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6 Int'l. Trade & Bus. L. Ann. 323 (2001)
The Third Revolution: Plant Genetic Resources in Developing Countries and China: Global Village or Global Pillage

handle is hein.journals/itbla6 and id is 337 raw text is: The Third Revolution: Plant Genetic Resources in Developing Countries and China: Global Village or Global Pillage? Alex Low* Introduction From the age of exploration, researchers and travellers transported discovered plant species back to their own countries as new foods and raw materials for plant breeding. Through expeditions to conquer and subjugate most of the developing countries, agricultural materials were culled and screened for new and useful crops. The Great Columbian exchange brought the tomato to Italian cuisine and introduced the potato to Ireland.1 The UK Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew benefited immeasurably from British travellers and colonialists in South America. Indeed, it has been argued that the majesty of Britain as a colonial power in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was evident in the pre-eminence of the Kew Botanical Gardens.2 At that time, control over plants meant power and wealth. During that epoch, the concept that exotic plant species found in nature were freely accessible to the taker was inaugurated.3 Developing countries protest that scientists from transnational corporations (TNCs) are prospecting in their tropical forests for plant species, protecting the discoveries through breeders' rights, and merchandising the plants back to them at exorbitant prices. Developing countries view these TNC activities as uncompensated exploitation of their plant genetic resources (PGRs) in the name of intellectual property rights. The increasing importance of plant biotechnology as a determinant of international competitiveness has helped to foster a vigorous challenge by developing countries to the concept of free accessibility to their PGRs. This challenge by developing countries makes an analysis of the ownership and legal status of PGRs crucial to the sustenance of plant biotechnology. It is proposed to examine the issues of control of plant germplasm accession in Alex Low, BEc Syd, MEc Syd, LLB(Hons) UTS, DipLabRel & the Law Syd, Senior Lecturer, Business Law Department, Division of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney. 1 Rebecca L. Margulies, 'Protecting Biodiversity: Recognising International Intellectual Property Rights in Plant Genetic Resources' (1993) 14 Michigan Journal of International La, 322 at 328. 2 Lawrence Busch et al, Plants Power, and Profit: Social, Economic, and Ethical Consequences of the New Biotechnologies, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1991 at 59. 3 Margulies, supra, note I at 328.

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