TWO UN organisations, meeting on different continents, locked horns last
week over who should control the world鈥檚 agricultural genetic resources. The
success of the much heralded new green revolution could depend on who
wins.
In Leipzig in June, the Food and Agriculture Organization won agreement on a
treaty to conserve crop plants (This Week, 29 June, p 7). The treaty, which aims
to preserve plants in the field and in seed banks, formed a cornerstone of the
plan of action to curb hunger approved at the World Food Summit.
But behind the scenes in Rome, FAO officials were crying foul over
developments at a meeting of signatories to the UN鈥檚 Convention on Biological
Diversity being held in Buenos Aires. While the biodiversity convention鈥檚 aim is
to protect wild species, it also contains provisions on protecting crops. FAO
officials claimed that some countries were pushing for the convention, which is
run by the UN Environment Programme, to seize control of crop conservation. 鈥淲e
are worried and confused,鈥� said Stein Bie, director of research at the FAO.
鈥淪ome countries are saying different things here and in Buenos Aires.鈥�
Advertisement
The UN battle could determine whether, as the FAO wants, plant varieties are
protected as a global resource, available to all researchers, or whether large
companies are able to patent their characteristics and uses. This may be easier
if crops come under the biodiversity convention, observers say.
鈥淲ho controls the genes? That鈥檚 the great fight,鈥� said Pat Mooney of the
Rural Advancement Foundation International. Argentina, Australia and Brazil,
backed by the US, were pushing hardest in Buenos Aires to place agricultural
genetic resources under the biodiversity convention, he said.
The stakes are high. One estimate is that the world鈥檚 plant gene banks are
worth $5 billion a year, through sales of patented seeds, for instance.
This figure could swell through the use of genes from wild plants. In this
week鈥檚 Nature, researchers at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York,
and the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Centre in Changsha
report that they have improved the yield of a leading rice variety by adding
genes from a wild relative, Oryza rufipogon.