Intellectual Property Rights and the Politics of Food - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 379

Chapter 15
Intellectual Property
Rights and the Politics
of Food
Krishna Ravi Srinivas
Introduction
The linkage between food and plant genetic resources needs no great elaboration;
plants provide genetic material that has been modified over millennia to meet human
food needs by creation of specialized cultivars suited to particular human needs (see
McHughen, this volume). But the linkage between intellectual property rights and
food is not obvious; intellectual property rights are typically not considered either as
an important issue in the politics of food or as an issue of ethical concern. Intellectual
property rights are state-granted monopolies for a limited number of years for incentiv-
izing inventions and creation of works of art and to promote innovation and technology
transfer. The FAO Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethics in Food and Agriculture observed
that most innovation in food and agriculture does not depend upon intellectual prop-
erty rights, yet acquisition and exercise of intellectual property rights raises a variety of
ethical concerns. It expressed concern, for example, about patenting of merely isolated
genes that are essentially part of nature and not inventions. It is not clear what consti-
tutes an invention or what can become property. Something like a global intellectual
property rights regime is provided by the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) agreement. Under the TRIPS agreement, intellectual property (IP) refers to
seven categories, including patents and plant varieties rights as well as copyright and
related rights. An exhaustive analysis of the relationship between intellectual property
and politics of food would include issues relating to copyrights and intellectual prop-
erty protection for cuisines and geographical indication.1 Such an analysis is beyond the
scope of this entry.