Food Sovereignty Ghana strongly opposes the UPOV 91 compliant Plant
Breeders' Bill, currently before Ghana's Parliament! The bill is a
danger to the way we farm and to Ghana's rich variety of seeds. It is a
danger to how we develop our own varieties of seeds, and how we farm in
Ghana. It is a give-away to foreign agribusiness corporations, which is
why UPOV 91 has been nicknamed the Monsanto law in some countries.
UPOV
91 is a legal convention, International Convention for the Protection of
New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) that protects plant breeders when they
create new varieties of plants. It does not protect the plants, it
protects IPR, Intellectual Property Rights for the breeders.
International agribusiness corporations want countries to pass UPOV 91
compliant laws because it means huge profits for those companies.
The
UPOV 91 compliant Plant Breeders Bill in Ghana is designed to create and
serve the interests of an industrial-style, monoculture-based farming
system. It is a corporate farming system that is heavily tilted in
favour of the commercial seed industry. In Ghana and Africa that means
the foreign seed industry. The bill advantages foreign corporations over
Ghanaian farmers presently working their own small farms in Ghana. The
bill is an action against the interests of smallholder farmers. The bill
is aimed at replacing local seed varieties with uniform commercial
varieties that are most likely to be imported. It will increase the
dependency of smallholder farmers on commercial seed varieties, possibly
excluding all other varieties. Contracts permitted under this bill will
force farmers to buy new seeds every year. These purchases will come
from a limited range of foreign seeds. The effect will be the erosion of
Ghana's crop diversity, we may lose most of the varieties of foods we
like and plant, varieties that grow well in Ghana. The limited variety
of mostly foreign seeds that we can purchase will make our crops far
more vulnerable to threats such as new plagues of insect pests, super
weeds, plant diseases, and climate change.
The corporate seed industry
seeds, often laboratory created genetically engineered GMOs, must be
purchased new each planting season. Under the UPOV 91 Plant Breeders
Bill farmers may have to pay royalty fees to the corporations if they
save and replant their own seeds. Farmers may also have to pay royalty
fees to the foreign corporations if they give or sell seeds to
neighbouring farmers or sell them in local markets. Ghanaian farmers
have always saved seeds to plant the next season. This is the business
of farming. Should this practice be reduced or ended by law? In
Colombia, tons of seeds of hard working farmers have been confiscated by
their government and destroyed. Is that what we want to happen in
Ghana?
The entire point of genetic modification, GMOs is to control the
seed supply in individual countries and around the globe through IPRs
(Intellectual Property Rights). UPOV Plant Breeder laws, in compliance
with UPOV 91, are the legal tool designed to use IPR to control the seed
supply. UPOV laws grant those IPRs, Intellectual Property Rights, that
grant corporations rights to seeds. There are no GMO laboratory created
crops that are more productive, more resistant to climate change or
pests, than seeds produced by conventional breeding techniques and
generations of local research. GMO pest resistance to insects and weeds
comes entirely from toxic chemicals engineered into the plants or
applied in massive doses to the plants. Industry representatives
frequently lie and say GMO crops are safe and more productive, but in
country after country this is shown to be a lie.
President Mahama
supports the current Bill before Ghana's Parliament called the Plant
Breeders Bill, or UPOV, which is scheduled for a Second Reading soon.
The Bill is designed to make Ghana a "UPOV 91 compliant state". So far
both the NDC and the NPP Members of Parliament support the bill.
Ghana's MPs probably don't know much about the effect of these laws.
They have been flattered and courted by the US Embassy, Monsanto,
Syngenta etc., the GMO advocates at FARA, the G8 representatives, and
more, and told over and over that UPOV 91 will bring investment and
profit to Ghana. It will bring investment that will coopt Ghana's
farmland and drive rural populations off the land and into the cities.
All the profit will go out of Ghana and into the foreign corporations,
just as in 19th century colonialism. A very few of Ghana's elite may
profit as well, but the country will see loss rather than gain. If
foreign corporations control our seed supply they control our food. If
they control our food they control our sovereignty. They will control
our ability to govern our own food supply, our ability to grow our own
food and eat it if, when, and what we want. We will have new colonial
masters.
UPOV 91 facilitates the theft of the genetic inheritance of
the Ghanaian people which for centuries we have developed freely with
seeds grown and traded collectively as part of our farming culture. The
UPOV law facilitates biopiracy as it does not provide for mechanisms of
prior informed consent and access and benefit sharing. In the absence of
these elements, the bill sets up a framework for breeders, most of which
are likely to be foreign entities, to use local germplasm, the living
DNA of Ghana's seeds, to develop new varieties without credit,
attribution, or remuneration to those who painstakingly developed these
seeds. The "new variety" becomes exclusive corporate property under the
UPOV 91 law.
This is not the end of it. At the regional level, the
Africa Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) is in the
process of adopting similar, but worse, legislation. The draft legal
framework under consideration is not only based on UPOV law, it also
creates a centralised regime whereby all decisions concerning protected
varieties will be taken at the regional level, superseding national
legislation. This is another major attack on Ghanaian sovereignty, and
the sovereignty of African nations. Ghana's own laws can be set aside by
this foreign external organization. This completely undermines Ghana's
sovereignty to regulate seeds according to national needs and
interests.
Both the bill and the ARIPO draft legal framework for plant
variety protection are against the interests of Ghanaian farmers and
consumers.
We are making an urgent appeal to alert all Ghanaians of
goodwill, to take note, that in view of these challenges, we humbly
propose:
Halt the Plant Breeders Bill currently going for a second
reading before our Parliament and stop Ghana from joining UPOV;
We need
to engage with everyone, especially the Alliance for Food Sovereignty In
Africa, AFSA, on a strategy to deal with the ARIPO PVP harmonised
regulations based on UPOV 1991; and
We must campaign to block any
attempts to ratify them in our domestic law. Freely using, exchanging
and selling seeds and propagating material is the business of farming,
Farmers should not be required to pay royalties to foreign corporations
to do their normal business and enjoy their agricultural inheritance.
Should Ghanaian farmers face the possibility of having their seeds
seized and destroyed, and suffer lawsuits from giant foreign
corporations?
If the UPOV 91 Plant Breeder Bill is passed the Ghanaian
diet and health will suffer. Farmers will be forced into debt buying
seeds each year and forced out of business. There will be far less
variety of foods. The health effects of toxic chemicals, GMO alien
proteins, and a far more limited diet will play out over generations.
Is this what Ghanaians want? Say NO to UPOV laws! Say no to GMOs!
Farmers must be able to freely use, exchange and sell seeds and grow
traditional Ghanaian foods and crops! Contact your District Council!
Ask
them to tell your MP:
No to UPOV 91 !
No to the current Plant Breeders
Bill!
No to GMOs!
The phone numbers are
here:
http://www.ghanadistricts.com/districts/?dcontacts [1]
For Food
Sovereignty Ghana, and,
For Life, the Environment, and Social Justice!
Ali-Masmadi Jehu-Appiah,
Chairperson, FSG
Website:
http://foodsovereigntyghana.org/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/FoodSovereignGH
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FoodSovereigntyGhana