Corporate Biopiracy and the Terminator Seed

Biopiracy and World Food Security

“There is a growning worldwide movement in Europe, Asia and Africa to ban terminator seed.”

The term applied by most of the world to corporate “value capture” in agriculture is biopiracy.  Civilized humanity views it as a mostly American attempt to hijack the biodiversity of the Earth itself and privatize the labor of countless generations of farmers.  In India and elsewhere resistance to the depredations of transnational biopirates who are squeezing local agriculture have grown to the dimensions of mass movements, able to put hundreds of thousands of people in the streets on short notice in postures of active resistance.  There is a growing worldwide movement in Europe, Asia and Africa to ban terminator seed and other corporate transgenic crop technologies.

National governments throughout the developing world view genetically modified crops and the terminator seed as dire threats to their food security.  Many frame this situation as nothing less than the latest incarnation of colonialism.  As India’s Dr. Vandana Shiva, the author of Stolen Harvest and Biopiracy: The Theft of Nature and Knowledge put it, medieval pirates like Columbus had letters of patent entitling all the lands, goods and people they encountered who were not already ruled by white Christian princes.  Modern patents which turn the genetic heritage of the planet into corporate private so-called “intellectual property” are equally illegitimate.

But these are news and views the corporate American media diligently protect us from.  Thanks to the American media bubble, the nation whose people consume the most genetically modified food know less about genetic engineering of the food chain than anybody else on Earth.  When Oprah Winfrey swore off hamburger on a TV show she was promptly hauled into court for “libeling” Texas beef.  One can only imagine what the fate might be of public figures in this country rash enough to call attention to and support a worldwide ban on genetically modified foods and terminator technology.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *