their contributions, their knowledge is being 'mined' - not recognised, honoured or conserved. The peasants (or farmers as they're referred to now) who evolved the diversity have no place in DivSeek. It is an extractive project to 'mine' the data in the seed to 'censor' out the commons. It robs the peasants of their seeds and knowledge, it robs the seed of its integrity and diversity, its evolutionary history, its link to the soil and reduces it to 'code'. DivSeek is a global project launched in 2015 to map the genetic data of the peasant diversity of seeds held in gene banks. While living seed needs to evolve 'in situ', patents on genomes can be taken through access to seed 'ex situ'. It is done by taking patents by 'mapping' genomes and genome sequences. Today, biopiracy is carried out through the convergence of information technology and biotechnology.

DivSeek could allow five corporations to own this diversity. Seven million crop accessions are in public seed banks. Mr Gates is also funding Diversity Seek (DivSeek), a global initiative to take patents on the seed collections through genomic mapping. Since 2003, CGIAR centres have received more than $720 million from Mr Gates.īesides taking control of the seeds of farmers in CGIAR seed banks, Mr Gates (along with the Rockefeller Foundation) is investing heavily in collecting seeds from across the world and storing them in a facility in Svalbard in the Arctic - the 'doomsday vault'.

Control over the seeds of the world for 'one agriculture' is Mr Gates' target! The Gates Foundation is a major funder of the CGIAR system - and through its funding, it is accelerating the transfer of research and seeds to corporations, facilitating intellectual property piracy and seed monopolies created through intellectual property laws and seed regulations. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the new World Bank when it comes to using finances to influence policies in agriculture. Farmers' seed heritage is held in the seed banks of CGIAR, a consortium of 15 international agricultural research centers, which is the single biggest recipient of grants from Mr Gates. The World Bank removed Dr Richharia, the guardian of Indian rice knowledge, from CRRI so that it could transfer Indian peasant intellectual property to the international institute (which later became part of the Consultative Group of International Agriculture Research). Dr Richharia refused to allow IRRI in the Philippines to pirate the collection. The Indian institute existed before IRRI, had the largest collection of rice diversity the biggest rice 'bank' in the world. Richharia, India's pre-eminent rice research scientist, headed the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) at Cuttack, Orissa. These institutes took diversity from farmers' fields and replaced the diversity with chemical monocultures of rice, wheat and corn.ĭr. The first two institutions were the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Mexico. When the Green Revolution was pushed in India and Mexico, farmers' seeds were 'rounded-up' and locked in international institutions, which used these seeds to breed green revolution varieties which responded to chemical inputs. The privateers of today include not just the corporations - which are becoming fewer and larger through mergers - but also individuals like Bill Gates, the 'richest man in the world'. A great seed and biodiversity piracy is underway and it must be stopped.

Bill gates doomsday vault