With farmers burning Monsanto's test fields of GM cotton and this boycott, the rebellion against the corporate enclosure of genetic material has begun. I urge all Georgists and other right thinking people to participate in any way that they feel is appropriate. Caspar Davis ***** FORWARDED MESSAGE ***** BIO-IPR resource pointer ________________________________________________________ AUTHOR: Nandita Sharma and Allison Campbell, Basmati Action Group TITLE: North American Boycott against Rice Tec called IN: submitted as campaign announcement to BIO-IPR DATE: 29 November 1998 PLACE: Vancouver, Canada NOTE: Please contact the Basmati Action Group for more information, to indicate your support to their campaign or to share ideas on explanding the campaign to other countries. ________________________________________________________ BASMATI ACTION GROUP (BAG) c/o 1957 Kitchener St. Vancouver, B.C. Canada V5L 2W6 Tel. (1-604) 255-4910 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://www.eciad.bc.ca/~lolin/basmati/ NORTH AMERICAN BOYCOTT AGAINST RICE TEC CORPORATION CALLED November 29, 1998 The Basmati Action Group (BAG) has launched a North American boycott against the products of Rice Tec Corporation of Alvin, Texas, USA. Rice Tec claims to have invented the basmati rice they sell under the trade name, "Texmati" (Rice Tec products also include "Jasmati" and "Kasmati" rice). The purpose of the boycott is to heighten awareness of the issue of life-patents, organize public condemnation of this process and demonstrate that the patenting of life will be costly - not profitable - to those that pirate indigenous knowledge and nature's creative capacities. We ask that you support the Basmati Action Group in our boycott of all Rice Tec products. Why support a boycott on Rice Tec? Basmati rice has been grown in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan for centuries. Working with nature's own creative capacities, farmers in this area have, over time, cross bred and cultivated this distinct form of rice known for its fragrant aroma and unique taste. For the farmers of India and Pakistan, basmati rice is a vital subsistence food and source of income. In 1997, the powerful United States Patent and Trademark Office accepted Rice Tec's application to patent basmati rice (patent # 5,663,484). By cross-breeding two basmati rice varieties this corporation insists that it has "invented" a "novel" variety of basmati and has patented it as "basmati 867." The Rice Tec patent covers any basmati variety crossed with a semi-dwarf strain grown anywhere in the western hemisphere. Despite Rice Tec's claims of 'novelty', "basmati 867" has been derived from Indian and Pakistani basmati rice lines rossed with semi-dwarf varieties. The basmati varieties used to "invent" Rice Tec's "basmati 867" are farmers' varieties bred over centuries in South Asia. What Rice Tec has done with its patent is to pirate what until now had been communally shared and claimed it as their own private property. The crux of the issue is not whether the basmati rice variety bred by Rice Tec is "novel" and therefore patentable or not because the facts show that it is not. The real issue is that no one should be able to hold a patent over a life form. By taking out a patent on "basmati 867" Rice Tec is participating in what has been described as "biopiracy." Biopiracy is the theft of indigenous knowledge, the theft of the creative capacities of nature and the false claim by patent holders - mostly corporations - that they created the life form they have pirated. Biopiracy lays the groundwork for the colonization of creation - of life itself - by scientists and, ultimately, the corporations they work for. Life-patents further the power of corporations. Imagine a world where nothing is grown except crops that a corporation has claimed 'invention' of and can profit by. Imagine if nothing is grown without farmers having to go to corporations to buy back seeds stolen from them in the first place. Or a world where nothing can even grow without the permission of corporations (i.e. the "Terminator Technology" that prevents plants from reproducing themselves). This is the world that biopirates, and patents like the one on "basmati 867" are already helping to bring about! We need to fight against this trend. BAG is part of a world-wide movement of people who are protesting the corporate claims of "invention" that patents on life represent. We are not resigned to living in a world where the creative capacities of nature, of women and of communities of people are systematically denied and pirated. BAG calls for an end to patents on life forms that is currently being sanctioned by the World Trade Organization and enshrined in both national and international law. Victories have been won against corporations that have patented life forms! The US National Institutes of Health "disclaimed" its notorious US patent on the human cell line of a Hagahai Indigenous person from Papau New Guinea (patent # 5,397,696) after popular outrage was organized. The Indian government revoked the W.R. Grace Corporation's "species patent" on transgenic cotton. In other words, this boycott against Rice Tec can work! Who is the Basmati Action Group (BAG)? BAG is a grassroots organization that values life in all its diversity. BAG is opposed to the patenting of any life forms, anywhere, by anyone. This means supporting actions that value and procect ecological integrity, indigenous knowledge and lands, women's rights, the autonomy and self-determinacy of people and community-based action. Food forms the natural link between community and life. For this reason, recent developments in world trade and agricultural policy, life-patenting and genetic engineering strike us as attacks on the essence of those things we value most. BAG has been formed to raise awareness about biopiracy, life patents and on-going acts of colonialism - and to work to end these practices. Along with many others, we see biopiracy as the "third wave of colonialism" and an entrenchment of sexist and racist practices. We recognize that women in the South ('Third World Women') continue to bear the brunt of acts of colonialism. For over 500 years, the North (the 'First World') has been enriched by stealing from nature and the people's of the South (the 'Third World'). This is maintained by present global economic and political relations. Most of the world's biodiversity is located in the South and biopiracy is an attempt by corporations to privatize and 'own' what is the common heritage of people in the South. BAG is also working to show that biopiracy is a form of class conflict with corporations trying to eliminate communal property, destroy farmers' control and supplant nature's creative capacities in order to increase their own private profits. How can I support the boycott on Rice Tec? Please circulate this notice within your organization and to your membership. Talk about biopiracy and the Rice Tec boycott whenever possible. Spread the word to your contacts across North America. Support local actions against biopiracy. Ask your local stores to stop carrying Rice Tec products. Boycotting Rice Tec and its products is one action in the movement to resist corporate control over life forms. Raising awareness of biopiracy and developing ways of producing and distributing food that are ecologically sound and socially just is something we can all contribute to in different ways. BAG has also initiated a petition campaign trying to get the Canadian government to refuse Rice Tec's US patent on basmati rice and enacting strong legislation that prevents the patenting of life forms in Canada. This struggle cannot be won without global solidarity - a victory in Canada is impossible without simultaneous victories against the World Trade Organization, NAFTA etc. BAG is working in coalition with people's organizations in both the South and North to revoke Rice Tec's U.S. patent on basmati rice and to stop biopiracy. Please let us know if we can use your name as a supporter of our campaign in our future work. Any suggestions towards strengthening our objectives and resistance is greatly appreciated. For more information, check out our Web Site! http://www.eciad.bc.ca/~lolin/basmati/ or call and ask for Nandita Sharma or Allison Campbell at (1-604) 255-4910. Mailing and e-mail addresses are listed above. In Struggle, Nandita Sharma for the Basmati Action Group --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --- Letter to Stores Carrying Rice Tec Products: November 29, 1998 NORTH AMERICAN BOYCOTT AGAINST RICE TEC CORPORATION CALLED The Basmati Action Group (BAG) has launched a North American boycott against the products of Rice Tec Corporation of Alvin, Texas, USA. Rice Tec claims to have invented the basmati rice they sell under the trade name, "Texmati" (Rice Tec products also include "Jasmati" and "Kasmati" rice). The purpose of the boycott is to heighten awareness of the issue of life-patents, organize public condemnation of this process and demonstrate that the patenting of life will be costly - not profitable - to those that pirate indigenous knowledge and nature's creative capacities. We ask that you support the Basmati Action Group in our boycott of all Rice Tec products. There are three things you can do to support the boycott on Rice Tec. 1) Remove all Rice Tec products from your shelves immediately, and let us know that you have done so. 2) Stop ordering Rice Tec products. Tell your Rice Tec distributor that you are not willing to support biopiracy in this or any form. 3) Tell your customers that you are boycotting Rice Tec and why. To facilitate your cooperation, we are holding an information evening on TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1999 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Room #4 at the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House (800 E. Broadway - near Fraser St. in Vancouver, B.C.). This meeting will be designed to give store-operators and staff more targeted information so that you may better explain the boycott to your customers. Also at this meeting we will distribute copies of a letter for your customers, explaining biopiracy and the reasons for the Rice Tec boycott. Please notify us as soon as you decide to support the boycott. Included in this call for support (sent to those in Canada) is the petition BAG is circulating within Canada. Please photocopy and distribute it. Remember, it is important to return completed petitions to the return address printed on the bottom. Any suggestions towards strengthening our objectives and resistance is greatly appreciated. For more information check out our web site! http://www.eciad.bc.ca/~lolin/basmati/ or call Nandita Sharma or Allison Campbell at (1-604) 255-4910. Mailing and e-mail addresses are listed above. In Struggle, Allison Campbell for the Basmati Action Group BASMATI ACTION GROUP (BAG) c/o 1957 Kitchener St. Vancouver, B.C. Canada V5L 2W6 Tel. (1-604) 255-4910 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.eciad.bc.ca/~lolin/basmati/ _________________________________________________________ ABOUT BIO-IPR; This is an irregular listserver put out by Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN). Its purpose is to circulate information about recent developments in the field of intellectual property rights related to biodiversity & associated knowledge. BIO-IPR is a strictly non-commercial and educational service for nonprofit organisations and individuals active in the struggle against IPRs on life. HOW TO PARTICIPATE -- To get on the mailing list, send the word "subscribe" (no quotes) as the subject of an email message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To get off the list, send the word "unsubscribe" instead. To submit material to the list, address your message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. A note with further details about BIO-IPR is sent to all subscribers. ABOUT GRAIN -- For general information about GRAIN, you may visit our wwwsite http://www.grain.org or send an email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ***** END of FORWARDED MESSAGE *****
