Percy's Future is Our Future

DR. VANDANA SHIVA / The Council of Canadians 19jan04

[More on Percy Schmeiser]

On January 20th, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments in the “David and Goliath” battle between Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, and biotechnology giant, Monsanto Canada.

The Supreme Court of Canada will be the first high court of any nation to consider the question of patent infringement on a living being, in this case a seed. Not only will that decision have a considerable influence on the policy debate in Canada, but it is likely to also influence lawmakers around the world who are grappling with this issue.

The implications of this case go far beyond just the fate of one Prairie farmer. Farmers everywhere, particularly those in India and in the rest of the Global South, are keeping a watchful eye on what will be a defining moment in agricultural policy around the world.

This case has far-reaching implications for farmers’ rights to use traditional farming methods. These include the age-old agricultural practice of saving seeds. If other jurisdictions were to follow the approach adopted by Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal in this case, the result would undermine the tradition of seed saving of hundreds of millions of farmers whose livelihood depend on this practice.

In Sanskrit, Bija, the seed, means the source of life. Seed is the first link in the food chain. In India, saving seed is our duty, and sharing seed is our culture.

Patents on seeds and genetic resources rob us of our livelihood by making seed saving and seed sharing “intellectual property crimes.” This is an assault on our culture, our human rights, and on our very survival.

Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life. When seed-saving is prevented by patents, poor peasants must buy new seeds for every planting season. Thus, a free resource that is grown on the farm becomes a commodity that farmers are forced to buy year after year.

This increases poverty and leads to indebtedness. As debts increase and become unpayable, farmers are compelled to sell their kidneys or even commit suicide in desperation. In 1997, globalization pressures allowed multinational seed corporations to seize control of the seed supply in India. More than 25,000 peasants have taken their lives since then.

The shift from farm grown-and-saved seed to a corporate seed monopoly is a dangerous shift from biodiversity to agricultural monoculture.

Monoculture and uniformity increase the risks of crop failure. Diverse seeds are adapted to diverse ecosystems. When they are replaced by the rushed introduction of unadapted and often untested seeds into the market, failure follows.

In the district of Warangal, the corporate seed monopoly has created a cotton crop monoculture, erasing millions of years of evolution and seed-breeding by farmers. When Monsanto first introduced genetically engineered cotton in India in 2002, farmers lost CDN$ 28 Million due to crop failure. Instead of producing 1,500 kilograms per acre as promised by the company, many farmers’ harvests were as low as 200 kilograms per acre.

In the state of Bihar, when saved corn seed was displaced by Monsanto’s hybrid corn, the entire crop failed. This created CDN$ 114 Million in losses and hence increased poverty for desperately poor farmers.

Poor peasants of the South cannot survive seed monopolies. That is why the case of Percy Schmeiser will decide the fate not just of one Canadian farmer but billions of peasants. The unjust and unethical case brought by Monsanto against Percy is a double crime against farmers. Firstly by creating and enforcing illegitimate patent rights to seed, it robs us of our human right and human duty to be seed savers. Secondly, it rewards the polluter with enhanced property rights and profits. The principle of “pollute pays” has been transformed into “polluter gets paid.”.

This perverse jurisprudence must be corrected for the sake of all farmers, and all species. Farmers’ freedoms must come before corporate monopolies. Farmers’ survival must come before corporate greed. Percy’s future is our future. Percy’s seed freedom is our freedom. Percy’s rights as a farmer are symbolic of the human rights of all farmers.

Vandana Shiva, physicist, feminist, philosopher of science, writer and science policy advocate, is the Director of The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. She serves as an ecology advisor to several organizations including the Third World Network and the Asia Pacific People's Environment Network.

source: http://www.canadians.org/news_updates.htm?COC_token=23@@600357c633c9b421ce2b2a6bf59dfb8e&step=2&id=179 20jan04