4. Biotechnology products will undermine exports from Third World countries especially from small-scale producers.
- 70,000 farmers in Madagascar growing vanilla were impoverished when a Texas farm produced vanilla in biotech labs. The average annual value of vanilla bean exports was approximately (US) $100 million. The largest exporters are Madagascar, Indonesia, the Comoros and Reunion (Altieri).
- Fructose produced by biotechnology took over 10% of the world sugar market and caused sugar prices to fall, throwing tens of thousands of sugar workers in the Third World out of work (Altieri).
- Texas-based RiceTec Inc., holds a patent on Basmati rice (#5,663,484). The controversial patent, issued in September 1997, claims Asia's celebrated Basmati rice. The patent covers Basmati grown anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, and effectively claims ownership of traditional Pakistani or Indian Basmati strains when crossed with the company's proprietary lines. The Indian and Pakistani governments plan to fight the US patent, which is viewed as a threat to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farming families in India, Pakistan and Nepal who grow Basmati rice for export. Over 50,000 Indians protested the patent in front of the US Embassy. In India alone, Basmati rice exports are valued at (US) $800 million per annum. Over 80% of Basmati rice grown in India is produced for export (RAFI Launches Postcard Campaign to Oppose Basmati Rice Patent, RAFI).
- Expansion of Unilever Corp. cloned oil palms will substantially increase palm-oil production with dramatic consequences for farmers producing other vegetable oils such as groundnut in Senegal and coconut in Philippines (Altieri).