- Tea to get quality standards, geographic indications. Luigi’s mother-in-law unavailable for comment, but would probably say everybody already knows her tea is high quality and where it comes from.
- And speaking of Africa and commodities…
- Pygmy hog saved from extinction. Pocket pigs deny involvement.
- Big write-up of Ryton Organic Garden. Jeremy bound to comment.
- Perigord black truffle under threat from Chinese invader. Stock up now.
Nibbles: NUS, Value-added, Values, Genebank, IPR
- New Agriculturist focuses on neglected species.
- Chocolate, wine… Fellow could have himself a pretty good weekend in Vegas with that lot.
- Irish evaluate biodiversity, apparently ignore agriculture.
- Sasa schemes to save Scottish landraces.
- The Indian Seed and Patent Acts dissected.
Enola bean patent revoked
As luck would have it I’m at CIAT in Cali, Colombia just as the story of the overturning of the infamous Enola bean patent is gaining traction. Everyone very excited around here.
The EU and “geographic indications”
CTA’s Brussels Office has a useful blog tracking relations between the EU and ACP countries in the fields of agriculture and fisheries. There was an interesting entry yesterday, but unfortunately it doesn’t have a permalink, so I’ll quote it in full:
In its March 2008 issue, ICTSD Trade negotiations insight indicates that EPA negotiations include discussions on intellectual property rights (IPRs). Within the chapters on intellectual property rights, the draft EU texts enclose detailed provisions on ‘geographical indications’. Geographical Indications (GI) is a designation which identifies certain qualities, characteristics or the reputation of a particular product to a specific geographical locality. For centuries communities across Africa have produced goods with a quality associated to a special area and which enjoy a strong reputation with national and international consumers, such as Nile Perch from Lake Victoria, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Geographical indications are by essence a collective right. They allow for the protection of existing products and traditional methods of production and knowledge. GIs encourage variety and diversity of production and allow for a better redistribution of ‘added value’ in the production chain – from the raw material producer to the manufacturer. Yet, GIs come at a certain price: it can take time and effort to build a strong quality product including labelling and marketing. Moreover, a legal framework allowing for registration of indications needs to be put into place, which covers production methods, the technical standards of the product and a verification process safeguarding the specifications set. ACP countries or regions must begin by evaluating the potential benefits GIs could bring to key products such as fish. These must be weighed against the potential costs they could generate. But in the long term, if ACP countries can focus on developing, identifying and protecting GIs on the domestic market, the system could be a valuable tool for sustainable development and economic growth.
Source: ICTSD
Nibbles: Gene smuggling, teaching, UG99, fungi, fermentation, horse, livestock
- Customs unit seizes smuggled chromosomes, Sri Lankan academics uncooperative.
- Teachers urged to use Global Seed Vault in lessons; native Memphian available for comment today!
- No UG99 in Pakistan (yet). Optimism abounds everywhere.
- Cool new book: Fungi in the Ancient World.
- And on a related topic: full text (kinda) of old(ish) book on fermented foods.
- New book peddles old how-horse-domestication-changed-the-world (or at least Europe) story. Prof. Renfrew has already commented. Lengthily.
- Livestock need a Svalbard too. Old, but the videos are nice, and I don’t think we linked to this before.