International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

"International Seed Treaty"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Treaty_on_Plant_Genetic_Resources_for_Food_and_Agriculture

Wikipedia language: A comprehensive international agreement along with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), as well as the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use. It also recognises Farmers' Rights, subject to national laws to: a) the protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; b) the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilisation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; and c) the right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The Treaty establishes the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing to facilitate plant germplasm exchanges and benefit sharing through Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA)...

ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0510e/i0510e.pdf

http://www.planttreaty.org/

http://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/core-themes/theme/seeds-pgr/gpa/en/

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References/Resources

Genetic Imperialism? -- https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552560

In the 1980s a wave of scientific breakthroughs changed the way the world grows its food. Buoyed by the emergence of genetically engineered strains of crops, farmers increased their outputs several-fold, providing food for millions of people across the world. These agricultural advances were achieved thanks to researchers in western laboratories using plant genetic resources, genetic material primarily collected from wild plants native to third world countries.

Although the world’s poor were among the foremost beneficiaries of new high-yield crops, many third world nations felt that the harvesting of genetic material by for-profit researchers from the developed world amounted to genetic imperialism. A group of these third world nations took their case to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, where they established the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources.

This initiative, similar to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Moon Treaty, declared that certain resources are the common heritage of mankind, and as such should be exploited for the benefit of all people, not just for the countries that are economically or technically able to do so. The undertaking, as it became known, would have placed the world’s gene banks under the jurisdiction of the Food and Agriculture Organization, radically altering the way plant research and development was conducted.

The United States, a vanguard in the field of genetically engineered crops, opposed the undertaking. Who should control the world’s genetic resources, and how will international politics affect the development of biotechnology?

Host Peter Krogh sits down with Cary Fowler, Program Director of the Rural Advancement Fund, and Ambassador Alan Keyes, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, to discuss the science and politics of biotechnology.

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Explanatory Guide to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture - See more at: https://islandpress.org/book/explanatory-guide-to-the-international-treaty-on-plant-genetic-resources-for-food-and-agriculture#sthash.NsPlMkmJ.dpuf

https://islandpress.org/book/explanatory-guide-to-the-international-treaty-on-plant-genetic-resources-for-food-and-agriculture

https://islandpress.org/books/publish/proposals.html?sort_by=field_title_sort_value&page=40

https://islandpress.org/books/food-agriculture?sort_by=field_pub_date_value&page=2

PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE -- http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1500e/i1500e.pdf