Guatemala Resists 'Monsanto Law' Required As Part Of Trade Agreement With US

[Judi Lynn]

Guatemala Resists 'Monsanto Law' Required As Part Of Trade Agreement With US
from the saving-seed-sovereignty dept
by Glyn Moody
Wed, Sep 3rd 2014 1:12am

One of the less well-known projects of the West is to convince developing countries that they need to convert traditional approaches to agriculture, which have functioned well for hundreds of years, into a system of intellectual monopolies for seeds -- the implicit and patronizing message being that this is the "modern" way to do things. Last year we wrote about how this was happening in Africa, and an article on bilaterals.org reports on similar moves in Guatemala:

On 10 June, the Congress of Guatemala approved Decree 19-2014 or the "Law for the Protection of New Plant Varieties" which led to an outpouring of criticism from various sectors of civil society.

This law, published on 26 June, protects the intellectual property of plant breeders deemed to have "created" or "discovered" new plant varieties, or genetically modified existing ones.

This way, the beneficiaries of the law -- "breeders", which are typically companies producing transgenic seeds like the transnational corporation Monsanto -- obtain property rights over the use of such varieties, in the form of plants or seeds.

More:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140902/10101628394/guatemala-resists-monsanto-law-required-as-part-trade-agreement-with-us.shtml