BIOPLAN POSTING 2001-5-7

David.Duthie@unep.org
Sent by: owner-bioplan@undp.org
05/15/01 05:24 PM
bioplan
David Duthie,
Dear BIOPLANNERS,

This piece, from a US newspaper, takes a critical view of the US role in
the current IU debate. For anyone wishing to know more about the Lathyrus
and the ICARDA work, send me an e-mail, I have a nice more detailed article
from Science News.

Best wishes

David Duthie

*************************************************
Opinion: Americans Drag Feet On Crucial Seed Pact

Los Angeles Times; May 13, 2001

Here's a choice: to become paralyzed from the waist down or to die of
starvation. This is not one of those macabre questions that rivet the
imaginations of 10-year-olds, but a real-life choice faced by some 20,000
to 30,000 people every year. Caught in the tragedy of famine, thousands of
people from Ethiopia to Bangladesh find that the only thing standing
between them and starvation is the drought-tolerant legume Lathyrus
sativus , known as the grass pea. In a mixed diet , Lathyrus is safe.
Eaten in large quantities, it leads to a build-up of neurotoxins that
causes spastic paralysis of the legs, an irreversible condition known as
Lathyrism.

At the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
(ICARDA) in Syria, scientists are trying to engineer less toxic strains of
Lathyrus. The problems of drought and famine cannot be solved by genetic
engineering alone, but it is hard to imagine a more worthwhile application
of biotechnology. Yet, the future of this project is now in jeopardy.
International talks aimed at producing a global treaty on the scientific
exchange of plant genetic resources are in danger of being derailed by the
United States. And work like the Lathyrus research depends on scientists
being able to share germplasm freely. In the absence of a treaty, the
exchange of plant materials between nations has already begun to shut
down. At a meeting last month in Spoleto, Italy, much of the rest of the
world appeared on the edge of agreement, but U.S. negotiators refused to
play ball, insisting that intellectual property rights should take
precedence over the demands of developing nations. But while the media
have paid lavish attention to the bickering surrounding the international
biodiversity and global-warming treaties, U.S. recalcitrance has gone
widely unnoticed. Still, the consequences of inaction would be grave.

Failure to produce an agreement--formally known as the International
Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture--"would be
a global tragedy," says Pat Roy Mooney, executive director of Rural
Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), the only nongovernmental body
participating in the talks. Since the treaty would cover the exchange of
genetic materials from all the world's major food crops, it is critical to
maintaining world food security. In the long run, failure to produce a
treaty could prove disastrous to international attempts to feed the Third
World as scientists, including those developing new breeds of crops aimed
at easing starvation, rely on open access to germplasm.

ICARDA is one of 16 international agricultural-crop centers that since the
1960s have collected, stored and propagated seeds, preserving the
irreplaceable heritage of our agricultural genetic diversity.
Collectively, the centers hold an estimated half a million plant
varieties. During the 1960s and '70s, the centers' germplasm provided the
genetic feedstock from which were bred the high-yield variants of staple
foods such as rice, wheat and maize that were the triumph of the "green
revolution" and which have helped to feed the world as its population has
doubled over the past 35 years.

As global warming picks up speed, bringing with it the attendant problems
of increased drought and flooding, it is to these collections that all
nations will have to turn to develop crop strains able to thrive under the
new environmental conditions, Mooney adds. Crops such as Lathyrus, for
example, have special genes for surviving in arid conditions, a genetic
bonus we may wish to draw on if, as many scientists expect, global
temperatures rise by several degrees over the coming century.

Until now, access to plant genetic resources held in the agricultural-crop
centers and other national gene banks has relied on voluntary agreement
among governments, but that system is now breaking down. For the past six
years, a contact group of 40 nations, including the U.S., has been meeting
to thrash out a treaty to formally govern the exchange of seeds and
germplasm among nations for purposes of scientific research.

At the core of the proposed treaty is a list of staple crops whose genetic
material would, in effect, be declared the common heritage of all
humanity. These crops--wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, beans, rye, barley,
potato, beet, lentil, cassava, chickpea, coconut, apple, banana,
etc.--would be exchanged freely among treaty signatories and could not be
patented unless substantial genetic modifications were made. Such an
agreement is necessary because some nations, notably the U.S. and
Australia, have already granted patents and other intellectual property
rights on unmodified seeds obtained from the seed banks. This practice has
infuriated some nations in Africa and Latin America.

One major roadblock that treaty negotiators face is a fundamental divide
between the nations of the south and north. Many of the southern nations,
burned by centuries of exploitation, are suspicious of any moves to open
up their genetic resources to the north. In an increasing number of
southern nations, Mooney says, there is public pressure to halt altogether
the flow of genetic material from their borders.

At the moment, Mooney says, "the system is relatively open, but it's
getting tighter and tighter by the day." He suspects that if a plant
resources agreement is not reached soon, preferably at the next meeting in
Rome next month, the entire system "could shut down very quickly. We'd see
a real decline in the transfer of germplasm."

Without easy flow of material, much of the research done at the
agricultural-crop centers would be threatened. Researchers are already
worried that funding for work on any crop not on the treaty's list will
quickly dry up, as funders will be reluctant to support work that could
create legal nightmares. For this reason, Mooney says his foundation is
determined to get Lathyrus onto the official list.

At a meeting in Tehran last year, the International Assn. of Plant
Breeders for the Protection of Plant Varieties, the body that represents
the seed industry, made a stunning conciliatory offer. It offered to pay
into an international fund a small percentage of any royalties earned from
patents derived from materials originating in the seed banks. This fund
would subsidize research and conservation of genetic diversity, largely in
the developing world. No formal figures were promised, and Mooney says no
one is talking big bucks here, not more than $10 million a year.
Nonetheless, most developing nations saw this as a hugely important step.
More than the money, they viewed it as an acknowledgement of the intrinsic
value of their indigenous resources. In response, many of these nations
made important concessions. And at the Spoleto meeting last month, the
G-77 developing nations, along with Europe and Japan, appeared to reach
consensus on the wording of a draft treaty. The U.S., however, supported
by Canada, New Zealand and Australia, objected.

A Bush administration official from the State Department said the U.S.
does not approve of the mandatory fund now proposed, which the
administration believes would "infringe upon intellectual property rights
in the U.S." In principle, the administration has objected to agreements
requiring private companies to make mandatory payments. As the draft
treaty is currently worded, the U.S. would not be able to sign it, the
same official said. This policy cannot be blamed on the Bush
administration because the U.S. position was set under former President
Bill Clinton. Ironically, Mooney says, seed-industry executives are
furious about the U.S. stance. Most other nations are also outraged, and
when U.S. negotiators at Spoleto tried to reopen discussions on this
point, the Europeans and Japanese refused to allow it.

So irritated are these nations over what they see as U.S. haggling, they
might go ahead and negotiate a treaty that doesn't include the United
States. But the American team could still derail the process by pressuring
the seed-industry association to back down. At the World Seed Congress in
South Africa later this month, Mooney expects that the seed executives
will come under intense pressure from U.S. officials. If the seed-industry
association reneges, Mooney says that developing nations might pull out
altogether. Then "we'd be back to square one."

What is at stake here is the security of the world's food supply. For the
sake of us all, we must not fail.

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