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Agricultural biotechnologies have the potential to make people's lives better. Crops can be genetically modified to enhance yield, resist drought, boost nutrients or increase efficiency. But there's enormous controversy over the economic, environmental, ethical, legal and social issues triggered by these technologies. How, if at all, should they be regulated? Our focus in this lesson will be on agbiotech patents. What rights do transgenic plant patent owners have, and what is the impact of plant patents on farmers' rights? How is technology changing the game?
We've begun to look at some of the web that impacts those questions, including WIPO, TRIPs and the CBD. This week I want to throw two more things in the mix:
Please start to take a look at both.
A good introduction to the international regime complex for plant genetic resources can be found in this aptly-named article, which you should try to read parts of. Check out pages 277-295 in particular:
No discussion of this topic would be complete without reference to genetic use restriction technologies, the biological equivalent to technological protection measures discussed during our lesson on copyright and education. For a general introduction to the issues, please do read:
I'd like you to follow up on that article by glancing at these short commentaries from a variety of different perspectives, including a NGO, Monsanto, the Canadian government and an international organization. There's lots of policy and scholarly literature on this subject as well, which - if you're interested - some simple searching will turn up. I'm looking forward to having you tell me the position of the U.S. government, which I admit I don't know yet.
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