The Genetics Controversy - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 142

crosses involving parents from 26 countries. Under the CBD, the country
of origin and the legal owner of plant genetic resources are legally defined
as the first to file a claim on ownership; but it is very difficult to attribute
clear ownership when a variety is derived from so many sources. 32
There are signs, however, that some corporations are developing new
benefit-sharing mechanisms. A ground-breaking arrangement between
AstraZeneca, now Syngenta, and the inventors of vitamin-A rice, also
called golden rice, will permit farmers in developing countries to earn up
to US$10,000 without paying royalties. 33 The deal permits the company
to commercialize the rice, while effectively providing it free to small
farmers. There remain, however, many controversies over so-called 'golden'
rice, including the cultural resistance to eating orange-coloured rice, the
need for adequate irrigation, and whether vitamin-A deficiency could
better be addressed through diversified diets. Another example is the
Positech selection technique, an alternative to antibiotic resistant markers.
Developed by Novartis, now also Syngenta, at a cost of US$10 million,
the company has said it will market Positech under a two-tier pricing
system, with commercial uses incurring royalties, while those developing
technologies for subsistence farmers will be granted free access. But a
drawback of this means that public-funded researchers are often unable
to use such technologies, owing to their high price.
Genetic Modification: Feeder of the World or
Eliminator of Alternatives?
A further debate centres on whether genetically modified crops could help
to feed the world. Some emphatically say yes, often raising the spectre of
famine as a way to gain greater support for genetic modification as a
whole. 34 But genetically modified technologies can only help to feed the
world if attention is paid to the processes of technology development,
benefit-sharing and, more especially, to alternative or low-cost methods
of production. Most commentators agree that food production will have
to increase, and that this will have to come from existing farmland. But
past approaches to modern agricultural development have not been
successful in all parts of the world. In most cases, people are hungry
because they are poor. They simply do not have the money to buy either
the food they need or the modern technologies that could increase their
yields. What they need are readily available and cheap means to improve
their farm productivity. As a result, a cereal crop engineered to have
bacteria on the roots to fix free nitrogen from the air, or another with the