Farmers’ rights ‘at stake in Chile’s Monsanto law bill’

[SANTIAGO] Campaigners who last month marched through more than a dozen Chilean cities against a bill dubbed the 'Monsanto law' after the giant USbiotech公司，计划如果该法案通过该国参议院进行，则计划再次抗议。

同时，该法案的支持者（主要是大型农民的协会）游说参议员支持。

At issue is the legal implementation in Chile of the latest version of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 91).

作为1978年版本的签署人，智利已经保护了植物育种者的权利，但活动家声称该公约的新版本适合商业而不是常规育种者。

"UPOV 91 extends the intellectual property rights of companies that produce seeds, thus increasing their monopoly over seed production and exchange," Iván Santandreu, co-founder of the NGO Chile without GMOs (genetically modified organisms), tellsscidev.net。

"If UPOV 91 becomes law, it will become illegal for farmers to save and exchange seeds," he adds.

But Miguel Sánchez, executive director of ChileBIO, an association that represents agricultural biotechnology companies, says: "UPOV 91 allows a seed developer to charge a farmer for using any intellectually protected seed, even retroactively.

“但是没有人强迫这个农民购买和使用受智力保护的植物品种。如果他这样做，那是因为他认为受保护的种子会增加他的产量。”

Sánchez adds that campaigners' fears that UPOV 91 will not stop large firms from appropriating native vegetable species and varieties or their agricultural or medicinal uses are misplaced.

"A seed developer cannot claim intellectual property rights for a vegetable species such as maize. He can only do so if he has bred a maize variety that is new and distinct," Sánchez tellsscidev.net。

“If UPOV 91 becomes law, it will become illegal for farmers to save and exchange seeds.”

Iván Santandreu,
Chile without GMOs

Another of the campaigners' concerns is that the proposed law would introduce通用Osinto the country through the backdoor by allowing companies to register GM seeds (GMOs are banned in Chile).

"This allegation is wrong: UPOV 91 does not mention GMOs," Patricio Parodi, scientific advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture of Chile, tellsscidev.net。

"Campaigners are conflating it with the bill on genetically modified plants, which has been stagnating in the National Congress since 2006. Only this law would make way for the general use of GMOs in Chile," he adds.

桑坦德雷（Santandreu）回答说，虽然UPOV 91可能不会以名称提及转基因生物，但它指的是遗传改善，并将此过程定义为从杂交到基因工程。

But the politicians, large farm owners and agricultural companies backing the bill argue that an agricultural exporter such as Chile needs solid intellectual property rights.

"We cannot be seen as a country that practises intellectual property piracy. Chile has signed many free trade agreements, including with the US and Japan, on the basis of reciprocal intellectual property rights," says Parodi.

José Antonio Poblete, commercial manager of the Fruit Nurseries Association of Chile, told the Constitutional Court last year: "If Chile does not adhere to UPOV 91, there will be no reward for all the efforts made by 12 new, state-backed genetic programmes that are developing new fruit varieties".

But anti-GMO campaigners remain unconvinced.

桑坦南德鲁说：“在我们再次进军之前，我们正在等待国会的下一个重大发展。”

Link to International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants