Biopiracy at Its Most Blatant: Bremer’s Order 81 Is the Ruin of Iraq’s Agriculture

by Dr. Adnan Al-Daini

July 7, 2012

In my early teens in Iraq, in the late fifties and early sixties, I used to accompany my father to farms to buy wheat grain for our own consumption, and a few sacks more to sell in the village to make some profit. I remember the discussions between my father and the small farmers regarding the quality of the grain, and whether the dough would stick (hounta khabbaza) to the walls of the clay oven (tennor) in which my mother baked the bread. This particular quality is essential to prevent it falling into the hot embers at the bottom of the oven. The farmers used to assure us of the quality, giving a little history of how the grain had been improved by knowledge sharing between farmers, with the best quality seed being adopted. The system had an inbuilt informal ability to improve the quality of the wheat grain. This method of sharing expertise and the use of knowledge passed down through the generations were applied to every aspect of farming and fruit orchards to improve the quality and quantity of the produce.

An article on GRAIN website entitled “Iraq’s new patent law: a declaration of war against farmers” gives the origin of this law and its detrimental effect on agriculture in Iraq thus:

When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called “transfer of sovereignty” in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them was Order 81 on “Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety.” This order amends Iraq’s original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law. With important implications for farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq … [t]he purpose of the law is to facilitate the establishment of a new seed market in Iraq, where transnational corporations can sell their seeds-genetically modified or not, which farmers would have to purchase afresh every single cropping season”. For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with an exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This is now history. The CPA has made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law.

Iraq, lest we forget, is ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates; this is the land where organized agriculture was invented around 5000 BC. The Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians are the ancestors of the people of Iraq and through their work and ingenuity they went on to establish the great cities of Ur and Babylon.

This patenting law, in many instances, involves the pirating of knowledge gained by farmers sharing their knowledge and experience through millennia:

Such kind of “biopiracy” is fuelled by an Intellectual Property Right (IPR) regime that ignores the prior art of the farmer, and grants rights to a breeder who claims to have created something new from the material and knowledge of the very farmer.

An Iraqi farmer described the pitiful state of today’s agriculture:

Since the invasion prices have skyrocketed, I don’t know why! So many farmers have stopped farming; they cannot afford it anymore.

The U.S agribusiness is now reaping huge profits from this collapse, with Iraq importing agricultural products worth one billion dollars a year.

The GRAIN article concludes with the following words:

While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has already been made near impossible by these new regulations. Iraq’s freedom and sovereignty will remain questionable for as long as Iraqis do not have control over what they sow, grow, reap and eat.

3 Responses to Biopiracy at Its Most Blatant: Bremer’s Order 81 Is the Ruin of Iraq’s Agriculture

Jon Harrison

July 10, 2012 at 12:51 am

This article raises an issue I had not previously been aware of. Two questions: 1. Was Iraq self-sufficient in grain before the 2003 invasion, or at any time after 1945? 2. Why hasn’t the current Iraqi government, which mustered the will to reject a continued US military presence after 2011, simply gone ahead and repealed the law? I’m not clear from reading this piece why the law has so damaged Iraqi agriculture. The law “facilitates” but apparently does not compel Iraqi purchases of seed from overseas. So why has agriculture been so disrupted by what amounts to a scrap of paper? Surely the Iraqi state would not remain bound by a foreigner-imposed law that hurts Iraqi farmers?
Adnan Al-Daini

July 11, 2012 at 10:52 am

I have just been sent a copy of the law (Arabic) regarding seeds and the propagation of plants, passed by the Iraqi Parliament on 23rd. June 2012 [1].

It is a long document written in lawyer’s language that goes into great detail about the import, planting and the use of plants and seeds.
Nowhere as far as I can tell does it mention Bremer’s order 81.

I have sent it to a few friends to see whether this law addresses the problems associated with order 81.

Your question: “Was Iraq self-sufficient in grain before the 2003 invasion, or at any time after 1945?” One of the references embedded in the article says: [2]: “a once self-sufficient land has been reduced to a food importer”.I do not know the period implied by the article.

Second question: “Why hasn’t the current Iraqi government, which mustered the will to reject a continued US military presence after 2011, simply gone ahead and repealed the law?” I do hope the Iraqi Parliament law does imply the repeal of order 81; I would have liked to see it explicitly stated.

As I understand it, if any genetic material, even a minute amount, from a patented seed accidently finds its way into a traditional seed then that seed becomes the property of the company and will be covered by the patent.

It is worth remembering that even in developed countries where laws, well-informed farmers and strong environmental groups are present, there is a fear of the agribusiness giants circumventing these rules to become dominant and exploitative. Imagine how easy it is in Iraq.

A good article entitled [3] “Biopiracy, GM seeds and Rural India” highlights “the manipulative nature and destabilizing effects of patents, IPRs and agro-business conglomerates in the context of rural India. Special focus is placed upon the infamous Basmati rice case, and Bt cotton, the first GM seed made available to Indian farmers”

[1] http://www.parliament.iq/Iraqi_Council_of_Representatives.php?name=articles_ajsdyawqwqdjasdba46s7a98das6dasda7das4da6sd8asdsawewqeqw465e4qweq4wq6e4qw8eqwe4qw6eqwe4sadkj&file=showdetails&sid=7212

[2] http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/the-collapse-of-native-iraqi-agriculture-and-the-prosper-of-us-biotech-in-iraq/

[3] http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13820
Jon Harrison

July 12, 2012 at 4:46 pm

Thanks for your reply, Dr. Al-Daini. I did some research and it seems that Iraq was last self-sufficient in grain in the late 1950s. Since the ’60s it’s been an importer of grain. The current drive for self-sufficiency is concentrated in the Kurdish provinces; it appears that central and southern Iraq will continue to be net importers of grain. Indeed, the situation in those parts of the country may worsen as the Kurdish provinces, already all but independent, consider a complete break from Iraq.

Thanks for the links regarding the patent issue. I haven’t read them yet, but will do so sometime this weekend.

Please let me know if you find out more about the law of June 23 and whether it nullifies order 81.