Genetically engineered seeds and crops (GMOs) have unleashed seed wars and knowledge wars.
The only reason crops have been genetically engineered is to take patents on seeds and collect royalties. If during colonialism the concept of Terra Nullius (empty land or land belonging to no one) allowed the takeover of land and territories by the coloniser, a new concept of Bio Nullius (empty life) is being used to claim “intellectual property rights” on seeds, biodiversity and life forms. But life is not empty.
Seeds are not an invention. They embody millions of years of biological evolution and thousands of years of cultural evolution and farmers’ breeding.
When corporations claim patents, they basically “pirate” traits that nature and farmers have evolved. They pirate and patent the aroma of Basmati, the low gluten qualities of our native wheat, the salt tolerant, drought tolerant, flood tolerant traits of climate resilience our farmers have bred. This is not innovation and invention; it is biopiracy.
