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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: philv who wrote (21803)	11/1/2004 1:24:18 PM
From: sea_urchin	Respond to of 81003

Phil > Free enterprise ain't so free, is it? Especially when all of nature is owned by the US. I am familiar with the Schmeiser case of the seed blowing onto the farmer's land. In fact, I think there may be other similar cases although I couldn't swear to it. The worst of it is that the GM seed functions as a weed and interferes with the propagation of the natural plant. So whether the farmer likes it or not, he is eventually forced to use the GM seed -- and pay for it -- every year. Of course, we, the end user, have no idea what noxious effects etc the GM food has on us. We simply have to pay -- certainly with our money and possibly with our health. Yes, the US has tried to patent anything that is patentable anywhere in the biosphere, from naturally occurring plants which have a commercial value, like the pyrethrum plant in Kenya, to the human genome. The argument is, since an American has "discovered" the plant, gene, whatever, he is entitled to patent it. Thus anyone wishing to use the pyrethrum plant for insecticide purposes (which I believe has been the case for many years), now has to pay a royalty to the American who "discovered" the chemical in the plant that has the insecticidal property. Anyone who wishes to do anything with any particular human, animal or plant gene which was "discovered" by an American institution or scientist, has to pay royalties to the discoverer. There are various bio-tech companies on the Nasdaq which have capitalized such "discoveries". The Americans are indeed lucky that patent lawyers didn't exist at the time of Columbus because if they did they (the Americans) would be paying royalties to Spain for "discovering" America. As if America wasn't there before Columbus arrived.