Interesting piece on how global Intellectual Property treaties are enabling a new kind of colonialism: Big Pharma companies headqaurtered in the industrialized world are "discovering" biotech building blocks in poor countries, patenting them, and using patents to screw the developing world out of the profits.
Bioprospection, or biopiracy, is not a futuristic scenario but a reality. In 1998 the U.S.-based Diversa Corporation signed a deal with the Mexican government to obtain access to the biodiversity of Chiapas. Also in Mexico, British company Nature Ltd. is exploring traditional Maya knowledge of medicinal plants with $2.5 million from the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG), an American public-private consortium that includes the National Science Foundation and the Department of Agriculture.
(Thanks, Allan!)
