Hi there,

The media can be the greatest force for peace on Earth. Instead, all too often, it’s wielded as a weapon of war. That's why we have to take the media back. Thanks to a group of generous donors, all donations made today will be DOUBLED, which means your $15 gift is worth $30. With your contribution, we can continue to go to where the silence is, to bring you the voices of the silenced majority – those calling for peace in a time of war, demanding action on the climate catastrophe and advocating for racial and economic justice. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much!

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) gives the Texas based company RiceTec patents on basmati rice

Listen
Media Options
Listen

Related

RiceTec took U.S. Long grain rice and crossbred it with Indian basmati rice to produce the three newly patented hybrid strains of basmati rice: texmati, jasmati, and kasmati. RiceTec has also been given permission to claim that their rice is superior to basmati, though basmati has been grown for centuries in the foothills of the Himalayas.

RiceTec has to answer also to the issue of bio piracy, since the strains of basmati rice they used were produce by the Public Breeding Institute of India. Four years ago, RiceTec Inc withdrew their application for patents, in the face of overwhelming opposition.

We talk with Bruce Hicks, spokesman of RiceTec Inc about whether RiceTec feels that their newly won patents interfere with International patents and trade. We also talk to Sophia Murphy, Director of the trade program at the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis who opposes the biopatenting of seeds (genetic patenting), as they are life forms that farmers have adapted and grown over thousands of years.

00:20:58 unknown song

Related Story

StoryDec 16, 2024Reporter Ken Klippenstein on Publishing Luigi Mangione Manifesto & Internal UnitedHealth PR Memos
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top