Profit & Privatizing vs Survival

If some firms have their way, they could claim ownership of the more than 2,000 varieties of potatoes and then genetically modify them for profit, thereby shutting off the Peruvian people who share their knowledge and assure survival of all varieties. The same scenario is being fought over corn. Should Monsanto and Conagra "own" food genes developed by nature?

clipped from www.ipsnews.net A Stormy Time for Indigenous Wisdom VIENNA, Jul 6 (Tierramérica) - Indigenous peoples risk losing control over their traditional knowledge if the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) insists on strict standards for managing access to information. Patents and other forms of restricting access to knowledge are very worrisome in a time of climate change, says a new report by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Ideas, seeds and life forms cannot be privatised and access to them must remain non-exclusive and benefits widely shared, he said. The Quechua communities in the Cuzco region of southern Peru have used their customary laws to manage more than 2,000 varieties of potatoes in what is considered the centre of origin of this important food crop, Argumedo told Tierramérica.