Antony Barnett Sunday October 28, 2001 The Observer
The 'popcorn' aroma, dazzling white colour and superior flavour make Thailand's jasmine rice the choice for connoisseurs of Far Eastern cuisine. These same special qualities have also put it at the centre of a furious international 'biopiracy' row between Thailand and the US.
Authorities in Thailand have accused a US professor at the University of Florida of stealing genetic data from original seeds of the rice and seeking to patent them in the US. The Thai government and aid organisations fear that, should Professor Chris Deren succeed, then Thailand would lose its rice markets worldwide and millions of impoverished rice farmers would lose their income.
Yet on a 1.5 acre plot in Belle Glade, Florida, Deren is still bombarding the jasmine rice with gamma rays. He hopes to produce a mutation of the rice which will cause it to grow less tall and mature earlier. This, Deren believes, will allow it to thrive in US conditions, allowing thousands of acres of Florida to be given over to the crop.
Ampon Kittiampon, of the Thai Agriculture Ministry, said: 'The US must realise they would destroy the livelihood of millions of Thai farmers whom they have tried to help for decades if they go ahead with the project without any appropriate agreement with Thailand or continue a process of patenting the new rice strain.'
Deren has denied stealing the genetic data of Thailand's native rice, claiming that he received the original genetic materials from the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute in December 1995. He claims he has no ambitions to patent the rice or restrict the use of what he develops. In an email to Nation magazine in Thailand, he said: 'We have received freely and not for individual gain and will distribute freely.'
But Witoon Lianchamroon, director of Biothai, an NGO which works for the protection of farmers' rights and plant conservation, suspects Deren of smuggling the seed out of Thailand, and Thai farmers are threatening to march on the US embassy in Bangkok in protest.
Ubon Yoowa, a rice farmer, told the Nation: 'If US researchers don't stop their research, and if the administration [of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra] ignores the issue, you will see us all in Bangkok.'
A third of the 1.2 million tonnes of Thai jasmine rice produced every year is exported to the US. Alex Wijeratna, from ActionAid, the international development agency, said: 'This is one of a long line of alleged biopiracy cases which has included worldwide protests against patents on plants and crops like basmati rice, Mexican yellow beans, neem, quinoa and turmeric. Patents on crops are now emerging as a major political battleground and public opposition will intensify if the World Trade Organisation doesn't urgently amend the global patent rules.'
Deren was unavailable for comment, but in September he outlined his plans on the University of Florida's website: 'The challenge is to create mutations that will flower early, allowing the plants to grow and be harvested prior to the onset of the colder, fall season in North America.'
Jasmine rice is indigenous to Thailand, and is not well suited to North America because temperatures below 50F halt growth of the plant.
Deren said: 'Normally, Thai jasmine rice would be planted in March or April, and it would begin to flower when days have less than 12 hours of sunlight, which is in the fall. But by then it's too cold at night for the plants to produce grain, which is why we have to alter the genes so the plants bloom earlier.'
Deren has also manipulated the rice to grow about 12 inches shorter than traditional Thai jasmine plants, so that it can be harvested by machine, which demands that the rice grows no higher than about three feet.
antony.barnett at observer.co.uk