffering from the effects of these munitions used in the first Iraq war when considerably less was used. Now those consequences can be multiplied a thousand-fold. And, the president bush has still been unable to articulate a coherent reason for any of this.
As of now, 1,499 US military personnel have been killed in this obscene farce. The president bush has not attended a single funeral, nor has he allowed any photographs of the coffins of our brave young men and women as they return to the US as the ultimate “Army of One”. The president bush sent them from their homes, for whatever twisted reason, in our name. He should, at the least, have the decency to acknowledge, and honor, their return. And we should demand that he does so.
The mainstream media are also complicit in the administration’s crimes. These are the things that should be the headlines, the front page stories, daily. By shuffling the Iraq war to the back pages, unless, of course, some outrage or another occurs, they allow the president bush to evade the responsibility and accounting for his crimes.
And where is Congress in all this? Do they pay attention? Or are they too busy picking up the envelopes for their “campaign fund” ? This failure to hold the administration accountable shows how corrupt and cowardly the US Congress has become. Older readers may remember a time when the Congress stood up to presidents, and refused to be enfeebled through fear and craven appeals to partisanship.
I don’t know what it’s going to take to turn this country around from the direction it’s heading. And where it’s heading is catastrophe. Do we really think the rest of the world doesn’t notice? Maybe catastrophe is where we’ll have to end before the American people wake up and say “Stop. That’s enough. We want our country back”.
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