TAPE #211

TAPE #211 BIOTECHNOLOGY, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & RURAL GENDER

Registration area and I can't remind you in Beverly Grodie, with USDA here in Washington, DC. And at this time I would like to call Kay to the mike, and she will do the facilitation and moderating of the session and introduce any speakers that we have coming before you today. Kay.

Just for the moderators, for the presenters here we're going to tell you that we're going each person five minutes to speak, and upon approaching that five minutes, we're going to give you some signs, we have a timer here, and she will give you a sign of a four minute, and it will be yellow, just a caution that you will have only one minute remaining to speak, and at the end of that in one minute she will give you a sign, it means stop.

I'm sure your wondering what we're doing, with the telephone up here. One of our distinguished panel members unfortunately has been caught by Monsoons in Indonesia and is going to be contacted by telephone from Nudelli, and so thanks to modern technology we at least will have her viewpoint and appreciate the ability so, but we wanted to get that line open right at the beginning of our session.

On behalf of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture, known as IICA, and the Agro Future Foundation we are very happy to welcome you all this afternoon to our roundtable policy dialogue. We are so excited about this issue. We realize that there are no easy answers. It's a very difficult and involved topic, but we wanted to have an opportunity to discuss it. And although they don't know that I'm going to do this, I would like to recognize the two people who have really conceived the idea of making this panel possible. By coming up with the vision that we could gather as many viewpoints together as possible in order to look for the solutions that would make the world better, not only for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren. And so, Dr. Betsy McGregor, would you please just stand for a second, from Canada, she is a member of the board for the Agro Future Foundation. And Clara Solice, who is from Costa Rica, who is with IICA and I will introduce her again later. They both came to Washington, and we spent a week hammering out the way that we were going to try to make this as broad as possible. So, we hope that we come away this afternoon with some real ideas about definite actions we can take. And do it in a very positive way for a difficult topic. I also want to thank this afternoon, Monsanto of Canada and the Dow agro sciences for sponsoring the transportation for many of our panelists and many of our dignitaries who have come from far away. Now I'd like to start off by introducing those who will be making opening remarks. We have three very distinguished members here. The Honorable Dr. Carlos E. Akino, Director General Avieka, he is from the Dominican Republic and he is in our headquarters in Costa Rica. The Honorable Geograph Norman, Secretary of State for Agriculture, and Agro Foods, Fisheries, and Oceans from Canada, and Vilma Valcaldaron, Deputy Ministry of Agriculture from El Salvador. So we will begin, Don Carlos.

Ladies and Gentleman, after the lunch I really change with a tremendous decide to go to Australia. I will visit Australia. I was impressed with what I saw today. I would like to thank the government of the United States, and the United States Department of Agriculture and the other agencies for convening over The 2nd International Conference on Women In Agriculture which provides with an opportunity to discuss and suggest line of action to work in this field. It is an honor and a privilege for our institute, The Inter-American Institute Cooperation in Agriculture, to collaborate in this important initiative and especially in this _____. Also congratulating President Clinton on the employees of Counsel on Women, to establish the Special International Counsel on Women in Agriculture. And the mechanics of forming up and fulfilling the commitments assumed of the United Nations for Work Conference of Women in Agriculture, in Australia, four years ago. In the twentieth century we have witnessed spectacular breakthroughs in science, culture, and technological development. The divided and confrontation wall is now a thing of the past, and their are hopes of building a world based on cooperation, dialog, and human sole development, a more equitable thwart. Despite this advance, human kind is still facing enormous difficulties, such as extreme poverty, the lack of a predictable participation of the civil society, degradation with bio-warming, and the global warming, the dissemination of large portions of the planet, threats to personal safety, and the failure to achieve peaceful co-existence. The challenge of agriculture to feed the 800 million hungry people in the world, and ensure there is enough food to feed an ever increasing world population. In the face of such difficulties we must establish new parables. The racing for the time of development that is more equitable, democratic, intuitive and sustainable for all the world's inhabitants. The rapid and permanent changes we brought about by economic globalization and technological transformation provide excellent opportunities to institute the newest style of development, who is starting point and ultimate goal is great to the well being of the human kind. From our standpoint, given the conditions and demands of today, it is essential to reposition agriculture and build a new vision of agriculture, a vision that we call a holistic vision. That's to say division of agriculture with other sectors of the economy, such as industrial, health, education, tourists, travel, trade and investment and many others. The world has enough land, water, and human and economic resources to produce the food it needs. However, all the resources must be managed in a sustainable and logical facet. To put in the words of Mahat Maghandi, I quote, "What the risk in the world, is to fishing for human needs, but not for human greed." Investment in agriculture and rural areas must be stepped up and cleared suitable as table and precise rule must be defined that we allow producers to take the best possible decisions and actions. More suitable organizational motives are required, they must be creative, acknowledgeable, efficient, and competitive. To provide production support services in areas such as marketing, information, technology generation, transfer, training, infrastructure, and biotechnology. The great challenge is balancing the needs of the state, civil society, and the market, through processes that are _______ modernization with the markets. In order to insure that agriculture reaps the benefits of the new international context. The context of the market is directly related and linked to this conference, women in agriculture to feed the world. Because one of the elements essential for achieving democracy is the creation of equal opportunities for men and women. This international conference provides and opportunity to have some reflections on the nutrients in agriculture and how they related to the needs of women and the creation and strength of opportunity for them to participate on equal footing in the differences field of social, political, economic, and cultural life. Since the creation in 1940 to the Inter-American Cooperation on Agriculture has been involved in effort to create a space and for more opportunities for women in agriculture. Both in regards to technical and vocational training in the agricultural and agro-industrial field. And to the promotion of affirmative action designed to gradually reverse the exclusion and the discrimination against women acknowledging their contribution to agriculture activities and the development of science in this field. As a result and response to the ______ issue by the Inter-American Board on Agriculture of IICA, IICA will be in it's executing technical corporation actions within the scope of it's resources and the member congress and at the reposition of agriculture a citation for the holistic view and the inclusive, sustainable, competitive, and equity perspective. We are a system that the First Lady of the America in develop and creating a program to foster and stimulate the women in agriculture. Our message is that we must choose the path of sustainability, competitiveness and equity. And on the inclusive issue on behalf of all the women and men, a life today, and for future generations. I urge you of this conference and on this planet to take this leadership in promoting and developing not only in the new context of the economic order of organization and trade to produce the trade, the food to feed the world, but also as you have always done to feed the world with love, with peace with justice. It think that we should not forget, not only that important role in feeding the world, in feeding the home with love. And that is what we begin to create the relationship with women with democracy. And democracy begins in our home. I hope, sincerely hope, that the spirit of Melbourne Australia, and the spirit of Washington in the United States, drive all the forces, your leadership, your intelligence, your litigation, in order to build this new society of the new millennium. It is a society of love, understanding, mutual respect and social justice.

Thank you very much. Gracious on Carlos.

You will have to suffer my English because they told me that you have no translation. I want in the beginning to congratulate Dr. Kinno for his speech, and I want to tell you the importance of IICA in this hemisphere of the world in the development of agriculture. My country Canada had during the month nada stationed to stay in IICA, and now the Prime Minister Accredia decides some weeks ago that Canada will be a new member of IICA. And will stay in IICA. We are very happy of that. And will try to work very closely with you and your organization in the future. The biotechnology is a very, very large subject. And I would like to participate very actively to the discussion in this afternoon, but I must leave within the next two hours. But I will just give some words to prepare your verbal fighting in the next year. Because biotechnology we can take on a good side and we can take on the bad side too. In the past we had many, many good evolution and invention in biotechnology, agriculture research. If we talk about some genetic manipulation for _______ those by example. Where we can have some grain without pesticide. Again the insects. That's an example of the evolution of the biotechnology. In summary in part of the biotechnology like genetic manipulation on the animal can afraid some people. I saw myself some salmon last summer in our research center where we did some manipulation. If you take two eggs from the same mother, after about 18 months it's about 6 inch. And the other one after manipulation in the same times, 24 or 25 inch or 5 or 6 pounds. I told them at this moment if you do that with some mice we will have some trouble later. That's an example. In Canada we have some a program, a research program that works with the industry, where we have a sharing fee, share fees, between the industry and the government. And when the industry puts $1 the government puts $1, and at this time the research we have done in our center, in collaboration with the industry. And the researches are very, very fixit on the need of the industry. And the government take part in the research, and they can have survey on the research, and the industry can keep their invention or discovery for 3 or 5 years after. This program is in place since five years, we re- conduct the program for the next 5 years because we had a very, very big success with this program. And we think that the government must be enclosed in the research and development particularly in the sector like agriculture and agro-food. We must also ask to the population what they think about the evolution and some inventions or discoveries. Two or three weeks ago in the Providence of Quebec they did survey and 70% of the population was in favor of a genetic manipulation for a vegetable, but 70% was against with the animal. And I think that's very important to have the thinking of the population about this evolution. The same thing, when we talk about salubrity or safety food. I speak about electronic pasteurization, which we call combined irradiation of salubrity and the safety of food. In US here you have a big step to do now, with this manner to have more salubrity in your food. And you did that since many years, and I know that since last December you can irradiate all the red meat. That's evolution for you. We saw in many countries some accident for by bacteria in the last years. Everybody must think to some new manners to be sure that we have some food of quality and we have a good salubrity in our production. That's some pastoral thing I like to tell you. I will like to discuss with you about that, that's very, very interesting. But the agriculture and agro-food will enesticize more and more knowledge, that's sector where our young can be fixed for a new professional for the future. That's a very important sector. That's a sector that will be in development. I don't speak about nuitri torscle food too. That will be a new market, we have some prediction for $500 billion dollars for this market in the next 10 or 12 years. And many countries, with some particular foods and some particular fruit can take some advantage of this new market. And all this thing will be a discussion for you. And like I said this morning, I think you, like women, you have a very very important part to bring to the industry for the evolution of this industry. I'm sorry to leave you so fast. I want to thank you to invite me and I ask to other people of my country to take as many, many notes because I'm very interested to know what you will discuss, which is your result and your suggestion. Thank you very much. Merci Ben.

[No Translators]

[Speaker #3]

[Speaking in foreign--can not translate.]

Now it gives me very great pleasure to tell you about key note speaker this afternoon, Flora McDonald is a women who has always been ahead of her times. For many years the only women in the Canadian House of Commons, she was the natural choice to serve as Canada's first women Foreign Minister in 1979. She has also served as Minister of Employment, and Immigration and Minister of Communications. Long an advocate for women's equality and the systemic changes to achieve it. Flora McDonald has spent the past ten years traveling the globe to pursue the agenda of development, equality, and peace in part as the Chair of International Development Research Center in Ottawa. It gives me very great pleasure to introduce to you the Honorable Flora McDonald.

What a distinguished head table, and ladies and gentlemen, I feel very privileged to have been asked to address this impressive gathering. And I know from even very preliminary discussions, that this will be an exciting session. You will be addressing a wide variety of issues, connected with the vitally important topic of food security. Among you are specialists and scientists in the fields of biological diversity, biotechnology, intellectual property, sustainable development and others. And while I make no particular claim to any specialized knowledge in these fields, I am familiar with one particular aspect of food security, and that is the role and contribution of women. I have seen what women agriculturalists operating under widely different circumstances in many different parts of the world can and have accomplished. And what I find to be most impressive is the ability of women to organize and get things done, when they have the opportunity to do so. My great regret is that governments, bureaucrats, and international agencies generally fail to recognize the singular organizing ability of women for the great asset that it is. A tremendous resource like so many others in the world, could be said to be literally going to waste, but as individuals and as groups women are showing that this need not be so. And that's what I'd like to concentrate on for the next few minutes. A recent Canadian publication connecting with the world, forecasts that before the end of this current decade, seventeen of the world's 20 largest mega-cities will be in countries of the South. Now consider that prediction in the context of trends towards concentration, industrialization, and dispossession of peasant farmers. More and more agricultural land is being lost, more and more people numbering in the millions are moving to the cities. The increase in urban population and urban sprawl is changing the face of agriculture. Twenty-years ago Susan George wrote, "if you want to eat, you must be able to grow your food, or to buy it, or a combination of both." For the millions of newly arrived urban dwellers, who can't afford to buy food, the only answer is to grow it. And as a result, urban agriculture is booming. Millions of people in cities in the South have become farmers in recent years, growing vegetables, raising livestock, and practicing other types of agriculture in urban areas. And here women are playing leading roles, although to do so, they must overcome numerous obstacles and restrictions. For despite being a widespread practice, urban agriculture is not considered a legitimate form of urban land use. And most local authorities and planners do not support it. As the main cultivators of urban space in their quest to feed their families, women are the ones who come into direct conflict with urban managers. But for instance, in Campala, in Uganda, a group of determined women set out to convince city counselors of the necessity to revise Campala's bilaws to make use of urban land. And their successful efforts have been mirrored elsewhere and they have benefitted all those engaged in crop production and animal husbandry in those cities. In Bangladesh, a sizable group of women are visible testimony to the impact and the value of organization. They are participants in a Care Canada lead and Setta Funded project called the Rural Road Maintenance program. It's aim is to assist destitute women, in Bangladesh, women who are widowed or abandoned or divorced are frequently relegated to the status of non-entities, they are literally drop outs from society. Destitute and desperate their lives are a continuous search of ways to feed themselves and their children. In 1985, Care Canada gave a four year contract to 78 thousand of these women, to carry out road maintenance on some of the hundred thousand kilometers of dirt roads over which the produce of rural Bangladesh is brought to market. The work is difficult, often back breaking, these women can count on a regular wage paid twice a week, with a small sum being held back and deposited in a bank account for each woman. During the last few months of her four year contract, each roadworker receives training in how to operate a small business. When she leaves the program her bank savings are released to her, and she gets help to set up her own small business. Raising chickens, operating a fruit store, financing a bicycle rickshaw. Of the half million women who have passed through this program in the last thirteen years, 73% of them today are operating small businesses. These once destitude drop outs from society have changed their economic status. They've developed skills, gained confidence, and assumed leadership. They are now an organized force in the villages. And their networking strengthens them to take on new responsibilities. In the general election, 72 of these women ran for parliament and 36 of them were elected. [applause] Their goal in this new status is to insure a greater degree of food security for people whose situation today mirrors theirs of a few years earlier. And what began it's life as an aid project has become agent of social change in Bangladesh. But it took organization to bring it about. One of the most impressive examples of the organizing ability of women occurred in Zimbawa during the worst drought Southern Africa had experienced in over a hundred years. The failure of the long rains, devastated crops, particularly maze, reduced scarce water supplies and placed the lives of millions of people at risk from starvation and disease. Zimbawa had long been the bread basket of Southern Africa, but during the prolonged drought the government of that country seemed paralyzed. Unable to cope with the prices. Not so Settan Bizzo Neony, than the founder and coordinator of the Organization of Rural Associations Per Programs. Or Orapp as it's known. Which is located throughout Western Zimbawa. With an organization of over one million people. It is the largest grass roots organization in Southern Africa. During the devastating Settan Bizzo and ORAPP went into action. In the early morning she would turn up at the main cities markets to harass and bully commercial farmers, those who had irrigation, into giving her whatever vegetable, cabbages, carrots, turnips, whatever they could spare, and trucks then transported the vegetables to her headquarters where women from the surrounding villages waiting to begin their days work. From dawn to dusk, to the rhythm of their own singing, the women cut up the vegetables and spread them out in the sun to dry. The following day they'd bag the dried vegetables, along with lentils, and powdered milk. Meanwhile, Setta Bizzo and her organization had set up 600 hundred feeding stations throughout Western Zimbawa, all run by volunteers and every morning 200 hundred thousand children came to the centers to be fed a nourishing meal from the bagged vegetables. All and all it was a superb feet of organization displaying the power of human resources properly harnessed. Just recently I returned from Bolivia, where I had been visiting projects sponsored by Help Age International, a non-governmental organization working with the destitude elderly in some 70 countries. In Bolivia as elsewhere, women form the majority of the elderly population. One project in particular is a great example of what can be done under duress. It's called the Group o'deancians, the ewiches. The ewiches are a group of women, who have moved from the countryside to out skirts of the Capitol, LaPass. As their small plots of land became nonproductive through overuse and inadequate water supplies, they had followed the younger people to the city, once there however, they found themselves forced to live on the streets. But the ewiche women of Alpaca wool and shawls, and as the group grew they made contact with a group of older people in Sweden who helped sell the wool and products. The ewiches have since expanded their activities to look after all their basic needs, they lobbied for and took possession of a small piece of land. Than they set about building a house, constructing it themselves, a room at a time as they raised the money, they have since added a kitchen, with running water and electricity. And at any one time about fourteen older people live in the house, and another twenty come in for the day, working and eating a substantial noon meal, the highlight of the day. Drawing on the knowledge they have gained over the years, and the years of experience and experiment, they have now set up a small pharmacy of traditional medicines, the only one in their neighborhood. The ewiches are determined to maintain their customs, their values, their way of life as best they can. Now these are anecdotal examples of impressive efforts by women in different parts of the world. I have no doubt that many of you can relate similar stories. By themselves, none of these projects can affect widespread change, but if the overall impact of all such examples were to be aggregated the result would be phenomenal. However, would still only a drop in the bucket, compared to what could really be accomplished, if the organizing abilities of women were given free reign. That however, requires radical change in social, economic, and cultural policies and approaches in many jurisdictions. It also requires a new respect for and appreciation of generations old knowledge of which women are the primary custodians. This century has witnessed a break through for women in a variety of fields, not least, in advances as agricultural researchers, scientists, and practitioners. And I want to highlight that word practitioners. Much of what has been accomplished can be traced to the nurturing of their knowledge. That will become an even more critical factor, as we embark on new creative ventures and working partnerships for the next millennium. The competition to agricultural research and development as a top priority in an increasingly globalized world will be fierce. But given the talents that women have traditionally displayed as agriculturists, and given the global networks that are being created to coordinate the activities and the organizing abilities of women around the world. I have no doubt that many of the achievements in the twenty-first century towards global food security will come about as a result by the efforts of women, but only if it is widely recognized that the inherent talents, the knowledge and the creativity of rural women are vital to the decision making processes. Thank you.

Thank you so much Mrs. McDonald. If you ever need a traveling companion, I have a valid passport that is always ready to go. At this time I would like to introduce the other people at this table who have helped with the coordination this afternoon. Claris Solis, the Director of Sustainable Rural Development and Advisor to the Director General of IICA. Also the Honorable Dr. Martalucci Harlamego former US Ambassador to Honduras, and the Vice President of the board of the Agro Future Foundation. Miss Maureen Macteer, Author, Professor of Law, Technology, and Genetics, who will help with the system that we have arranged for this afternoon. We are at this time going to ask our honored presenters to leave the stage for a moment so that they can get out of the line of fire and we can bring on our panel members please.

I will introduce them in the order that they will be making their presentations. OK first, Dr. Bondonna Sheba, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, next Miss Beverly Simmons, Assistant Deputy Administrator for the International Trade Policy Division, Foreign Agricultural Service, USDA, next Mr. Ray Molling, Vice President of Monsanto in Canada, one of our sponsors this afternoon, than Miss Rosina Sararno, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Dr. Golessas Jyuma, Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, and finally Ambassador Beatrice Ymanomatchoti, Permanent Representative to Peru to The Organization of American States. Now we'll turn it over to Marie McTerre. I'm a Canadian Lawyer specializing in health law and technology. And I'll moderate today's panel with the assistant of Marie Lucie Hallamiyo, who is Vice President of the Agro Future Foundation, and formerly US Ambassador to Honduras during the Carter administration. This conference on Rural Women and Agriculture gives us an opportunity to stop and take stock of what has been achieved and what remains to be done to insure several national and international objectives. Narrowly the key objective is given to us as feeding the world. But to do that we must also meet more importantly and perennially elusive goals including giving rural people the tools and the influence to have their voices heard and listened to, changing existing systems to recognize and respect the very people public policy is drafted to serve. And integrating women in a real and positive way, into all decision making in government, the community, and industry. The panel on this specific topic should be considered as a starting point to ongoing dialogue across national boundaries and individual backgrounds. In the few minutes that we have today, only the bare bones of the issues can be raised. None of you in this rooms a major break through in an hour and a half. To ensure that this dialogue can continue though, we're asking all of you to fill out the page on your chair and to leave it with us at the desk. The panelists before you this afternoon come from different backgrounds to ensure real dialogue they have kindly agreed to limit their remarks to five minutes each and to speak to only one specific question. And that question is. What new ways can we find to achieve food security that empower rural women and respect their local knowledge? [Question restated in foreign translation (2)]

Our first speaker is Dr. Vandana Sheeva, who will be with us by telephone. She's unable to be with us in person, but using electronics, she will be with us electronically. Dr. Sheeva is the Founder and Chair of the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Natural Resource Policy in India and she will address asked within the context of biodiversity, women's knowledge, and intellectual property rights. And now with the help of Fabiola. Yes I'm here. Let me first say how sorry I am not to be with you all personally. But let me say I am delighted that I can at least participate indirectly, through the electronic media. Three days ago while I was preparing my contribution for this conference I was at our farm, in Varadume where we observe more than 300 rice varieties, and about 60 legume varieties up in the mountains, we do this all with partnership with nature, using no chemicals, using no fossil fills, or areticbullics are our alternatives to chemicals or fertilizers which pollute the soil. Their also alterative to tractor or fossil fills, which is creating the tremendous climatic and stability which in the future will become a major threat to food security. I was walking past our bosnaty nurseries and thinking of the fact, bosnaty, the aromatic rice for which our valley is famous world wide. Is now patented by a US Company called Rice Tech, and the patent number 5663454. Rice Tech claims that bosnaty is the instant invention of another rice line. The name which we use on our farm for pest control, and which my mother and grandmother have used and women of Inida have used for centuries, as pesticide and fungicide has been patented by corporations like WR Preve. We have a challenge in the European Patent office and we are hoping that this patent will be revoked. This phenomena of the piracy of the innovation of third world women that has taken place over millennium by corporations today through intellectual property rights can not become the partnership of a future agriculture in which women are at the center, and all cultures are given respect. Partnership with third world women necessitates changes in the dominant thinking about intellectual property rights. It requires revisions on the trade release of intellectual property rights of the World Trade Organization. It also in my view, needs changes in the United States Patent Act, which allows ramped piracy of our biodiversity related knowledge. I look forward to the fact that through Convention on Biological Diversity, particularly Article 8-J, we will find a place to strengthen the role of women in conserving and utilizing agricultural biodiversity sustainably. Women farmers have been the seed keepers and freed breeders over the millennium, the bosnaty just one among a hundred thousand varieties of rice evolved by Indian farmers. Diversity and perreniality is our culture of the seed. In Central India which is a valuable center of diversity, at the beginning of every agricultural season on the festival of Octi, farmers bring their diversity seeds together, exchange them, and renew their pledge to the earth and to each other to consummate saving seed and sharing seed. However, intellectual property rights are making this duty to the earth and to each other a criminal act. The attempt to prevent farmers from saving seed, is not just being made through new intellectual property rights laws, it is also being made through new genetic engineering technology. Delta and Pineland which is now owned by Monsanto, and the United States Department of Agriculture have established a new partnership through a jointly held patent which is 5723785, and a patent for which applications have been made in 78 countries to be sure that seed does not germinate after harvest. Termination of germination is a means for capital communication and market expansion, but it is also a means to terminate evolution and termination farmer's freedom to save seed. When we sow seeds, we pray may this seed be exhaustless. Monsanto and the USDA on the other hand, and to be saying, let this seed be terminated so that our profits and monopoly is exhausted. There can not be a partnership which destroys nature's renewability and regeneration and the commitment to continuity of life held by rural farmers in the third world. The two world views do not merely clash, their mutually exclusive. There can be no partnership between the logic of death on which Monsanto bases it's expanding empire, and the logic of life on which women farmers in the third world base their partnership with the earth to provide food security to their families and communities. There are other dimensions of the mutually exclusive intrascent prospective of third world women farmers and biotechnology corporations such as Monsanto. The most widely appraised genetic engineering technique is the technique of breeding crops to be resistant to herbicide. The most wide spread crops cultivated are monsanto's round up ready, soy and cotton. However, if these crops were to be brought to the third world, they would have sold not just the knowledge of third world women, but also their livelihood base. Because what are we for Monsanto are food, fetur, and medicine for our people. In Indian agriculture women use a hundred and fifty different species of plants for vegetables, fetur, and health care. In West Bango a hundred and twenty-four weed species are used by farmers. In New Mexico four hundred and twenty-five wild plant species are used. The spread of round up ready crops would destroy the diversity that protects our soils from erosion, it would destroy the protection from tropical rain and sun. Contrary to much propaganda that is associated with the spread of herbicide resistant crops. This would not protect soils from erosion. A common myth used by Monsanto is that without genetic engineering we will not be able to feed the world. However, if you look at productivity from the perspective of woman, it turns out, that in the biodiversity paradigm which is what we need to be adopting in the next millennium. Small farms, that the majority of women farmers of the third world are productive on have hundreds and thousands times higher productivity, biologically and in biodiversity terms, than the large industrial multi-culture farms based intensive input which destroy the earth and destroy the role of women in agriculture. Agriculture based on diversity, decentralization, and improving small farm productivity through ecological methods, is a women centered nature friendly agriculture. And in this women centered agriculture, knowledge is shared, other species are kin, not property, and sustainability is based on renewal of the earth's fertility and renewal and regeneration of biodiversity, and species richness on farms, which are the alternative to toxic consardis chemicals as external inputs. In our paradigms place there are no for multicultures and monopolies. Multi-cultures and monopolies symbolize in my view, a materialization of agriculture. Not the deepening of women's contribution. The world mentality underlying military industrial agriculture is evident from the names being given to the name given to herbicides destroy the economic basis of the survival of the poorest women in the rural areas of the third world. Monsanto's herbicides, of course round-up, machete, lasso. American Home Products, which has recently merged with Monsanto calls it's herbicides bentagan, browl, scepter, squadron, lightning, assert, avenge. This is the language of war, not sustainability. Sustainability needs peace with the earth. [applause] The violence intrigant, to methods and methosoles used by global Agro business and technology corporations is a violence against natures biodiversity and women's expertise and productivity. The violence intrigant to destruction of diversity through multi-cultures and the destruction of the freedom to save and exchange seed through intellectual property rights monopolies

is inconsistent with women's nonviolent ways of knowing nature and providing food security. This diversity of knowledge systems and production systems is the way forward for ensuring that third world women continue to play a centered role as knowers, producers, and providers of food. And for this we have recently joined up world wide to launch the movement for diverse women for diversity to ensure that the next millennium is a celebration of diversity, not it's extinction and we look forward to the continuation of this very important dialogue which has been initiated a this roundtable. Thank you.

Thank you Dr. Sheeva. And thank you for making the effort to be with us electronically. We appreciate both what you have presented to us, and we thank you for setting the stage in such a dynamic way for our discussion on partnership and ways in which we can meet challenge of food security and the empowerments of local rural women and the protection of the their knowledge.

Our second speaker is Beverly Simmon, who began her career as Agricultural Economist in the Oil, Seed and Product Division of the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service, where she's now Assistant Deputy Administrator for International Trade Policy. Her presentation will tell us how the structure and procedures of world trade allow agricultural producers with ready access to biotechnology and it's benefits. Good afternoon, I bring you greetings from the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture. I know you have a very busy schedule this week but I would be very remised if I did not extend an invitation to you to the annual opening of our USDA Farmers Market which will occur on Thursday. So if you have some free time at lunch on Thursday, swing by the Department. Biotechnology offers farmers an invaluable tool for producing more productive crops, food with a more nutritional content with less reliance on chemical pesticides, and more efficient use of herbicides and fertilizers. For small farmers, including rural women biotechnology is a tool that can be used to produce crops that are appropriate to their economic and agronomic situation. The use of this technology can increase production of crops per hectare resulting in a more efficient use of land. One additional aspect of the technology to keep in mind. Is the fact that it is the seed. This means that farmers do not necessarily have to change their cultural practices or provide high level of inputs to benefit from this technology. There are a number of examples where through public private partnerships small farmers have benefitted from biotechnology. I will use one example that is close to home. In Hawaii small papyrus were on the verge of loosing their livelihood because of ramped virus infection. A virus resistant papyrus was produced through biotechnology by researchers at Cornell University. Through the coordinated efforts of these researchers, Monsanto, USDA, and The Association of Papyrus Producers these papyrus can be planted in Hawaii and other suitable areas of the world. There are a number of examples of how biotechnology is being used to development crop varieties that will be useful to small farmers in developing countries. Improved bananas in Kenya, drought resistant corn being developed by The International Maze and Wheat Improvement Center to name a few. At USDA we are working through a number of programs to help foster the development that is so necessary in agricultural sectors around the world. Our efforts include, scientific cooperation, technical assistance in areas of food processing and distribution, plant and animal protection, soil and water conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, and more. USDA has established programs that encourage the collaboration between scientists and developing countries, and scientists and the United States. With the duel goal of enabling scientists from developing countries to expand research in their own country and develop products that will be useful in their country. Trade is an important component in allowing agricultural producers world wide ready access to this growing technology. How do the procedures of the World Trade Organization affect the continued progress being made and bringing the benefits of biotechnology to producers including small rural farms. The WTO was established in January 1, 1995 as the multi-lateral institution charged with administering agreed upon rules for trade among member countries. The WTO is both a code of rules and a forum, for countries to discuss and resolve trade disputes and continue negotiations toward expanding World Trade Opportunities. The WTO is not a government. Individual countries retain their right to determine, how they will make national laws conforming to their international obligations. One of the most basic tenants of the WTO is transparency. Notification, publication, and uniform application of trade regulations are required by all members of the WTO. The principle of transparency is carried through the agreements on agriculture and sanitary and final sanitary measures. Prior to the sanitary and final sanitary agreements. There were no effective international rules to distinguish trade protectionist measures from legitimate import regulations to ensure food safety or to otherwise protect the health of people, animals and plants. In closing, a strong emphasis is needed to ensure that farmers and consumers around the world have access to approved products resulting from biotechnology. In laboratories and research centers of dedicated scientists around the world, biotech pools are being developed to go beyond traditional plant breeding and meet our commitments to world hunger and preservation of our environment. Scientific cooperation between countries needs to be encouraged to help solve critical problems such as trade barriers and final sanitary issues, food safety, and exotic diseases, and pests. The structure and procedures of the WTO assure open, predictable, and science based processes that are necessary to facilitate collaborative efforts in bringing the benefits of biotechnology to all agricultural producers. She says stop. Thank you. Thank you very much Beverly.

Our next speaker is Ray Molling, a Vice President and Director of Monsanto's Life Sciences businesses in Canada, which includes agricultural, pharmaceutical, and consumer products in food ingredients. He has worked for Monsanto in both Mexico and Brazil. This afternoon he will explore the use of microcredits for women agricultural producers as a partnership option access to better technology and farm inputs. Mr. Molling. Thank you, Dr. Sheeva are you there. Yes, I'm here. Good just checking. This may sound a little silly but it is a pleasure to be here. I must admit the that listening to Dr. Sheeva that I personally and certain many people that I work with in my company don't minimize at all the challenges involved in bringing technology like this forward. What I have is just a few moments, so what I'd like to talk about is some of the solutions, obviously because we're providing allot of material to talk to, it shows that we're in action I guess. So I'd like to talk a little bit about biotechnology and what it is, and than talk about the microcredit program that we're very actively involved with because I think that it addresses some of the challenges involved in this conference. Again, I don't have time to go into details. Biotechnology is an extension of traditional plant breeding by adding selected traits to using living organisms whether that's plant or animal. And it's not just herbicide tolerance. The early products are agronomics essentially and their dealing disease, and virus and insect protection as well. The end result of these technologies it increases yield, improves quality of crops, and improves grower efficiencies. Which for those of us closer to it, means less energy used to farm essentially. And it secures natural resources in an effective way. It meets the demand for food, and secures natural resources. One of the things we often talk about is the ability of the world to sustain the production and consumption of more things as we call it, or stuff. In effect, what this technology is doing is moving information, so enabling a plant to resist a beetle, for example. So that's moving information. One other speaker referred to the fact that the technology is in the seed, which offers huge advances in the introduction of the technology, as opposed to allot of other technologies where there's an awful lot of training, development involved. This just shows you that early products which makes it a little more difficult for organizations like ours to have a dialogue with people, or agronomic benefits. So they really bring benefits to growers. The next wave we're obviously getting into nutritional benefits, and someone else had mentioned nuitraceuticals. Which is exciting new potential link to health and healthcare issues, that are increasingly dominating the world systems in healthcare. Next slide please. Again, quickly the seed carries the information so all you have to do is plant it. And what this is doing is replacing seed with insecticides, herbicides and energy. So the case for it is that at least one potential solution food security is biotechnology. Some of the greatest needs are in emerging economies, and the barriers that have been identified, not by us, but many, many others are capital, knowledge and access to these technologies. And I would offer that Microcredit is one partnership answer to address that. It's a program that enables small loans to the world's poorest, it's been operating for some eighteen years. It's not a brand new program. The recipients are usually women. It offers its linkages to business understanding, trade and education, and some of the benefits there in the last point have also been encompassed Microcredit. So why Microcredit as a program. I guess we're so involved very often inventing a new programs. This one already exists. It captures the value of partnership and it connects in a respectful way to local knowledge. Why are corporations one of the roles that, at least my company is involved in, is in a substantive way, our Chairman who chairs a part of Microcredit where we're bringing awareness of Microcredit to other corporations. Why, because there's a lack of involvement by the private sector in this whole area. It links with commercial goals, there's nothing wrong with that, it links to consumers, it improves social stability, and has some of the other ramifications that we're only starting to realize in tap. We're new into this whole process. Potential partners beyond the recipients of the credit and the programs are financial institutions, obviously you need people to lend the money, corporations as I mentioned, engos, science organizations, foundations, educational institutions, the media can be involved, there's allot of linkages here with organizations that have only recently been tapped. And finally, I'll refer to an initiative that we announced in terms of specific things that we're doing last week in New York at the Microcredit Forum, the latest forum. We announced a major center, Monsanto Center for Environmentally Friendly Technologies, it combines our science with the Grehman's Bank which is the link to low income families. The major elements of the program are local crop focus which again is important, we have a demonstration farm as part of this training and access to input. So it's a pretty exciting project and substantive one in Bangladesh and the Center will be located in Doca. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share some of these thoughts. Well, thank you Ray, I'm sure that's an issue which Dr. Sheeva will speak to and others as well the issue of Microcredit switch, I am proud to say was something that was introduced sometime ago, when Flora was Foreign Minister and in charge of Canadian International Development Agency. It's been around for a long time, and such a simple tool, and one that has helped so many women over the years is now being chosen as a tool for large corporations and banks as an option for access to credit for women. Our next speaker is Rosino Salarino, who is a legal expert with the Conservative Group for International Agricultural Research, or the CGIAR, for those of you who know acronym. Which is a member organization of over fifty governments, foundations, and organizations with 16 research centers around the globe specializing in food crops, forestry, livestock, irrigation management, aquatic resources, and policy issues. Rosino will answer our question through the lens of gender, education and women's participation in agriculture. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. The CGIAR feels that agriculture is not only a means to produce more to feed more people. Agriculture is a trigger that can help human family to cope with the nexus of problems related to property, hunger and environmental degradation. At the same time, we are aware of a fundamental point. All changes in agriculture, advancement in industrial agriculture over the last centuries have not happened by chance. They are the result of experimentation and investment in research. The various aspect of agricultural research from problems implification to methodology and dissemination of the results of the research have social and gender implication.

The technologies must be developed. Agriculture research is not an end in itself. We are there to develop it is technology oriented. Technologies must be used, and than they must be effective. Technologies should improve the farmers welfare, and through that the community welfare. In this perspective, we consider appropriate technology to be developed by the centers, not a specific package of tool and technique. But an approach that reflects are particular view of society. To ensure that the view and globes are human perspective, we had to involve women at different ends of the research. For instance, it is interesting to know that gender could explain differential property in the local rice in agriculture water construction program in Africa. Researchers assessed the tingclint criteria, deemed to be important by local population, in choosing rice variety. Men tended to stress economic factors, agronomic factors, including yen. While women were especially interested in processing characteristics, how much of food and fuel is needed to cook different varieties, how well different types keep both before and after preparation. With a need, more and more women scientists, more women at the universities, more women in agriculture extension, and in the design and execution of projects. The CGIAR is than relevant progress is done in promoting that excellent program in the past five years. But more life in front of us. There is no doubt that in the coming millennium we will witness a scientific and technological revolution. The basic question however, here is, to what extent the result of this revolution will be to mankind. We run the risk as most of the advanced technique and progress of today, to be faced with sort of a scientific apathy. In recent years, the development of intellectual protection on the result of research has increased the complexity of the research environment. Knowledge was once a public commodity. It is today a private goal. The issue of intellectual property rights are especially relevant than for an organization

like the CGIAR. Which has a mission of working, on the behalf of small farmers, and increase the food production security. It is feared that the germ plasma provided freely by the center it was no mention to you before, but the center hold in task more than 600,000 ag sections of germ plasma, in there insetos bank, so it was feared that this germ plasma provided freely by the center, and could become objective of exclusive monopoly and could become incorporated into material property by the recipient. Also by your technology research of center could be conditioned by restricted access to proprietary signed as most of advanced technique as I mentioned before are privatized after they private. We have than the clear perception that evolution IPR system, is going too far to ignore it's implication. One is free to resist this philosophy but we can not avoid the consequences the national and international legal system conform to it. In this contest, the CGIAR is trying to develop new concept, alternative concept. Such as internationally owned goods. Namely possibility of holding the result of research in trust at an international organization. We are also considering new form and model of partnership with the private sector, when we consider the issue of women in front of the new scenario, we have to be aware that the key word remains participation. So no matter what the new technology is participation that makes the difference.