Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

148 SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATIONas wheat, rice and soybeans, but the government hasallowed the private sector to trade these commoditiesand changed the law to support private sector trading.The country also faces a cooking oil shortage as theprice of cooking oil went up due to the production ofpalm oil for export to meet the demand for biofuel. Theprivate sector does not pay attention to the domesticdemand since exporting palm oil is more profitable.This situation has led to a domestic food problem. Afterthe introduction of free trade in 2001, Indonesian foodimports were valued at USD2.9 billion; in 2002 thisincreased to USD3.3 billion, 30 percent of which wasprocessed food and beverages. The volume of importsfrom the USA was 25 percent or USD809 millionout of the total value. The food business will probablyexpand further since Indonesian consumers mainlyconsume non-local food.3. Intellectual property rightsUnder the WTO agreement, intellectual property rightshave been applied to agricultural products. In Indonesiaand Japan, laws have been amended and new lawshave been passed that pay more attention to breeders’rights than farmers’ rights. The concept of intellectualproperty rights is based on capitalism, which considerseverything to be a commodity. This law was developedfrom the system of copyrights for industrial products.The industrial sector is, however, different from theagricultural sector, which is considered in many placesto be characterized by a culture of helping one anotherand sharing of seeds and knowledge. In agriculturalsocieties, seed is not a commodity but can be exchangedand shared among farmers. In this way, seed geneticdiversity has increased. Although society changed andfarmers began to buy seeds from the market, nobody haddominant control over the seeds. However, the systemof intellectual property rights has changed the structureof agriculture and converted common property intoindividual property.In Japan, the government passed the 2002 IntellectualProperty Basic Law and launched a policy touse intellectual property rights to create efficientcompetitiveness for agriculture and the food industry.The government promotes the innovation of newtechnology, including new varieties of plants that areto be used in production and the food industry. It hasdeveloped regional brands and strictly controls violationsof the patenting system for imported products that areproduced without permission from the breeder. Theregional brand and patent system will result in a highcost of inputs. It can also be used as trade barrier.In Indonesia, the country passed laws and amendedsome laws on this issue, particularly the Plant VarietyProtection Law. The Plant Variety Protection Law waspassed in 2000 and has created complications for theagricultural sector, as well as increasing conflicts. Forexample, an agribusiness company involved in maizeseed production sued farmers in East Java for sellingmaize seed and using breeding technology belongingto the company. The farmers were arrested and sent tocourt and a guilty verdict was handed down. This casereflects the trend where a more dominant control overgenetic resources will prevent farmers from having accessto seed. The monopoly control over seed will increasethe price of seed and this will no doubt add to farmers’expenses. In addition, the development of technologyhas so far been directed towards the development andpromotion of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).GMO technology will decrease farmers’ self-reliance.Moreover, the law does not recognize farmers’ rightsover native seeds and animal breeds. The new laws notonly reflect the changes in agricultural technology, theyalso change the culture from self-reliance based on smallfarmers’ system of exchange and sharing to a system oftrading (i.e., buying and selling).Sustainable agriculture: Paradigm of self-relianceand farmers’ freedomThe paradigm of sustainable agriculture is the paradigmof self-reliance and farmers’ freedom. Sustainableagriculture emerged from farmers’ adaptations inresponse to corporate control over mainstreamagriculture. Sustainable agriculture includes the conceptof environmental protection, since the environment ispart of farmers’ capital. The use of external, non-localinputs increases the cost of production and makesfarmers dependent on them. Sustainable agriculture isnot only a set of techniques for non-chemical agriculturebut also includes the concept of farmers’ self-relianceand struggle for survival.Sustainable agriculture has many forms in accordancewith each ecosystem in which it is found. In Japan,farmers practice natural farming; this system wasderived from the traditional way of farming butintegrated with new innovations. The pattern of organicfarming developed later. In Indonesia, sustainableagriculture refers to a system of traditional naturalfarming or Integrated Pest Management (IPM), whichhas developed into organic farming. These systems weredeveloped based on farmers’ experiences in the twocountries. This study found that sustainable agricultureis dynamic and plays many important roles, detailed asfollows:Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows