Pharmaceutical companies would need to compensate indigenous people for using their knowhow in creating new medicines

Source: www.theguardian.com

I’d never hear the term biopiracy before this month, but this idea is this: companies from wealthy countries commercially develop the genetic resources of developing countries with local assistance but don’t fairly compensate the local population.  I never had the vocabulary to describe such a thing, but that is biopiracy in a nutshell and the EU is working to end that.  It doesn’t only impact the pharmaceutical companies but heavily impact the agricultural industries as well.  Anyone in the developed world eating quinoa and kale 20 years ago?  Being marketed as ‘superfoods’ has changed the global production systems but also impacted local indigenous food supplies (some are referring to this as food gentrification). 

Tags: food production, technology, industry, food, agriculture, agribusiness, globalization, folk cultures, indigenous.