Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

The quotation of the legend King Jr will not get due respect without talking about farmers who grow crops to feed the world but remain underfed. In the food supply chain in the third and the fourth world only farmers commit suicide; ironically, sometimes despite growing bumper crops, they end up with prices so low that the cost of harvesting also does not get realized and the non-growers in the supply chain manipulate the prices of the bumper crop for earning hefty profit at the cost of the poor farmers. The debt-ridden farmers were left with no option to face the debtor, or commit suicide.

The following was the opening paragraph of the article ‘Feeding the World Sustainably’ written by Mr. José Graziano Da Silva, then Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:

The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was memorable for its landmark agreements to guide sustainable development worldwide. The first principle of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states: Human beings are at the center of concern for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature. Twenty years later we are yet to deliver on this fundamental principle -- too many people in this world are still not living healthy and productive lives in harmony with nature. Approximately 925 million people are suffering from hunger. We cannot call development sustainable if one out of every seven persons is left behind. At the same time, there is hunger, which appears to be illogical in a world that already produces enough food to feed everyone.

The irony is that 925 million people are suffering from hunger due to a lack of access to food, not to mention there is enough food available to feed everyone and eradicate hunger on the planet. The right to survive is a basic human right. If one of seven is suffering from hunger, the virtues like equality and living in a safe sustainable development environment appear farce.

In the year 2050, mother earth would be sustaining the burden of 9.3 billion people, mostly in non-developed countries. To feed 9.3 billion people agriculture production requires a 60% increase! Since the Green Revolution of the 1960s, the agriculture system has not undergone any major changes. The Green Revolution has very high environmental costs. The heavy usage of chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers for growing more and more eroded the earth’s quality of production and has damaged the environment and health of all those who consume the crops produced, has increased the greenhouse gas emission, caused loss of biodiversity, leading to depletion of the underground water table, and deforestation. The greed to earn also led to the widespread increase in people rearing animals for meat including goats, chicks, pigs, etc. It is an established fact that to grow one kilogram of cereal 1500 liters of water get consumed and to ‘grow’ one kilogram of meat (protein) takes 15000 liters of water. Do we have enough water to feed meat to the growing population and deplete the water table? The following video of Statista.com reveals the highest meat consumption (10 times more water consumption) in the countries:

The Statistica.com data says that $897.5 Billion is the market size of the global meat industry. The basic genetic makeup of the human body constitutes 70% water. The choice of meat over less-water-consuming vegetation for survival in the light of depleting portable water resources defies logical conclusion.

The injustice and inequitable distribution and exploitation of resources are at the roots of our civilizational problems. Agriculture is the lifeline of 75% population of the third and the fourth world which has hardly any law to regulate the agriculture sector. The sinister strategy behind it is two-fold. ‘One person, one Vote’ is the fundamental rule of democracy. A substantial chunk of the population with its bare minimum regulatory compliance propensity constitutes an important vote bank, as it enjoys ‘freedom’ as agriculturists. The food supply chain ensures that farmers get the bare minimum price of their products but at the same time are consumers of their seeds, fertilizers, pesticides et all. Politics of votes always wins.

As per a Report, the global market size of agriculture production is $12,541.15 billion in 2022. The economic value of the market size makes agriculture a very good industry (it may be noted that in many countries including India, agriculture is not considered an industry) that is growing at around 11% CAGR.

"Agriculture was the best safety net against poverty and hunger. He stressed that agriculture was not just a food-producing machine, but also the backbone of the livelihood and ecological systems of most developing countries". ~ S. Swaminathan of the Swaminathan Foundation, the first recipient of the World Food Prize, at Earth Summit

Countries like Israel are integrating precision technologies like components in agriculture to optimize the deficient natural resource, like water, to optimize production. The tech-based agriculture (out of reach of the small and marginal farmers of the non-developed countries) market size is growing and as per a report should be $43.37 billion by 2030.

With the rise of ‘Smart Agriculture', the recognition of tech-enabled knowledge and resource-rich agriculture has good prospects of meeting the challenge of increasing 60% production by 2050. However, inequitable distribution of knowledge, resources, and technology, in the long run, may further dent the livelihood of the marginal farmers and may even force them out of agriculture. This would be a catastrophe for survival for both millions who sustain on agriculture which in turn would also lead to loss of the diversified gene pool of which they are the custodians.

The advent of technology in seeds has created big MNCs dealing in the business of seed ‘manufacturing’ and distribution. The infamous ‘terminator seed’ introduced by Monsanto indicates a very commercial mindset of these multinationals who want to build dependencies on the farmers making it illegal for farmers to keep a part of their seeds for the next sowing season thereby forcing them to buy their seeds for each growing season and in the process destroying centuries-old practice of organic farming, leading the local gene pool of the seeds to extinction. It has taken centuries to develop these local crop seeds which are the best fit to match the local climatic and soil conditions.

India, one of the top four grain producers in the world started producing rice some 10,000 years ago. Gradually, till the advent of the ‘Green Revolution in the 1960s, the Indian farmers developed a rich pool of over 110,000 varieties of rice only besides having numerous varieties for other crops like millets, other grains, etc. The industrialization of the seed industry has tremendously reduced the rice grain biodiversity pool to 6000 varieties. The concern here is mainly two-fold. The richness of the biodiversity ensures access to plant-based food. Who should be held accountable for the strategic destruction of the genetic material developed over centuries of practice of sowing, cultivating, breeding, preserving, and sharing for the re-sowing cycle that has remained a way of the farmers’ life?

The farmer was sovereign in making the decision as to what to sow with independence in his access to seeds of his choice. This has been systematically destroyed. Before the ‘Green Revolution’ organic farming was the norm. It was environment friendly, free from the harmful treatment of chemicals and the cost of farming was low. The intrusion of the industry in agriculture ruined the farmer's lives by putting the high farming cost financial burden on his shoulders. Do the agriculture-based Industries (specifically seed, pesticide, and fertilizer) have the courage to take moral responsibility for these activities? The answer is NO!

Soon after Russia and Ukraine went to war, the world comes to its knees for procuring grain like wheat from a third-world country, India. The war jeopardized the export equations of 55 countries that use to export wheat from Ukraine and Russia, known as the ‘break basket’ of Europe. The mundane job of farming, or grain production mainly done by the marginal farmers, at least in Southeast Asia, suddenly came into the spotlight as a highly sought-after commodity. In light of the crises that emerged in the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war, as per an Information Note released by the FAO, it is estimated for 2022 that 181 million people in 41 countries could face a food crisis or exacerbated levels of acute food insecurity.

All the efforts made herein were confined to bring it to the focus that the world has become a global village and the countries are the municipalities of tomorrow! The extinction level of 110,000 rice varieties to a mere 6000 should have been a cause for concern for everyone. The biodiversity pool of the edible grains was rich in taste, nutrition, pest resistance, and adaptability to the local environmental and climatic conditions. The numbers are related to just one grain, rice. It has been chosen because rice is the most widely consumed food grain in Asia.

The business strategy centered around appropriating the plant genetic resources developed over generations and claiming proprietary rights over it ruins the sovereignty and financial independence of farmers making them criminals in respect of using their own genetic material. The profiteering motive of the seed industry is aimed at wiping seeds not provided by them so that the onus of feeding the world would lie solely with them.

The crime of systematic destruction of the genetic material developed by the farmers and breeders over centuries is unpardonable, what if it is not a crime in the law books? A petty marginal farmer takes the decision to commit suicide not only due to financial miseries but also as a result of snatching his sovereignty and looting his independence in a manner not comprehended by him initially.

Three lobbies influenced The TRIPS Agreement coding of international IP law. These were the biological genetic material industry, the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, and the alcohol industry. The TRIPS Agreement in Article 27(3)(ii) mentions the following:

Members may exclude from patentability: plants and animals other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes for the production of plant organisms other than non-biological and microbiological processes. However, Members shall provide for the protection of plant varieties either by patents or by an effective sui generis system, or by any combination thereof. The provisions of this subparagraph shall be reviewed four years after the date of entry into force of the WTO Agreement.

This sub-section enables access to the rich biodiversity in the public domain. The manipulation at the micro-level and further small unit levels to the biological genetic material provided a legal sanction to claim the public domain natural resource as their proprietary material. It started a race to re-colonize the world in a more subtle manner. According to an IMARC Organization Report, the global seed market reached $43.4 billion in 2021.

Technology is a double-edged sword. It can be used for the welfare of mankind. Sir Alexander Fleming did not patent penicillin and dedicated bacteria killer formulation to humanity that saved millions of lives. It should be reminded that at the time of penicillin's discovery, World War was going on and thousands of soldiers were dying due to the bacterial infections in their wounds. The other side of technology was the use of atom bombs to decimate Nagasaki and Hiroshima in totality from the map of Japan.

The principle enunciated in Article 6 of the TRIPS Agreement in the following wordings only underlines the requirement of the fine balance between the proprietary rights and the public obligations:

The protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge and in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations.

As per a Tilburg University case study titled, The Bayer-Monsanto Acquisition Deal, released in 2020, Monsanto was one of the first companies to introduce genes into plants in 1983 and was among the first to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops in 1987. Monsanto's role in agricultural changes, biotechnology products, lobbying of government agencies, and roots as a chemical company, resulted in controversies. Bayer AG an internationally operating company in the life sciences domain consists of 374 consolidated companies in 83 countries. Monsanto was merged with Bayer AG in 2020 for $60 Billion forming the world's biggest Agrochemicals and seeds company. DowDuPont Crop Protection was born with the merger of The Dow Chemical Company with E.I. Du Pont de Nemours in 2017 for a whopping $ 130 billion. The Swiss company, Syngenta a seeds, and pesticide manufacturer acquired China's State-owned enterprise ChemChina for $43 Billion.

The consolidation of the agri-products industry is making it lesser competitive with fewer competitors and lion's share. The consolidation also poses a threat to the smaller country-based companies of the hostile takeover. The agriculture market exists till it is the only means of sustenance for the farmers in the third and fourth world. If a war between two countries can result in grain prices shooting and imminent danger of hunger for millions in 55 countries, the loss of sovereign rights of farmers, and consistent struggle to survive with the bare resource may one day put a larger population to remain hungry. The rise in the population and the fierce lust to win the world at any cost makes this proposition possible.

Sustainable development cannot be confined to the cages of political boundaries.

The right to win prosperity and to be prosperous is both a fundamental right and human nature. However, the claim of right also brings with it public obligations. Everyone needs food in one or another form. This issue is dedicated with gratitude to the farmers, for their tireless silent service to feed their fellow human beings, mostly without any recognition. The marginal farmer life in the third world is very hard. Their large number makes them substantial vote banks without any obligation to protect their rights. Let us be vocal for those who do not raise their voice against injustice and suffering.

To be continued in Part 3...

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#hunger #foodforall #sustainability #feedingtheworld #earthsummit #sswaminathan #joségrazianodasilva #techagriculture #smartagridculture #terminatorseed #biologicalresource #biodiversity #trips #wto #wipo #organicfarming #greenrevolution #russiaukrainewar #extinctionofseedvarities

#competition #alexenderfleming #patent #farming #seedcomanies #dominancepower #intellectualpropertylab