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Intellectual property (IP) rights are a source of hidden wealth worth trillions of dollars, and they impose hidden costs on the same scale. The rules of intellectual property range from confusing to nearly incomprehensible, and the professional practitioners who manage these rights sometimes seem to belong to a secret society.… The IP system also determines when and how an innovation becomes available for others to use by defining boundaries around what is accessible and what is not. Intellectual property rights help determine which innovations are widely available and which are closed off, separating innovation haves from have-nots. … Ever-stronger intellectual property protection is surely not a panacea to promote technology progress and wellbeing in all countries and industries … intellectual property creates winners and losers and on balance it helps in some situations, hurts in others … intellectual property shapes society – whether for better or for worse.

MICHAEL A. GOLLIN FROM Driving Innovation: Intellectual Property Strategies for a Dynamic World (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

In today's world, access to food is highly, and unacceptably, uneven. There is massive overproduction and over-consumption, and yet millions experience scarcity and hunger. This book looks at some of the forces and rules shaping the food system and who has control over it. In particular, it focuses on rules on intellectual property – for example patents, plant breeders' rights, trademarks and copyright – and their relations to other rules on biodiversity, an essential requirement for food security. It looks through the lens of intellectual property (IP) at the future control of food and farming, because rules on IP are central to struggles over the distribution of wealth and power in the 21st century.

When, from the 16th century onwards, the colonial powers reorganized the world to suit their economic interests, drew up state boundaries and secured resources for their use, they set the stage for trade patterns and future conflicts that still ring around the planet. Today, the colonies are mostly gone and there are around 200 nation states, yet through a series of quite unbalanced negotiations among these states, the most powerful countries are still able to shape the rules of the world in their interests. Nowadays, their concerns include intangibles like IP and the use of genetic resources. The new international rules on these, agreed since the early 1990s, will do much to shape the future control of food. Yet these often complex and remote negotiations are little known or influenced by the billions of people who will be affected by them. This book is a guide to both the negotiations and these new global rules. At stake are the livelihoods of 2.5 billion people still directly dependent on agriculture and the long-term food security of us all. The IP regime, a new factor in many countries, along with a changing trade regime and new agreements on biodiversity, will help shape the kind of agricultural development in the future. It may include most of these 2.5 billion people, or it may exclude them. Either way their livelihoods will be affected. Moreover, all of us will be affected by the way these rules are written, since they will also help shape the food system, the kind of products it produces and the structures through which it delivers them. It is important to know about the mix of rules because changes in one affect others, and concerns over IP overshadow many. Some of the questions that arise are:

• Will the rules facilitate and support the worthy but as yet unfulfilled goals of ending hunger and increasing food security espoused at food summits since the 1970s?
  
  
• Will they increase the capacity of those who need either more food or better food for a healthy life to produce or procure it?
  
  
• Will they promote fairer and more equitable practices among those engaged in ensuring that production reaches all who need it?
  
  
• Will they – the IP regime in particular – create incentives for more ecologically sound and culturally and socially appropriate farming, fishing and herding practices among producers of foodstuffs?

Guide to the Book

The decision to produce this book was, in part, a response to concerns negotiators in various multilateral negotiations raised about the need for such a guide as well as the observation that negotiators or groups working in one area were often unaware of, and sometime undermining, what was happening elsewhere, which we encountered in the Quaker programme of work in this area.¹ In part, it is also a response to food security being the more neglected area by many governments and civil society groups compared with the new IP regime's impact on access to medicines and even access to knowledge. As a recent study noted: 'Unfortunately, for agriculture, genetic resources and traditional knowledge the benefit [for NGO involvement] does not seem to be visible and immediate, so … the pressure for policy outcomes is not as great as for public health and access to medicines' (Matthews, 2006).

This guide seeks to inform a wider audience than negotiators so that civil society, researchers and academics, as well as those leading peasant and farmers' groups, small businesses and government officials, can take a more informed and active part in the complex process of negotiations that lead to international agreements. In that way, a broader range of interests will be in a better position to judge if the rules need amending and be better informed to work locally, nationally and internationally to secure global rules that promote a just and sustainable food system.

Part I begins with a brief overview of the contemporary food system, the basics of IP and its role in the food system. The central core of the book is Part II, which provides the background and a guide to negotiations and the key elements of the agreements. The different chapters aim to:

• help readers see how IP has spread into food and agriculture through various agreements;
  
  
• provide a short guide to the background and history behind each of the agreements;
  
  
• highlight key issues in each of these agreements and emerging trends;
  
  
• note connections to other negotiations – multilateral, regional and bilateral – and national laws; and
  
  
• discuss the various interconnections and complex webs between the different rules and negotiations.

Part III includes discussion on some of the various civil society reactions to these changing global rules and their impact on research and development in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 reflects on these international negotiations and makes a number of observations that may help those seeking to learn lessons from what has gone on. The final chapter briefly draws together some conclusions about the negotiating processes, alternative futures and the nature of innovation needed to face them. Finally, at the end of the book, we provide a table of further resources and institutions to contact for more information.

Document(s) 2 of 20