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Biopiracy- The Neem Tree

How indigenous societies view & use their knowledge of the natural world

Ava M. and Dhruv S.

Summary

  • Neem Tree ("tree that cures everything")
  • In 2005, India argued and won a patent battle against the EPO (European Patent Office)
  • Fungicide qualities of the neem tree and its use had been known in India for over 2,000 years.
  • "We were able to establish that traditional knowledge systems can be a means of establishing 'prior art' and thus used to destroy claims of novelty and inventiveness.
  • "This historic precedent must be further developed and transposed into overall international frameworks so that this type of theft is no longer possible."

Summary of Basmati Rice Biopiracy

  • A Texas based company, Ricetec, patented a type of basmati rice, which became a touchstone for anti-globalization protest in the 1990's.
  • ''the battle against Ricetec is just the beginning of India's battle against bio-piracy and theft of indigenous plant wealth.'' - Vandana Shiva
  • Ms. Shiva says that allowing multinational companies to patent indigenous produce and knowledge is a theft and has resulted in the revoking of a European patent for the traditional Indian neem tree.

Basmati Rice

INDIGENOUS Systems

Indigenous Systems tend to have very pure intentions with their knowledge. They share their resources based on the degree of necessity, rather than seeking financial profit.

- From our case study, we can see that the use of the Neem Tree was very extensive in Indian Households, because it was used for medicinal treatment and other daily chores.

Indigenous Systems use their knowledge to share health and wealth, amongst small groups of people, because the scale of economics is relatively small. There is less surplus of resources.

How industrial societies view & use their knowledge of the natural world

How industrial societies view & use their knowledge of the natural world

  • US learned about the neem tree seeds from Indian culture, were not the original people to discover the neem tree
  • use this knowledge to their benefit- profit over people
  • profit- demand for neem seeds rose and the company bought up nearly all seeds, prices rose
  • people- most local farmers couldn't afford the seed and use it for their own farms, the ones who could had to depend on the company & none of the profits went back to the Indian people who had originally made the discovery

Compare and Contrast- The Neem Tree vs. Basmati Rice

Basmati Rice:

-a narrower patent was granted as a resolution

The Neem Tree:

-patent was anulled (first patent to be annulled)

-

Both:

-both conflicts between Indian government and US government

-exploitation of indigenous knowledge

-hurt the people of India, especially farmers: sparked protest (protests numbering in the thousands for both causes)

-US and India took action to protect the exploitation

-multiple other patents or claims on both products

Compare and Contrast

Bibliography

Bibliography

Articles:

“Science/Nature India Wins Landmark Patent Battle.” BBC News, BBC, 9 Mar. 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4333627.stm.

“Biopiracy: the Example of the Neem Tree.” FPS Public Health, 27 Apr. 2016, www.health.belgium.be/en/biopiracy-example-neem-tree.

Rai, Saritha. “India-U.S. Fight on Basmati Rice Is Mostly Settled.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2001, www.nytimes.com/2001/08/25/business/india-us-fight-on-basmati-rice-is-mostly-settled.html.

Image Link:

<img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/616XY0DrgsL._SX425_.jpg" alt="Image result for the neem tree"/>

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