This critique discloses weaknesses in the genebank system managed by the Consultative Group in International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). It contends that the problems originated from a little known agreement between CGIAR and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to create a "trusteeship" system. According to the article, the agreement's intention was to establish legal and political protection from the misappropriation of germplasm held in the genebanks. The CGIAR has been responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing farmer-bred plant varieties for use in the "public domain." The article suggests that CGIAR's secondary motive is to make farmer-bred plant varieties "effortlessly declared public property so that [CGIAR] scientists can freely continue their work." The article also asserts that the trusteeship system has failed to prevent some donated plant varieties from being claimed as intellectual property. While CGIAR-distributed genetic material cannot be patented "in the form received," the article says that a recipient of two similar plant varieties could "cross them together and patent the offspring." In addition, the article castigates the CGIAR for allowing the commercialization of its germplasms and emphasizes that the derived financial benefits have not been shared with the farmers who originally donated seeds to the genebanks. The article predicts that FAO and CGIAR negotiators will experience difficulties in agreeing on provisions that would reformat the trusteeship system to comply with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The piece recommends an alternative: that CGIAR and FAO should "start from scratch and redesign the whole system rather than simply update it." The article can be viewed online at the link below.

** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed for research and educational purposes only. **