Seeds of contention, control or diversity?
Global rules, intellectual property and
the future control of food
Geoff Tansey
This talk discusses briefly the changing global rules on biodiversity, plant genetic resources and intellectual property and their impact on the future control of food.
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Running order:
Introduction: 0 - 1 minute 41 seconds
Part 1. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): 1 min 41 sec - 3 min 45 sec
Part 2. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA): 3 min 45 - 7 min 25 sec
Part 3. Intellectual property and the World Trade Organisation: 7 min 25 sec - 19 min 34 sec
Part 4. The UPOV Convention: 19 min 34 sec - 25 min 14 sec
Part 5. World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO): 25 min 14 sec - 30 min 51 sec
Part 6. Responding to change: 30 min 51 sec - end
(Published 2014)
Further reading
All of the issues discussed in this talk are examined more fully, with many references for further reading, in Geoff Tansey and Tasmin Rajotte, The Future Control of Food - A Guide to International Negotiations and Rules on Intellectual Property, Biodiversity and Food Security, Earthscan, London, 2008 and also available to download in English, Spanish and Chinese - click here for links.
For a comprehensive guide to the TRIPS Agreement see UNCTAD-ICTSD (2005) Resource Book on TRIPS and Development, Cambridge University Press. Also available in full here.
This is the World Bank report referred to in the video: World Bank (1998) Knowledge for Development - World Development Report 1998/99, OUP.
If you want to see the paper that kicked all of this off for me, see Tansey, G. (1999) Trade, Intellectual Property, Food and Biodiversity: Key issues and options for the 1999 review of Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement, QUNO, Discussion Paper, Geneva. This and other papers arising from my work with the Quakers are available here.
You can see Phil Howard's animated graphic on growing concentration in the seed industry and his other work here. For an article providing more detail on earlier versions of these graphics see: Howard, Philip H. 2009. Visualizing Consolidation in the Global Seed Industry: 1996–2008. Sustainability, 1(4), 1266-1287 and his short book Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat, 2016, Bloomsbury, London & New York - see my blog post about it here
Chang, H.-J. (2002), Kicking Away the Ladder – Development Strategy in Historical Perspective, London: Anthem Press.
The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES Food) Report Too Big to Feed, 2017, and
The AGRIFOOD ATLAS- Facts and figures about the corporations that control what we eat, jointly published by Heinrich Böll Foundation, and Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin, Germany and Friends of the Earth Europe, Brussels, Belgium, 2017
Links
Bioversity International - The world's largest international research organization dedicated solely to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity.
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) - The United Nations convention on the promotion, protection, and preservation of global biological diversity.
ETC Group (Erosion, Technology and Concentration Group) - Dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights.
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) - This United Nations organization leads international efforts to defeat hunger. It is host to the secretariat for the The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Food Ethics Council (FEC) - Challenges government, business and society to make wise choices that lead to better food and farming. The FEC produced a report TRIPS with Everything from which the graphic on complex institutions is taken and from which the football pitch graphic is drawn.
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) - An international non-governmental organisation (NGO) which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people's control over genetic resources and local knowledge.
International Seed Federation (ISF) - Represents the mainstream of the world seed trade and plant breeders community, and serves as an international forum where issues of interest to the world seed industry are discussed.
IPRsonline.org - An internet portal on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and Sustainable Development.
IP Watch - A non-profit independent news service, which reports on the interests and behind-the-scenes dynamics that influence the design and implementation of international intellectual property policies.
La Via Campesina - An international movement which coordinates peasant organizations of small and medium sized producers, agricultural workers, rural women, and indigenous communities from Asia, America, and Europe.
Quaker United National Office (QUNO), Geneva - Promotes informed and balanced discussion about what - if any - kind of intellectual property protection on seeds would best foster resilient, equitable and sustainable food systems and innovation policies.
The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) - Serves the Convention which has the objective of the protection of new varieties of plants by an intellectual property right.
The South Centre - Works to assist in developing points of view of the South on major policy issues. It includes a focus on IP negotiations.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations focussed on intellectual property.
World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. You can download the full text of the TRIPS Agreement here
Geoff Tansey works for fair, healthy and sustainable food systems as an independent writer and consultant. He is a member and a trustee of The Food Ethics Council.
His books include The Food System: a guide (with Tony Worsley) and co-editorship of The future control of food - A guide to international negotiations and rules on intellectual property, biodiversity and food security.
In June 2005, he received one of six Joseph Rowntree ‘Visionaries for a Just and Peaceful World’ Awards and, in 2008, he won the Derek Cooper Award for best food campaigner/educator, at the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards.
He has degrees in soil science (Univ of Aberdeen) and history and social studies of science (Sussex Univ). He helped found and edit the journal Food Policy in the mid-1970s, has worked on various agricultural development projects in Turkey, Mongolia, Albania and Kazakstan and travelled widely.
He was honorary visiting professor of food policy at Leeds Metropolitan University from 1996-99, was honorary research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies until 2015 and is now an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University, honorary teaching fellow at the Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University and honorary visiting fellow at the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University.
Dramatic treatment
Listen to This Land a play by Alistair McDowall that deals with some of the issues raised in this talk. It is one of four plays produced in spring 2014 at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester as part of the Hunger for Trade project. Overseen by the Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, Hunger for Trade is an international and inter-cultural performing arts response to the global food crisis, created in collaboration between nine theatres across four continents.
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Follow-up
If you want to arrange for follow-up discussions for a class with Geoff Tansey via the internet – over Skype or some other service - please contact him.
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