Cash crops?: Agricultural biotechnology & intellectual property rights in the developing world

With additional support from The Cornell Genomics Initiative

Improved agricultural products have been available with few restrictions to the world's farming communities for centuries. But today, many of the products and technologies resulting from advances in genetic research are protected by patents.

What does this trend toward private control mean for the developing world? Is protection under intellectual property rights (IPRs) necessary to encourage further innovations that will benefit the poor? Or will the IPR system keep the developing countries in a one-sided dependency on industrial countries? And what exactly is being patented? Ideas? The genetic make-up of indigenous plants? Does the patent system make sense for the world's poor? What are the alternatives to the current IPR system?

Panelists:
* Jeffrey P. Kushan, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP
* John Mugabe, African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS)
* Peter Rosset, Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy
* Gary Toenniessen, The Rockefeller Foundation

Moderator: Alan McGowan, President, The Gene Media Forum
Wednesday, June 20, 2001
12:00 to 2:00 p.m.
New York Academy of Sciences
2 East 63rd Street
New York, New York

Please visit http://www.genomics.cornell.edu/gmo/intro_gmo.htm for background information on agricultural biotechnology and intellectual property rights.

RSVP:
Please contact Akiko Takano at 212-826-0261 or atakano@syr.edu to reserve a seat in advance.

Also note the following events for journalists later that same week. (Please contact the people listed below about these events.)

"Cancer Biology: From Research to Recovery"
Hopkins Foundation Workshop -- Hands-on Science for Journalists
Thursday, 21 June, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm, Cornell University Weill Medical College, 1300 York Ave. at 69th St., New York City
Registration is required. Contact Kathleen Jorgensen at 607-254-6361 or visit http://www.nysep.cornell.edu/hopkins.

"Nanobiotechnology: Interfacing Nanoscale Technology with Biological Systems"
Friday, 22 June, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, also at the Cornell University Weill Medical College, 1300 York Ave. at 69th St., New York City
For information, contact Lorraine Capogrossi at 607-254-5393 or nbtc@cornell.edu. Or visit http://www.nbtc.cornell.edu/program_events.htm.