Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 10:46:51 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: AUT: Basmati Action Group Formed (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 04:34:36 -0400
From: Sam Lanfranco <lanfran-AT-YORKU.CA>
Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA>
To: LABOR-L-AT-YORKU.CA
Subject: Basmati Action Group Formed

>From: Nandita Sharma <nrsharma-AT-sfu.ca>
>Subject: Basmati Action Group event
>
>Media Release
>
>BASMATI ACTION GROUP (B.A.G.)
>
>On Friday, September 18, 1998 from 7 to 9pm at La Quena (1111 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C.), the Basmati Action Group will be holding[held] a public forum called "Food, Fund and the Facts of Life."
>
>In 1997, the powerful United States Patent Office gave to RiceTec, a U.S.-based corporation, the patent on Basmati rice. By cross-breeding two >Basmati rice varieties, a method that is centures old, this corporation insists that it has "invented" a "novel" variety of this age-old rice from South Asia and is now in the process of trying to get the patenting offices of other countries, including Canada's, to recognize and enforce their patent. They see their patent as a reward for their research.
>
>Around the world, the implications of patenting of life forms is becoming one of the most widely-contested of corporate practices. The newly formed Basmati Action Group (B.A.G.) based in Vancouver,  Canada, is opposed to the patenting of life, such as that of seeds, plants and animals, including humans, because it is a process that wrests control over life's creative and regenerative capacities and places them in the hands of patent holders - usually the owners of multinational corporations.
>
>"The patenting of life forms aids in the introduction of destructive technologies based on genetic engineering into agriculture. This destroys biodiversity, our food security and denies the contributions and knowledge of farmers. Ultimately, the patenting of life forms seriously and negatively affects both food growers and consumers. We are fundamentally opposed to the patenting of life which has been called an act of "biopiracy." Biopiracy benefits only a privileged few at the expense of women, nature and the
>South." says B.A.G. spokesperson Nandita Sharma.
>
>This event will attempt to place the issue of biotechnologies at the centre of political debate in Canada. B.A.G. has already launched a campaign aimed at having the Canadian parliament ban patents on life forms and will use this forum to further this work. Speaking at the event will be Katherine Barrett from the B.C. Biotechnology Circle and B.A.G. spokesperson, Nandita Sharma. Also present will be performances Janisse Browning, a renowned poet and a performance by the "Rice Girls."
>
>For more information, call Allison Campbell at (604) 254-9995 or Nandita Sharma at (604) 255-4910.



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