Commodification and Privatization of the Planet

[nosmokes]

original-deutschewelle

Opinion:Dr. Vandana Shiva

Commodification and Privatization of the Planet

By protecting seeds und intellectual property laws, the G8 is encouraging the privatization of life, providing monopoly market access to multinational corporations and driving thousands of Indian farmers to suicide.

Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist and author. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights. She also directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy.



The biggest threats posed by globalization are the commodification and privatization of the planet.



The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of WTO at the 1996 Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade marked a key turn in the intellectual property process by privatizing life forms and biodiversity.



TRIPs not only made Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws global geographically, it also removed ethical boundaries by patenting life forms and biodiversity. Living organisms and self-creating life forms, including seeds, were thus redefined as machines and artifacts made and invented by the patentee.



Under intellectual property rights and gave the patent holder a monopolistic right to prevent others from making, using or selling seeds. Seed saving by farmers has now been shifted from a "sacred duty" to a criminal offence of stealing "property." Article 27.3 (b) of the TRIPs agreement, which relates to patents on living resources, was basically pushed by the life science companies to establish themselves as lords of life.
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complete article here

[whistle]

1. The day will come when we will have to subscribe to pay for the very air we breathe

...just like we now pay for electric, water, gas, garbage and sewer services

[Nikki Stone1]

2. This is the goal of globalism.

Every resource on earth to be mediated by corporations

[nam78_two]

3. K &R/nt

[Reterr]

4. k&r.eom

[annabanana]

5. So much of this is just outright theft.

If something does not generate profit, there is no use for it. If something has a use, it MUST generate profit. This is a wasting disease loose on the planet and it's populations.

[silverweb]

6. This is just so incredibly wrong.

A mere handful of self-appointed overlords presume to control and dictate the ownership of life and all its means for the entire Earth. I can't think of any other word for it besides "EVIL."

[southerncrone]

8. EVIL , the opposite mirror image of LIVE

[silverweb]

9. Well put.

And too true.

:(

[blues90]

7. Another crime to humanity created by humans of greed

When will it ever end , have we crossed the line of no return , sometimes I really fear we have and as bad as this is , it is just a small part of the overall damage that's been done .

[Cerridwen]

10. K & R...n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Interesting.

Everybody seems to want the upside of privatization, but only a few are giving the downside any thought at all.

[Louis C. Phurye]

12. Commodification - turning the planet into a toilet.

[Morgana LaFey]

13. It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature -- and she WILL get even

and I'll be applauding.

On another note, there is a direct relationship between the treatment of women on this planet, and the treatment of the planet itself. One isn't likely to improve all that much until the other does -- or, put another way, when one improves so will the other. When the Patriarchy gets it that dominating, controlling, defeating, commoditizing, exploiting either the planet or women is WRONG or at least something they don't want to continue to do (for whatever reason including self-preservation), it will also occur to them (or happen naturally) that the same kind of domination of the other Other is wrong (or inappropriate or self-destructive) too.