Preparing for global `food wars`

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, of which Korea has joined as a member, will effectuate the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants from next year. This will require Korean farmers to pay as much as 800 billion won (692 million dollars) in seed royalties over the next 10 years. Since 99 percent of tangerines grown on Jeju Island are sourced from Japan, Jeju tangerine farmers will have to pay royalties according to the number of trees they grow. Since seed costs amount to about 10 percent of farming costs, consumers will see their expenses increase by the value of royalties paid.

The four largest Korean seed companies, which accounted for 64 percent of the domestic seed market, were taken over by multinational companies following the Asian financial crisis in 1998. Korea has lost a significant portion of the weapons it could mobilize in staging a seed war against other countries. The intellectual property right to Cheongyang red pepper was transferred to Monsanto of the U.S. Korea sometimes re-imports indigenous seeds that it had sold to other countries. Miss Kim lilac, which is imported by Korea, is a breed developed by an American plant breed collector in the 1950s by modifying the Jeonghyang tree breed from Mount Bukhan.

In the global seed market, the market share of the 10 largest multinational companies increased from 14 percent in 1996 to 67 percent in 2007. By mobilizing state-of-the-art technologies, such companies are developing breeds that easily adapt to climate change. DuPont of the U.S. is developing a corn breed that can produce twice as much per land unit due to its resistance to strong winds. If Korea fails in the seed war, it will have no choice but to pay high prices for seeds developed by multinational companies and high royalties.

The Korean government`s response to this problem is incredibly slow at best, however. It is pushing to conduct a "golden seed" project in which it aims to expand the nation`s capacity to develop seeds over the next 10 years, but the move is way too slow. Korean researchers recently improved a strawberry breed, but the portion of seeds of major crops that Korea can supply on its own is very low. If the country is to defend its turf and beat foreign rivals in this seed war, it must proactively develop breeds of fruits and flowers that Korea now depends on foreign imports for its needs. Also needed are high value-added breeds for use in medicine and food supplements.

In the global seed war, if Korea fails to secure a stable food supply, the livelihood of its people will be threatened. The modern era is called the era of energy wars, but many experts predict an era of food wars. If food supply is destabilized worldwide, countries will openly seek to use food supplies as weapons. Korea is in an unfavorable position since the portion of its grain self-sufficiency is just 51 percent, that of grains 26 percent, and that of grains excluding rice 6 percent. Korea is hardly free from the influence of the four largest grain suppliers, which account for 80 to 90 percent of the global grain market, even if it pay high prices to buy grains. Korea imports about 60 percent of its demand for corn, wheat and beans from grain majors, and can hardly afford to challenge them even if they exploit the country through price hikes or other measures.

Korea should reinforce its agricultural competitiveness from the perspective of preparation for food wars. Likewise, domestic development of breeds should be recognized as a matter of utmost importance.