Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA): advancing the theft of African genetic wealth

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Notes

For a glimpse at the extent of critiques, see Ian Scoones and John Thompson, ‘The politics of seed in Africa's green revolution: alternative narratives and competing pathways’, IDS Bulletin 42, no. 4 (July 2011): 1–23; Snapp, S., and Blackie, M., ‘Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa’, Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences 107, no. 48 (2010), available from: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/48/20840.full.pdf+html?sid=c18a9874-58e8-4e23-90c3-a40c62962cf1 [Accessed 20 November 2011]; GRAIN, ‘Unravelling the “miracle” of Malawi's green revolution’, Seedling, January 2010, available from: http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4075-unravelling-the-miracle-of-malawi-s-green-revolution [Accessed 4 March 2010]; Eric Holt-Gimenez, ‘Out of AGRA: the green revolution returns to Africa’, Development 51, no. 4 (2008): 464–471; Miriam Mayet, ‘The new green revolution in Africa: Trojan horse for GMOs?’ in Africa can feed itself, ed. A. Norstad (Oslo: Development Fund, 2007).

Of course, those on the continent sent out the first alarm: World Social Forum, ‘Africa's wealth of seed diversity and farmer knowledge – under threat from the Gates/ Rockefeller “Green Revolution” initiative’, Statement by African Civil Society Organisations, Nairobi, Kenya, 25 January 2007, available from: http://www.grain.org/article/entries/3804-africa-s-wealth-of-seed-diversity-and-farmer-knowledge-under-threat-from-the-gates-rockefeller-green-revolution-initiative [Accessed 9 January 2012].

ETCGroup, Who will control the green economy? December 2011, p. 22.

ETCGroup, Who will control the green economy? p. 23.

In 1996 the FAO concluded: ‘The chief cause of loss of genetic diversity – referred to as genetic erosion – has been the spread of modern, commercial agriculture. The introduction of new, highly uniform varieties has resulted in the loss of traditional farmers’ varieties. Unfortunately, genetic erosion is almost always associated with – or even preceded by loss of the knowledge regarding varieties and their uses.' In 2010, the findings were the same: ‘The introduction of modern varieties of staple crops appears to have resulted in an overall decrease in genetic diversity’. FAO, Report on the state of the world's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (Rome: FAO, 1996), p. 13; FAO, The second report on the state of the world's plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (Rome: FAO, 2010), p. xix.

This private appropriation of a freely shared resource, seed, is a prime example of ‘accumulation by dispossession’, introduced by David Harvey The new imperialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), ch. 4. See also Jim Glassman, ‘Primitive accumulation, accumulation by dispossession, accumulation by “extra-economic” means’, Progress in Human Geography 30, no. 5 (October 2006): 608–625; Carol Thompson, ‘The scramble for genetic resources’, in A new scramble? Imperialism, investment and development in Africa, ed. Henning Melber and Roger Southall (Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009).

The USA has spent almost two decades imposing its patent laws over living organisms on other economies, via ‘free trade’ agreements (FTAs), starting with NAFTA in 1994, but also promulgated in Iraq, Afghanistan and the in recent agreements signed by the Obama Administration in Colombia, Korea, and Panama.

Reuters, US approves Monsanto drought-tolerant GM corn, December 27, 2011, available from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-usa-biotech-idUSTREBL19A20111227 [Accessed 2 February 2012]; Monsanto, DroughtGard hybrids-currently in phase IV of Monsanto's R&D pipeline, 2012, available from: http://www.monsanto.com/products/Pages/droughtgard-hybrids.aspx?WT.mc_id=1_drou ghtg ard [Accessed 2 February 2012]; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Improving health through more nutritious crops, 2012, available from: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/agricul turaldevelopment/Pages/more-nutritious-crops.aspx [Accessed 2 February 2012].

By the end of 2011, eight countries had pledged US$10 million for the treaty's Benefit-Sharing Fund, but the agreed goal of raising US$116 million by 2014 seems remote. ITGRFA, ‘Implementation of the funding strategy of the treaty funding. Resolution 3/2011’, in Strategy for the implementation of the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (Rome: FAO, 2011, available from: ftp://ftp.fao.org/ag/agp/planttreaty/publi/funding_strategy_compilation_en.pdf [Accessed 10 February 2012].

Community Technology Development Trust, ‘A public trust betrayed? Policy changes by CGIAR centres giving new meaning to ‘foundation seed.’ Unpublished report, October 2010. AGRA allies include the USA Feed the Future initiative, promoted both by the State Department and the Department of Agriculture; the World Bank's Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) which is implementing the G8 pledge from the L'Aquila Summit in July 2009, and the Davos World Economic Forum's New Vision for Agriculture, among others.

Carol Thompson, ‘Corporations chaining the global food agenda’, Pambazuka 550 (28 September 2011), available from: http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/76694/print [Accessed 2 March 2012].

Andrew Mushita, ‘GMOs and food aid in Southern Africa’, Genetic engineering and food sovereignty – sustainable agriculture is the only option to feed the world, ed. Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (Bonn: EED, 2009), pp. 30–39.

Filed in its Security Exchange Commission Report, available from: http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/For-Immediate-Release-8.25.10.pdf [Accessed 4 March 2012]. By late 2011 Monsanto received permission from the USDA to sell its transgenic drought-tolerant maize MON 87460, even though it received almost 45,000 public comments opposed to MON 87460, with only 23 comments in favour. See http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/317358.