The yield for a cultivated hectare may reach an estimated 15 tons in fresh hypocotyls, resulting in around 5 tons of dried material. [ 6 ]  According to the  Ministry of Agriculture of Peru , however, average maca yields for 2005 were only 7 t/ha, with a great variation between different sites. [ 1 ]
Although maca has been cultivated outside the Andes, it is unclear whether it develops the same active constituents or potency outside of its natural habitat. Hypocotyls grown from Peruvian seeds form with difficulty at low elevations, in greenhouses, or warm climates.


The average composition, on a dry matter basis, is 60–75%  carbohydrates  (primarily as  polysaccharides ), [ 10 ]  10–14%  protein , 8.5%  dietary fiber , and 2.2%  fats . [ 11 ]


Maca contains  glucotropaeolin ,  m -methoxyglucotropaeolin,  benzyl   glucosinolates ,  polyphenols , (1 R ,3 S )-1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid (MTCA), and  p -methoxybenzyl   isothiocyanate . [ 7 ] [ 12 ]   Alkamides  are also present in maca. [ 13 ]  Maca contains several N-benzylamides referred to as  macamides  that are structurally related to  anandamide . [ 14 ]


No  pharmacokinetic  data have been published for maca. [ 12 ]  The presence of (1 R ,3 S )-1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid (MTCA) in the extracts of maca indicate a potential safety issue as a  monoamine oxidase inhibitor  (re. which see  β-carboline ) and possibility as a  mutagen . [ 12 ]  Due to these potential mutagenic properties of MTCA, the Agency for Sanitary Security in France warned consumers about the possible health risks of powdered maca root, a declaration disputed on the assumption that MTCA would be deactivated by boiling to process maca roots. [ 12 ]  MTCA-like compounds are associated with  craving  behaviour. [ 12 ]


Due to its purported effect on  fertility , maca grew in agricultural, commercial, and research interest from the 1990s to 2014. [ 1 ] [ 15 ]  Market studies showed low acceptance of the particular maca taste by consumers when first exposed to it, creating a barrier for popularity of this food as a culinary vegetable. The economic interest existed more in the perceived but unproven health effects of the root's constituents supplied as an extract in a dietary supplement. [ 1 ] [ 15 ]


By 2014, agricultural and market interest in maca grew in China, but with challenges from Peruvian institutions who accused Chinese companies of illegally exporting maca and of  biopiracy , as several Chinese patents had been filed to improve maca's propagation and genetic diversity. [ 16 ]


Maca is mainly grown for the consumption of its roots. The majority of harvested maca is dried. In this form, the hypocotyls can be stored for several years. [ 1 ] [ 17 ]  In Peru, maca is prepared and consumed in various ways, although traditionally, it is always cooked. The freshly harvested hypocotyl may be roasted in a pit (called  huatia ) and is considered a delicacy. Fresh roots usually are available only in the vicinity of the growers. The root can also be mashed and boiled to produce a sweet, thick liquid, then dried and mixed with milk to form a porridge,  mazamorra . [ 8 ]  The cooked roots are also used with other vegetables in  empanadas , jams, or soups. The root may be ground to produce flour for bread, cakes, or pancakes. If fermented, a weak  beer  called  chicha  de maca  may be produced. In 2010, a U.S.-based brewery called Andean Brewing Company became the first company to produce and commercialize beer made from maca under the brand KUKA Beer. [ 18 ]  From the black morphotype, a liquor is produced. Also, the leaves are edible or may serve as animal fodder. They can be prepared raw in salads or cooked much like  L. sativum  and  L. campestre , which are closely related genetically. [ citation needed ]


The prominent product for export is maca  flour , a baking flour ground from the hard, dried roots. It is called  harina de maca . Maca flour (powder) is a relatively inexpensive bulk commodity, like wheat flour or potato flour. The supplement industry uses both dry roots and maca flour for different types of processing and concentrated extracts.  Another common form is maca, processed by  gelatinization . This extrusion process separates and removes the tough fiber from the roots using gentle heat and pressure, as raw maca is difficult to digest due to its thick fibers.


Archaeological evidence exists for varying degrees of cultivation of maca in the  Lake Junin  region from around 1700 BC to 1200 AD. [ 19 ]  Maca has been harvested and used by humans in the  puna grasslands  of the Andean Mountains for centuries. Contrary to frequent claims that maca cultivation was common in what is today Peru, until the late 1980s, maca has been cultivated only in a limited area around  Lake Junin  in central Peru. Historically, maca was often traded for lowland tropical food staples, such as  maize ,  rice ,  manioc  (tapioca roots),  quinoa , and  papaya . It also was used as a form of payment for Spanish imperial taxes. [ 6 ] [ 20 ]


Maca is said to have medicinal properties, but scientific research remains inconclusive. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ]  A 2016 systematic review found evidence suggesting that it improves  semen  quality in healthy and infertile men. [ 24 ]  A 2011 systematic review found the evidence for the effectiveness of maca as a treatment for  menopausal symptoms  in women inconclusive. [ 25 ]


The  Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity , also known as the  Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) , is a 2010 supplementary agreement to the 1992  Convention on Biological Diversity  (CBD). Its aim is the implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of  genetic resources , thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of  biodiversity . It sets out obligations for its contracting parties to take measures in relation to access to genetic resources, benefit-sharing and compliance.


The protocol was adopted on 29 October 2010 in  Nagoya , Japan, and entered into force on 12 October 2014. As of April 2022 [update] , it has been ratified by 137 parties, which includes 136  UN member states  and the  European Union .


Concerns have been expressed that the added  bureaucracy  and  legislation  could be damaging to the monitoring and collection of biodiversity, to conservation, to the international response to infectious diseases, and to research. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]


The Nagoya Protocol applies to genetic resources that are covered by the CBD, and to the benefits arising from their utilization. The protocol also covers traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that are covered by the CBD and the benefits arising from its utilization.


Its aim is the implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of  biodiversity . [ 3 ]


The protocol was adopted on 29 October 2010 in  Nagoya , Japan, at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held from 18 to 29 October 2010 [ 4 ]  and entered into force on 12 October 2014.


As of April 2022 [update] , it has been ratified by 137 parties, which includes 136  UN member states  and the  European Union . [ 5 ]


The Nagoya Protocol sets out obligations for its contracting parties to take measures in relation to access to genetic resources, benefit-sharing and compliance. [ citation needed ]


Domestic-level access measures aim to: [ citation needed ]


Domestic-level benefit-sharing measures aim to provide for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources with the contracting party providing genetic resources. Utilization includes research and development on the genetic or biochemical composition of genetic resources, as well as subsequent applications and commercialization. Sharing is subject to mutually agreed terms. Benefits may be monetary or non-monetary such as royalties and the sharing of research results. [ citation needed ]


Specific obligations to support compliance with the domestic legislation or regulatory requirements of the contracting party providing genetic resources, and contractual obligations reflected in mutually agreed terms, are a significant innovation of the Nagoya Protocol. [ citation needed ]


Contracting parties are to: [ citation needed ]


The Nagoya Protocol's success will require effective implementation at the domestic level. A range of tools and mechanisms provided by the Nagoya Protocol will assist contracting parties including: [ citation needed ]


Based on a country's self-assessment of national needs and priorities, capacity-building may help to: [ citation needed ]


A growing number of  Preferential Trade Agreements  (PTAs) include provisions related to access to genetic resources or to the sharing of the benefits that arise out of their utilization. Indeed, some recent trade agreements, originating notably from Latin American countries, provide specific measures designed to facilitate the implementation of the ABS provisions contained in the Nagoya Protocol, including measures related to technical assistance, transparency and dispute settlement. [ 6 ]


However, there are concerns that the added bureaucracy and legislation will, overall, be damaging to the monitoring and collection of biodiversity, to conservation, to the international response to infectious diseases, and to research. [ 7 ] [ 2 ] [ 8 ]


Many scientists have voiced concern over the protocol, fearing the increased  red tape  will hamper disease prevention and conservation efforts, [ 1 ]  and that the threat of possible imprisonment of scientists will have a chilling effect on research. [ 7 ] [ 8 ]  Non-commercial biodiversity researchers and institutions such as  natural history museums  fear maintaining biological reference collections and exchanging material between institutions will become difficult. [ 2 ]


Lack of implementation at the national level was frequently attributed as a major factor behind the failure of Nagoya Protocol. [ 9 ]


Navdanya  is an  Indian -based  non-governmental organisation  which promotes  biodiversity conservation ,  biodiversity ,  organic farming , the rights of farmers, and the process of  seed saving . One of Navdanya's founders, and outspoken members, is  Vandana Shiva , an environmental  activist ,  physicist , and  author . Navdanya began in 1984 as a program of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), a participatory research initiative founded by the environmentalist Vandana Shiva, to provide direction and support to environmental activism. [ 1 ]  "Navdanya" means "nine crops" that represent India's collective source of  food security . [ 1 ]


Navdanya is a member of the  Terra Madre slow food movement .
Navdanya is a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 16 states in India.


Navdanya has helped set up 54 community  seed banks  across the country, trained over 500,000 farmers in " food sovereignty " and  sustainable agriculture  over the past two decades, and helped set up the largest  direct marketing ,  fair trade  organic network in the country. Navdanya has also set up a learning center, Bija Vidyapeeth (School of the Seed) on its biodiversity conservation and organic farm in  Doon Valley ,  Uttarakhand , north India.


It has criticised  genetic engineering . Navdanya claims to be a women-centred movement for the protection of  biological  and  cultural diversity .


20th Century farming revolutionised  traditional food production methods by using cheap (but  non renewable ) hydrocarbon fuels and  agricultural chemical products which make  a major contribution to  greenhouse gas emissions , blamed for causing climate change.  These new methods together with cheap transport and fuel led to the optimisation and industrialization of food production.


Navdanya's Seeds of Freedom campaign is intended to provide a source or exchange of diverse naturally occurring crop-seed


Since 1991 they have been campaigning against GM crops and food in India. Working with citizens' movements,  grassroot  organisations, NGOs and governments, they have made significant contributions to the  Convention on Biological Diversity  (CBD) and the Biosafety Protocol.


During the  WTO  Hong Kong Ministerial, Navdanya joined 740 other organisations in presenting their opposition to the WTO's stance on GMOs.


RFSTE/ Navdanya started the campaign against biopiracy with the Neem Campaign in 1994 and mobilised 100,000 signatures against neem patents and filed a legal opposition against the USDA and WR Grace patent on the fungicidal properties of  neem  (no. 436257 B1) in the  European Patent Office  (EPO) at Munich, Germany.


Along with RFSTE, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) of Germany and Ms.  Magda Alvoet , former Green Member of the European Parliament were party to the challenge. The patent on Neem was revoked in May 2000 and it was reconfirmed on 8 March 2005 when the EPO revoked in entirety the controversial patent, and adjudged that there was "no inventive step" involved in the fungicide patent, thus confirming the 'prior art' of the use of Neem.


The next victory against "biopiracy" for Navdanya came in October 2004 when the European Patent Office in Munich revoked Monsanto's patent on the Indian variety of wheat "Nap Hal". This was the third consecutive victory on the IPR front after Neem and Basmati. Monsanto was assigned a patent (EP 0445929 B1) on wheat on 21 May 2003 by the  European Patent Office  in Munich under the simple title "plants". On January 27, 2004 Research Foundation for Science Technology and Ecology  (RFSTE) along with Greenpeace and Bharat Krishak Samaj BKS) filed a petition at the European Patent Office (EPO), Munich, challenging the patent rights given to Monsanto on Indian Landrace of wheat, Nap Hal. The patent was  revoked in October 2004. [ 2 ]


Rooibos  ( / ˈ r ɔɪ b ɒ s /   ROY -boss ;  Afrikaans:   [ˈroːibɔs]   ⓘ ,  lit.   ' red bush ' ), or  Aspalathus linearis , is a  broom -like member of the plant family  Fabaceae  that grows in  South Africa 's  Fynbos  biome.


The leaves are used to make a decaffeinated  herbal tea  that is called  rooibos  (especially in Southern Africa),  bush tea ,  red tea , or  redbush tea  (predominantly in Great Britain).


The tea has been popular in  Southern Africa  for generations, and since the 2000s has gained popularity internationally.
The tea has an earthy flavour that is similar to  yerba mate  or  tobacco . [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ]


Rooibos was formerly classified as  Psoralea  but is now thought to be part of  Aspalathus  following  Dahlgren  (1980).
The  specific name  of  linearis  was given by  Burman  (1759)
for the plant's linear growing structure and needle-like leaves.


The name rooibos is  Afrikaans  from  rooi bos , meaning  ' red bush ' . The name is protected in South Africa and has  protected designation of origin  status in the EU.


Rooibos is usually grown in the  Cederberg , a small mountainous area in the  West Coast District  of the  Western Cape  province of  South Africa . [ 6 ]


Generally, the leaves undergo oxidation. [ 7 ]  This process produces the distinctive reddish-brown colour of rooibos and enhances the flavour. Unoxidised  green  rooibos is also produced, but the more demanding production process for green rooibos (similar to the method by which  green tea  is produced) makes it more expensive than traditional rooibos. It carries a malty and slightly grassy flavour somewhat different from its red counterpart. [ 8 ]


Rooibos is commonly prepared as a  tisane  by  steeping  in hot water, in the same manner as  black tea . The  infusion  is consumed on its own or flavoured by addition of milk, lemon, sugar or honey. It is also served as  lattes ,  cappuccinos  or  iced tea . [ 9 ]


As a fresh leaf, rooibos contains a high content of  ascorbic acid  (vitamin C). [ 10 ]


Rooibos tea does not contain  caffeine [ 11 ] [ 12 ]  and has low  tannin  levels compared to  black tea  or  green tea . [ 10 ]  Rooibos contains  polyphenols , including  flavanols ,  flavones ,  flavanones ,  dihydrochalcones , [ 13 ] [ 14 ]   aspalathin [ 15 ]  and  nothofagin . [ 16 ]


The processed leaves and stems contain  benzoic  and  cinnamic acids . [ 17 ]


Rooibos grades are largely related to the percentage needle or leaf to stem content in the mix. A higher leaf content results in a darker liquor, richer flavour and less "dusty" aftertaste. The high-grade rooibos is exported and does not reach local markets, with major consumers being the EU, particularly Germany, where it is used in creating flavoured blends for loose-leaf tea markets. [ 18 ]


Three species of the Borboniae group of  Aspalathus , namely  A. angustifolia ,  A. cordata  and  A. crenata , were once used as tea. These plants have simple, rigid, spine-tipped leaves, hence the common name 'stekeltee'. The earliest record of the use of  Aspalathus  as a source of tea was that of  Carl Peter Thunberg , who wrote about the use of  A. cordata  as tea: "Of the leaves of  Borbonia cordata  the country people make tea." (Thunberg, July 1772, at Paarl). This anecdote is sometimes erroneously associated with rooibos tea ( Aspalathus linearis ). [ 19 ]


Archaeological records suggest that  Aspalathus linearis  could have been used thousands of years ago, but that does not imply rooibos tea was made in precolonial times. [ 20 ]  The traditional method of harvesting and processing rooibos (for making rooibos infusion or  decoction  tea) could have, at least partly, originated in precolonial times. However, it does not necessarily follow that  San  and  Khoikhoi  used that method to prepare a beverage that they consumed for pleasure as tea.


The earliest available ethnobotanical records of rooibos tea originate in the late 19th century. No Khoi or San vernacular names of the species have been recorded. Several authors have assumed that the tea originated from the local inhabitants of the  Cederberg . Apparently, rooibos tea is a traditional drink of Khoi-descended people of the Cederberg (and "poor whites"). However, that tradition has not been traced further back than the last quarter of the 19th century. [ 19 ]


Traditionally, the local people would climb the mountains and cut the fine needle-like leaves from wild rooibos plants. They then rolled the bunches of leaves into  hessian  bags and brought them down the steep slopes using donkeys. Rooibos tea was traditionally processed by beating the material on a flat rock with a heavy wooden pole or club or a large wooden hammer. [ 19 ]


The historical record of the use of rooibos in precolonial and early colonial times is mostly a record of absence. Colonial-era settlers could have learnt about some properties of the  Aspalathus linearis  from pastoralists and hunter-gatherers of the Cederberg region. The nature of that knowledge was not documented. Given the available data, the origin of rooibos tea can be viewed in the context of the global expansion of tea trade and the colonial habit of drinking Chinese and later Ceylon tea. In that case, the rooibos infusion or decoction served as a local replacement for the expensive Asian product. [ 20 ]


It appears that both the indigenous (San and Khoikhoi) and the colonial inhabitants of rooibos-growing areas contributed to the traditional knowledge of rooibos in some way. For instance, medicinal uses might have been introduced before the 18th century by  Khoisan  pastoralists or San hunter-gatherers. Also, the use of the  Aspalathus linearis  to make tea, including the production processes, such as bruising and oxidising the leaves, is more likely to have been introduced in colonial times by settlers who were accustomed to drinking Asian tea or its substitutes. [ 20 ]


In 1904,  Benjamin Ginsberg  ran a variety of experiments at Rondegat Farm and finally cured rooibos. He simulated the traditional Chinese method of making  Keemun  by fermenting the tea in barrels. The major hurdle in growing rooibos commercially was that farmers could not germinate the rooibos seeds. The seeds were hard to find and impossible to germinate commercially. A medical doctor by profession and business partner to Ginsberg, Pieter le Fras Nortier, [ 21 ]  ascertained that seeds require a process of  scarification  before they are planted in acidic, sandy soil. [ 22 ] [ 23 ]


By the late 1920s, growing demand for the tea had led to problems with supply of the wild rooibos plants. As a remedy, Pieter le Fras Nortier, a district surgeon in Clanwilliam and an avid naturalist, proposed to develop a cultivated variety of rooibos to be raised on appropriately-situated land. Nortier worked on cultivation of the rooibos species in partnership with the farmers Oloff Bergh and William Riordan and with the encouragement of Benjamin Ginsberg. [ 20 ]


Bergh harvested a large amount of rooibos in 1925 on his farm Kleinvlei, in the  Pakhuis  Mountains. Nortier collected seeds in the Pakhuis Mountains (Rocklands) and in a large valley, called Grootkloof, and those first selected seeds are known as the Nortier-type and Redtea-type. [ 24 ]


In 1930, Nortier began conducting experiments with the commercial cultivation of the rooibos plant. He cultivated the first plants at  Clanwilliam  on his farm of Eastside and on the farm of Klein Kliphuis. The tiny seeds were very difficult to come by Nortier, who paid the local villagers £5 per matchbox of seeds collected. An aged  Khoi  woman found an unusual seed source: having chanced upon  ants  dragging seed, she followed them back to their nest and, on breaking it open, found a  granary . [ 25 ]


Nortier's research was ultimately successful, and he subsequently showed all the local farmers how to germinate their own seeds. The secret lay in scarifying the seed pods. Nortier placed a layer of seeds between two mill stones and ground away some of the seed pod wall. Thereafter the seeds were easily propagated. Over the next decade the price of seeds rose to £80 per pound, the most expensive vegetable seed in the world, as farmers rushed to plant rooibos. Today, the seed is gathered by special sifting processes. Nortier is today accepted as the father of the rooibos tea industry.


The variety developed by Nortier has become the mainstay of the rooibos industry enabling it to expand and create income and jobs for inhabitants of rooibos-growing regions. [ 20 ]  Thanks to Nortier's research, rooibos tea became an iconic national beverage and then a globalised commodity. Production is today the economic mainstay of the Clanwilliam district. In 1948, the  University of Stellenbosch  awarded Nortier an Honorary Doctorate D.Sc. (Agria) in recognition for his valuable contribution to South African agriculture.


Aspalathus linearis  has a small endemic range in the wild, but horticultural techniques to maximise production have been effective at maintaining cultivation as a semi-wild crop to supply the new demands of the broadening  rooibos  tea industry.  A. linearis  is often grouped with the  honeybush ( Cyclopia ) , another plant from the  Fynbos  region of  Southern Africa , which is also used to make tea. Like other members of the genus,  A. linearis  is considered a part of the  Fynbos   ecoregion  in the  Cape Floristic Region , whose plants often depend on fire for reproduction.


A. linearis  is a  legume  and thus an  angiosperm  and produces an  indehiscent  fruit. Its flowers make up a  raceme inflorescence . Seed germination can be slow, but sprouting can be induced by acid treatment. [ 26 ]  The seeds are hard-shelled and often need scarification. [ 27 ]


For  A. linearis , fire can stimulate  resprouting  in the species, but the sprouting is less than that of other plants in the Fynbos ecoregion.  A. linearis  can be considered facultative and obligate sprouters and have  lignotuber  development for after fires. Typically, there are two classifications of  A. lineraris  in response to fire:  reseeders  and  resprouters . Reseeders are killed by fire, but it stimulates their seeds’ germination. Resprouters are not completely killed during a fire and grow back from established  lignotubers . [ 28 ]


Seeds of wild populations are dispersed by species of ants, whose use as dispersers reduces parent-offspring and sibling-sibling competition. [ 29 ]
Ants are also helpful in dispersion as they reduce the susceptibility of seeds to other herbivores.


Like most other  legumes , there is a symbiotic relationship between  rhizoids  and the underground  lignotuber  structure that promotes  nitrogen fixation  and growth. The nitrogen content in the soil is an important environmental factor for growth, development, and reproduction. Hawkins, Malgas, & Biénabe (2011) suggested that there are multiple  ecotypes  of  A. linearis  that have different selected methods of growth and morphology and are dependent on the environment. [ 30 ]  It is unclear how many ecotypes there might be, given their limited geographic range and the limited literature about genetic diversity. Van der Bank, Van der Bank, &  Van Wyk  (1999) [ 31 ]  suggest that resprouting populations and reseeding populations have been selected for based on the environment as a way to reduce genetic bottlenecks; however, whether that promotes certain reproductive strategies over others was unclear. [ 31 ]


Wild populations can contain both sprouting and non-sprouting individuals, but cultivated rooibos are typically reseeders, not resprouters, and have higher growth rates. Cultivated  A. linearis  can be selected for certain traits that are desirable for human use. Cultivated plants are diploid with a base chromosome number of 9 ( 2 n  =   18 chromosomes), but the understanding of how this might differ in  ecotypes  is limited. [ 28 ]  The selection process can include human-mediated pollination, fire suppression, and supplementing soil contents.


Like many other  Fynbos  plants,  A. linearis  is not significantly pollinated by  cape honey bees , which suggests an alternative way of primary pollination. [ 32 ]  Some wasps likely play an important role in pollinating the flowers and some wasp species are thought to be specially adapted to accessing the  A. linearis  flower. [ 33 ]


In 1994,  Burke International  registered the name "Rooibos" with the  US Patent and Trademark Office  and so established a  monopoly  on the name in the  United States  when the plant was virtually unknown there. When it later entered more widespread use, Burke demanded for companies to pay fees to use the name or to cease its use. In 2005, the  American Herbal Products Association  and a number of import companies succeeded in defeating the trademark through petitions and lawsuits. After losing one of the cases, Burke surrendered the name to the  public domain . [ 34 ]


The South African  Department of Trade and Industry  issued final rules on 6 September 2013 that protects and restricts the use of the names "rooibos", "red bush", "rooibostee", "rooibos tea", "rooitee", and "rooibosch" in the country so that the name cannot be used for things unless they are derived from the  Aspalathus linearis  plant. It also provides guidance and restrictions for how products that include rooibos and in what measures should use the name  rooibos  in their branding. [ 35 ] [ 36 ]


In May 2021, the  European Union  conferred  protected designation of origin  (PDO) status to "rooibos". Any foodstuff sold as "rooibos" in the EU and several countries outside the bloc must be made by using only  Aspalathus linearis  leaves that are cultivated in the Cederberg region of South Africa. [ 37 ] [ 38 ]


The rooibos plant is  endemic  to a small part of the  Western Cape Province , South Africa. It grows in a symbiotic relationship with local micro-organisms. [ 39 ]  A 2012 South African news item cited concerns regarding the prospects of rooibos farming in the face of  climate change . [ 40 ]


The use of rooibos and the expansion of its cultivation are threatening other local species of plants endemic to the area such as  Protea convexa , [ 41 ]   Roridula dentata [ 42 ]  and  P. scolymocephala . [ 43 ]


Vandana Shiva  (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian  scholar ,  environmental activist ,  food sovereignty  advocate,  ecofeminist  and  anti-globalization  author. [ 2 ]  Based in  Delhi , Shiva has written more than 20 books. [ 3 ]  She is often referred to as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with the  anti-GMO  movement. [ 4 ]


Shiva is one of the leaders and board members of the International Forum on Globalization (with  Jerry Mander ,  Ralph Nader , and  Helena Norberg-Hodge ), and a figure of the anti-globalisation movement. [ 5 ]  She has argued in favour of many traditional practices, as in her interview in the book  Vedic Ecology  (by  Ranchor Prime ). She is a member of the scientific committee of the  Fundacion IDEAS , Spain's  Socialist Party's  think tank. She is also a member of the International Organization for a Participatory Society. [ 6 ]


Vandana Shiva was born in  Dehradun . Her father was a conservator of forests, and her mother was a farmer with a love for nature. She was educated at  St. Mary's Convent High School, Nainital , and at the  Convent of Jesus and Mary , Dehradun. [ 7 ]


Shiva studied physics at  Punjab University  in  Chandigarh , graduating as a Bachelor of Science in 1972. [ 8 ]  After a brief stint at the  Bhabha Atomic Research Centre , she moved to Canada to pursue a master's degree in the  philosophy of science  at the  University of Guelph  in 1977 where she wrote a thesis entitled "Changes in the concept of periodicity of light". [ 8 ] [ 9 ]  In 1978, she completed and received her PhD in  philosophy  at the  University of Western Ontario , [ 10 ]  focusing on  philosophy of physics . Her dissertation was titled "Hidden variables and locality in quantum theory" in which she discussed the mathematical and philosophical implications of  hidden variable theories  that fall outside of the purview of  Bell's theorem . [ 11 ]  She later went on to pursue interdisciplinary research in science, technology, and  environmental policy  at the  Indian Institute of Science  and the  Indian Institute of Management  in  Bangalore . [ 7 ]


Vandana Shiva has written and spoken extensively about advances in the fields of agriculture and food.  Intellectual property rights ,  biodiversity ,  biotechnology ,  bioethics , and  genetic engineering  are among the fields where Shiva has fought through activist campaigns. She has assisted  grassroots  organisations of the  Green movement  in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria with opposition to advances in agricultural development via genetic engineering.


In 1982, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. [ 12 ]  This led to the creation of  Navdanya  in 1991, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade. [ 13 ]  Navdanya, which translates to "Nine Seeds" or "New Gift", is an initiative of the RFSTE to educate farmers of the benefits of maintaining diverse and individualised crops rather than accepting offers from monoculture food producers. The initiative established over 40 seed banks across India to provide regional opportunity for diverse agriculture. In 2004 Shiva started Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for  sustainable living  in Doon Valley, Uttarakhand, in collaboration with  Schumacher College , UK. [ 14 ]


In the area of intellectual property rights and biodiversity, Shiva and her team at the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology challenged the  biopiracy  of neem, basmati and wheat. She has served on expert groups of  [ where? ]  government on Biodiversity and IPR legislation. [ citation needed ]


Her first book,  Staying Alive  (1988), helped change perceptions of  third world  women. [ citation needed ]  In 1990, she wrote a report for the FAO on Women and Agriculture titled "Most Farmers in India are Women". She founded the gender unit at the  International Centre for Mountain Development  (ICIMOD) in  Kathmandu  and was a founding board member of the  Women's Environment & Development Organisation  (WEDO). [ 15 ] [ 16 ]
She received the  Right Livelihood Award  in 1993, an award established by Swedish-German philanthropist  Jakob von Uexkull . [ 17 ]


Shiva's book  Making Peace With the Earth  discusses biodiversity and the relationship between communities and nature. "Accordingly, she aligns the destruction of natural biodiversity with the dismantling of traditional communities—those who 'understand the language of nature'". [ 18 ]  David Wright wrote in a review of the book that to Shiva, "the Village becomes a symbol, almost a metaphor for 'the local' in all nations". [ 18 ] [ 19 ]


Shiva has also served as an advisor to governments in India and abroad as well as non-governmental organisations, including the International Forum on Globalization, the  Women's Environment & Development Organisation  and the Third World Network. She chairs the Commission on the Future of Food set up by the Region of  Tuscany  in Italy and is a member of the Scientific Committee that advised former prime minister Zapatero of Spain. Shiva is a member of the Steering Committee of the Indian People's Campaign Against  WTO . She is a councilor of the  World Future Council . Shiva serves on Government of India Committees on Organic Farming. She participated in the  Stock Exchange of Visions  project in 2007.


In 2021, she advised the government of Sri Lanka to ban inorganic fertilizers and pesticides [ 20 ] [ 21 ]  stating "This decision will definitely help farmers become more prosperous. Use of organic fertilizer will help provide agri products rich with nutrients while retaining the fertility of the land." [ 22 ]  The policy applied overnight, with the main purpose to save State foreign exchange bills on imported fertilizers, [ 23 ]  caused  a crisis  with a significant reduction of farming output in several sectors, hitting the tea industry in particular [ 24 ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ]  and reducing rice yields were by one third. [ 22 ]  The ban was overturned seven months later. [ 21 ]


Her work on agriculture started in 1984 after the violence in Punjab and the  Bhopal disaster  caused by a gas leak from  Union Carbide 's pesticide manufacturing plant. Her studies for the UN University led to the publication of her book  The Violence of the Green Revolution . [ 27 ] [ 28 ] [ 29 ]


In an interview with  David Barsamian , Shiva argues that the seed-chemical package promoted by green revolution agriculture has depleted fertile soil and destroyed living ecosystems. [ 30 ]  In her work Shiva cites data allegedly demonstrating that today there are over 1400 pesticides that may enter the  food system  across the world. [ 31 ]


Shiva is a founding councillor of the  World Future Council  (WFC).  The WFC was formed in 2007 "to speak on behalf of policy solutions that serve the interests of future generations."  Their primary focus has been on climate security. [ 32 ]


She supports the crime of  ecocide  being introduced to the  International Criminal Court  stating  "The ideal of limitless growth is leading to limitless violations of the rights of the Earth and of the rights of nature. This is ecocide". [ 33 ] [ 34 ]


Vandana supports the idea of seed freedom, or the rejection of patents on new plant lines or cultivars. She has campaigned against the implementation of the WTO 1994 Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights  (TRIPS) agreement , which broadens the scope of patents to include life forms. Shiva has criticised the agreement as having close ties with the corporate sector and opening the door to further patents on life. [ 35 ]  Shiva calls the patenting of life 'biopiracy', and has fought against attempted patents of several indigenous plants, such as basmati. [ 36 ]  In 2005, Shiva's was one of the three organisations that won a 10-year battle in the  European Patent Office  against the biopiracy of  Neem  by the  US Department of Agriculture  and the corporation  WR Grace . [ 37 ]  In 1998, Shiva's organisation  Navdanya  began a campaign against the biopiracy of basmati rice by US corporation  RiceTec  Inc. In 2001, following intensive campaigning, RiceTec lost most of its claims to the patent.


Shiva strongly opposes  golden rice , a breed of rice that has been genetically engineered to biosynthesise beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. Shiva contends that Golden Rice is more harmful than beneficial in her explanation of what she calls the "Golden Rice hoax": "Unfortunately, Vitamin A rice is a hoax, and will bring further dispute to plant genetic engineering where public relations exercises seem to have replaced science in promotion of untested, unproven and unnecessary technology... This is a recipe for creating hunger and malnutrition, not solving it." [ 38 ]  Adrian Dubock says that golden rice is as cheap as other rice and vitamin A deficiency is the greatest reason for blindness and causes 28% of global preschool child mortality. [ 39 ]  Shiva has claimed that the women of Bengal grow and eat 150 greens which can do the same, [ 40 ]  while environmental consultant  Patrick Moore  suggests that most of these 250 million children do not eat much else than a bowl of rice a day. [ 41 ]  In the 2013 report "The economic power of the Golden Rice opposition", two economists, Wesseler and Zilberman from  Munich University  and the  University of California, Berkeley  respectively calculated that the absence of Golden Rice in India had caused the loss of over 1.4 million lives in the previous ten years. [ 42 ]


According to Shiva, "Soaring seed prices in India have resulted in many farmers being mired in debt and turning to suicide". The creation of seed monopolies, the destruction of alternatives, the collection of superprofits in the form of royalties, and the increasing vulnerability of monocultures has created a context for debt, suicides, and  agrarian distress . According to data from the Indian government, nearly 75 percent of rural debt is due to purchased inputs. Shiva claims that farmers' debt grows as  GMO  corporation's profits grow. According to Shiva, it is in this systemic sense that GM seeds are those of suicide.


International Food Policy Research Institute  (IFPRI) twice analysed academic articles and government data and concluded the decrease and that there was no evidence on "resurgence" of farmer suicide. [ 43 ] [ 44 ]


Shiva plays a major role in the global ecofeminist movement. According to her 2004 article  Empowering Women, [ 45 ]  a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved by reinstating the system of farming in India that is more centred on engaging women. She advocates against the prevalent "patriarchal logic of exclusion," claiming that a woman-focused system would be a great improvement. [ 46 ]  She believes that ecological destruction and industrial catastrophes threaten daily life, and the maintenance of these problems have become women's responsibility. [ 47 ]


Cecile Jackson has criticised some of Shiva's views as  essentialist . [ 48 ]


Shiva co-wrote the book  Ecofeminism  in 1993 with "German anarchist and radical feminist sociologist" [ 49 ]  Maria Mies. It combined Western and Southern feminism with "environmental, technological and feminist issues, all incorporated under the term ecofeminism". [ 49 ]  These theories are combined throughout the book in essays by Shiva and Mies.


Stefanie Lay described the book as a collection of thought-provoking essays but also found in it a lack of new ecofeminist theories and contemporary analysis, as well as "overall failure to acknowledge the work of others". [ 50 ]


In June 2014, Indian and international media reported that Navdanya and Vandana Shiva were named in a leaked, classified report by  India's Intelligence Bureau  (IB), which was prepared for the  Indian Prime Minister's  Office. [ 51 ]


The leaked report says that campaigning activities of Indian NGOs such as Navdanya are hampering India's growth and development. In its report, the IB said that Indian NGOs, including Navdanya, receive money from foreign donors under the 'charitable garb' of campaigning for  human rights  or  women's equality , but instead use the money for  'nefarious purposes' . "These foreign donors lead local NGOs to provide field reports which are used to build a record against India and serve as tools for the strategic foreign policy interests of the Western governments," the IB report states. [ 52 ]


Investigative journalist  Michael Specter , in an article in  The New Yorker  on 25 August 2014 called "Seeds of Doubt", [ 10 ]  raised concerns over a number of Shiva's claims regarding GMOs and some of her campaigning methods. He wrote: "Shiva's absolutism about G.M.O.s can lead her in strange directions. In 1999, ten thousand people were killed and millions were left homeless when a cyclone hit India's eastern coastal state of Orissa. When the U.S. government dispatched grain and soy to help feed the desperate victims, Shiva held a news conference in  New Delhi  and said that the donation was proof that 'the United States has been using the Orissa victims as guinea pigs' for genetically-engineered products, although she made no mention that those same products are approved and consumed in the United States. She also wrote to the international relief agency  Oxfam  to say that she hoped it wasn't planning to send genetically modified foods to feed the starving survivors." [ 10 ]


Shiva responded that Specter was "ill informed" [ 53 ]  and that "for the record, ever since I sued Monsanto in 1999 for its illegal Bt cotton trials in India, I have received death threats", adding that the "concerted PR assault on me for the last two years from Lynas, Specter and an equally vocal Twitter group is a sign that the global outrage against the control over our seed and food, by Monsanto through GMOs, is making the biotech industry panic." [ 53 ]   David Remnick , the editor of the  New Yorker , responded by publishing a letter supporting Specter's article. [ 54 ]


Cases of plagiarism have been pointed out against Shiva. Birendra Nayak noted that Shiva copied verbatim from a 1996 article in Voice Gopalpur in her 1998 book  Stronger than Steel , [ 55 ]  and that in 2016, she plagiarised several paragraphs of an article by S Faizi on the Plachimada/Coca-Cola issue published in  The Statesman . [ 56 ]


Journalist  Keith Kloor , in an article published in  Discover  on 23 October 2014 titled "The Rich Allure of a Peasant Champion", revealed that Shiva charges $40,000 per lecture, plus a  business-class  air ticket from New Delhi. Kloor wrote: "She is often heralded as a tireless 'defender of the poor,' someone who has courageously taken her stand among the peasant farmers of India. Let it be noted, however, that this champion of the downtrodden doesn't exactly live a peasant's lifestyle." [ 57 ]


Stewart Brand  in  Whole Earth Discipline  described some of Shiva's statements as pseudo-scientific, calling her warnings about "heritable sterility" ( Stolen Harvest , 2000) a "biological impossibility" but also plagiarism from Geri Guidetti, owner of the seed supplier company Ark Institute, and a "distraction" created by inflating the potential of  terminator genes  based on a single 1998 patent granted to a US company. [ 58 ]  Brand also criticised the position of anti-GMO activists, including Shiva, who forced  Zambia 's government to reject internationally donated corn in 2001-02 because it was "poisoned", as well as during the cyclone disaster in India. On the latter Shiva argued, "emergency cannot be used as market opportunity", to which Brand responded, "anyone who encourages other people to starve on principle should do some of the starving themselves". In 1998 Shiva was also protesting against Bt cotton program in India, calling it "seeds of suicide, seeds of slavery, seeds of despair", claiming she was protecting the farmers. Restrictive laws established in India under anti-GMO lobbying, however, led to widespread grassroots "seed piracy" where Indian farmers illegally planted seeds of  Bt cotton  and  Bt brinjal , obtained either from experimental plantations or from  Bangladesh  (where they are planted legally) due to increased yield and reduced pesticide usage. [ 58 ]  As of 2005 over 2.5 million hectares were planted with "unofficial" Bt cotton in India, of which  Noel Kingsbury  said:


Shiva's "Operation Cremate Monsanto" had spectacularly failed, its anti-GM stance borrowed from Western intellectuals had made no headway with Indian farmers, who showed they were not passive recipients of either technology or propaganda, but could take an active role in shaping their lives. What they did is also perhaps more genuinely subversive of multinational capitalism than anything GM's opponents have ever managed.


In India, farmers planting GM crops illegally eventually formed the Shetkari Sanghatana movement, calling for reform of the restrictive laws created under anti-GMO lobbying and as of 2020 an estimated 25% of cotton farmed is GM. [ 59 ]


Shiva has repeatedly gone on record characterizing science as "a very narrow, patriarchal project" that has been around only "for a short period of history" and argued that "we name 'science' what is mechanistic and reductionist." She condemns the "kind of science" that " Bacon ,  Descartes , and others, who are called 'fathers of modern science', have created," because scientists, as she claims, "declare nature as dead" and then use a "mechanistic mode" to analyze it. Shiva assigns the so-called scientific progress of the last centuries to the advance of  capitalism , a time when the new exploitation needed a knowledge that would justify it. [ 60 ]  In her 8 March 2017 speech to the  European Parliament , Shiva stated that the "rise of masculinist science with Descartes, Newton, Bacon, led to the domination of [a] reductionist mechanistic science and a subjugation of [the] knowledge systems [that are] based on interconnections and relationships," a knowledge, she argued, that "includes all  indigenous  knowledge systems, and women’s knowledge." [ 61 ] [ 62 ]


Vandana Shiva has been interviewed for a number of documentary films including  Freedom Ahead ,  Roshni; [ 63 ]   Deconstructing Supper: Is Your Food Safe?,   The Corporation ,   Thrive,   Dirt! The Movie ,  Normal is Over, and  This is What Democracy Looks Like  (a documentary about the Seattle  WTO protests of 1999 ). [ 64 ] [ 65 ]  and Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs  Planet of the Humans . [ 66 ]


Shiva's focus on water has caused her to appear in a number of films on this topic. These films include "Ganga From the Ground Up," a documentary on water issues in the river Ganges; [ 67 ]   Blue Gold: World Water Wars  by  Sam Bozzo ;  Irena Salina 's documentary  Flow: For Love of Water  (in competition at the 2008  Sundance Film Festival ), and the  PBS  NOW documentary  On Thin Ice. [ 68 ]


On the topic of genetically modified crops, she was featured in the documentary  Fed Up!  (2002), on genetic engineering, industrial agriculture and sustainable alternatives; and the documentary  The World According to Monsanto , a film made by the French independent journalist  Marie-Monique Robin .


Shiva appeared in a documentary film about the  Dalai Lama , entitled  Dalai Lama Renaissance . [ 69 ]


In 2010, Shiva was interviewed in a documentary about  honeybees  and  colony collapse disorder , entitled  Queen of the Sun . [ 70 ]


She appears in the French films  Demain [ 71 ]  and  Solutions locales pour un désordre global .


In 2016, she appeared in the  vegan  documentary film  H.O.P.E.: What You Eat Matters , where she was critical of the  animal agriculture industry  and  meat -intensive diets. [ 72 ]


The Seeds of Vandana Shiva (2021),  Becket Films, feature-length documentary telling her life story. www.vandanashivamovie.com


She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2019. [ 79 ]


Tabernanthe iboga  ( iboga ) is an  evergreen   rainforest   shrub  native to Central Africa. A member of the  Apocynaceae  family indigenous to  Gabon , the  Democratic Republic of Congo , and the  Republic of Congo , it is cultivated across Central Africa for its medicinal and other effects.


In  African traditional medicine  and  rituals , the yellowish root or bark is used to produce  hallucinations  and near-death outcomes, with some fatalities occurring. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]  In high doses, ibogaine is considered to be  toxic , and has caused serious  comorbidities  when used with  opioids  or  prescription drugs . [ 3 ] [ 5 ]  The United States  Drug Enforcement Administration  (DEA) lists  ibogaine  as a  controlled substance  of the  Controlled Substances Act . [ 3 ]


T. iboga  is native to tropical forests, preferring moist soil in partial shade. [ 3 ]  It bears dark green, narrow leaves and clusters of tubular flowers on an erect and branching stem, with yellow-orange fruits resembling  chili pepper . [ 3 ]


Normally growing to a height of 2 m,  T. iboga  may eventually grow into a small tree up to 10 m tall, given the right conditions. The flowers are yellowish-white or pink and followed by a fruit, orange at maturity, that may be either  globose  or  fusiform . Its yellow-fleshed roots contain a number of  indole   alkaloids , most notably  ibogaine , which is found in the highest concentration in the bark of the roots. The root material, bitter in taste, causes a degree of anaesthesia in the mouth as well as systemic numbness of the skin. [ 6 ]


Tabernanthe iboga  was described by  Henri Ernest Baillon  and published in  Bulletin Mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Paris  1: 783 in the year 1889.


The genus name  Tabernanthe  is a compound of the  Latin   taberna , " tavern "/" hut "/" (market) stall " and  Greek :  ἄνθος  ( anthos ) "flower" – giving a literal meaning of "tavern flower". On the other hand, it may equally well have been intended (by way of a type of botanical shorthand) to mean "having a flower resembling that of plants belonging to the genus  Tabernaemontana  " (q.v.). If the first conjecture is the correct one, the name could also have been intended to suggest that the plant is cultivated near huts, sold at market stalls or even that – like the beverages sold at a tavern – the plant is intoxicating, all of which alternatives would constitute apt descriptions of an oft-cultivated and popular  psychoactive plant .
The specific name  iboga  comes from the  Myene  name for the plant, [ 7 ]  which was also borrowed into a number of other regional languages with mild variation. [ 8 ]


The first (probable...and confused) reference to Iboga is that of  Bowdich  in chapter 13 of his "Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee..." of 1819


The Eroga, a favourite but violent medicine, is no doubt a fungus, for they describe it as growing on a tree called the Ocamboo, when decaying; they burn it first, and take as much as would lay on a shilling.


If this is indeed a reference to the drug derived from  Tabernanthe iboga  ( Eroga  appears to be a variant form of the names  iboga  and  eboka ) it is, of course, grossly in error in its assumption that iboga is not a plant but a fungus. Notable however is the observation of the potency of the drug – effective in small quantities. The description of the plant as growing on a tree is puzzling:  Tabernanthe iboga  does not usually grow as an  epiphyte  – if at all. [ 9 ] [ 10 ]


The ritual use of iboga in Africa was first reported by French and Belgian explorers in the 19th century, beginning with the work of French  naval surgeon  and explorer of  Gabon   Griffon du Bellay , [ 11 ]  who identified it correctly as a shrub belonging to the Apocynaceae – as recorded in a short essay by  Charles Eugène Aubry-Lecomte  on the plant poisons of West Africa, published in the year 1864.


Parmi les plantes rares ou nouvelles rapportées par le docteur Griffon du Bellay, la famille des apocynées contient encore deux poisons; l'un, nommé iboga, n'est toxique qu'à hautes doses et a l'état frais. Pris en petit quantité, il est aphrodisiaque et stimulante du systeme nerveux; les guerriers et chasseurs en font grand usage pour se tenir éveillés dans les affûts de nuit; de même que pour le  M'boundou , le principe actif réside dans la racine qu'on mâche comme la coca.
 [ Translation: Among the rare or new plants brought back by Dr. Griffon du Bellay, the plant family Apocynaceae contains two further poisons; the first of these, called  Iboga , is only toxic in high doses and in the fresh state. Taken in small quantities, it is an aphrodisiac and stimulant of the (central) nervous system; warriors and hunters make considerable use of it in order to stay awake during their night vigils; as with the (plant)  M'boundou , the active principle (of Iboga) resides in the root which is chewed like coca (leaf) ]. [ 12 ]


Indole alkaloids make up about 6% of the root chemical composition of iboga. [ 3 ]  Alkaloids that are present in more than 1% in root bark are: [ 13 ]  (in descending order)


18-Methoxycoronaridine , a synthetic derivative of ibogaine, also occurs naturally in this plant. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]


The Iboga tree is central to the  Bwiti  spiritual practices in West-Central Africa, mainly  Gabon ,  Cameroon , and the  Republic of the Congo , where the alkaloid-containing roots or bark are used in various ceremonies, sometimes to create a near-death experience. [ 3 ] [ 14 ]  Iboga is taken in massive doses by initiates of this spiritual practice, and on a more regular basis is eaten in smaller doses in connection with rituals and tribal dances performed at night.


While in lower doses iboga has a stimulant effect and is used to maintain alertness while hunting, [ 15 ] [ 16 ]  in moderate or high doses, iboga induces dream-like states with vivid visions and  hallucinations . [ 3 ]


Anecdotal reports  of self-treated opioid addicts indicated a reduced desire to sustain opiate abuse following iboga ingestion. [ 3 ]  Since 1970, iboga has been legally prohibited in the United States following several fatalities. [ 3 ] [ 4 ]  Iboga extracts, as well as the purified alkaloid  ibogaine , have attracted attention because of their purported ability to reverse addiction to drugs such as  alcohol  and  opiates . [ 3 ]  Due to the cardiac safety risks of iboga, research is also considering iboga analogues. [ 17 ]


Ibogaine is classified as a  schedule 1 controlled substance  in the United States, and is not approved there for addiction treatment (or any other therapeutic use) because of its hallucinogenic and cardiovascular side effects, as well as the absence of safety and efficacy data in human subjects. [ 3 ] [ 5 ]  In most other countries, it remains unregulated and unlicensed. [ 18 ]


Independent ibogaine treatment clinics have emerged in Mexico, Canada, the  Netherlands , South Africa, and New Zealand, all operating in what has been described as a "legal gray area". [ 18 ] [ 19 ]  Covert, illegal neighborhood clinics are also known to exist in the United States, despite active DEA surveillance. [ 16 ]  Addiction specialists warn that the treatment of drug dependence with ibogaine in non-medical settings, without expert supervision and unaccompanied by appropriate psychosocial care, can be dangerous – and, in approximately one case in 300, potentially fatal. [ 3 ] [ 19 ]


Ibogaine may induce nausea, vomiting, tremors, and headaches. [ 3 ]  When ibogaine is used chronically,  manic episodes  lasting for several days may occur, accompanied by  insomnia , irritability, delusions, aggressive behavior, and thoughts of suicide, among other effects. [ 3 ] [ 20 ]


Iboga is outlawed or restricted in  Belgium ,  Poland ,  Denmark ,  Croatia , France, [ 21 ]   Sweden , and  Switzerland . In the United States,  ibogaine  is classified by the  Controlled Substances Act  on the  list of schedule I drugs , [ 3 ]  although the plant itself remains unscheduled.


Non-profit organization  Föreningen för hollistisk missbruksvård  is trying to convince the Swedish government to start up clinical investigations of its anti-addictive properties, loosen up the prohibition law against ibogaine, and allow the creation of treatment facilities in Sweden. [ 22 ]


Exportation of iboga from Gabon is illegal since the passage of a 1994 cultural protection law. [ 23 ]


While little data is available on the exploitation and existing habitat of the iboga plant, the destructive effects of harvesting and slow growth could have already severely damaged the wild iboga population. [ 24 ]


A  trade name ,  trading name , or  business name  is a  pseudonym  used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. [ 1 ]  The term for this type of alternative name is  fictitious business name . [ 1 ]  Registering the fictitious name with a relevant government body is often required.


In a number of countries, the phrase " trading as " (abbreviated to  t/a ) is used to designate a trade name. In the  United States , the phrase " doing business as " (abbreviated to  DBA ,  dba ,  d.b.a. , or  d/b/a ) is used, [ 1 ] [ 2 ]  among others, such as  assumed business name [ 3 ]  or  fictitious business name . [ 4 ]  In  Canada , " operating as " (abbreviated to  o/a ) and " trading as " are used, although " doing business as " is also sometimes used. [ 5 ]


A company typically uses a trade name to conduct business using a simpler name rather than using their formal and often lengthier name. Trade names are also used when a preferred name cannot be registered, often because it may already be registered or is too similar to a name that is already registered.


Using one or more fictitious business names does not create additional separate legal entities. [ 2 ]  The distinction between a registered legal name and a fictitious business name, or trade name, is important because fictitious business names do not always identify the entity that is  legally responsible .


Legal agreements (such as  contracts ) are normally made using the registered legal name of the business. If a corporation fails to consistently adhere to such important legal formalities like using its registered legal name in contracts, it may be subject to  piercing of the corporate veil . [ 6 ]


In  English , trade names are generally treated as  proper nouns . [ 7 ]


In  Argentina , a trade name is known as a  nombre de fantasía  ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a  razón social  (social name).


In  Brazil , a trade name is known as a  nome fantasia  ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called  razão social  (social name).


In some  Canadian   jurisdictions , such as  Ontario , when a businessperson writes a trade name on a contract, invoice, or cheque, they must also add the legal name of the business. [ 8 ]


Numbered companies  will very often operate as something other than their legal name, which is unrecognizable to the public.


In  Chile , a trade name is known as a  nombre de fantasía  ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a  razón social  (social name).


In  Ireland , businesses are legally required to register business names where these differ from the surname(s) of the sole trader or partners, or the legal name of a company. The  Companies Registration Office  publishes a searchable register of such business names. [ 9 ]


In  Japan , the word  yagō  ( 屋号 )  is used.


In  Colonial Nigeria , certain tribes had members that used a variety of trading names to conduct business with the Europeans. Two examples were King  Perekule VII  of  Bonny , who was known as  Captain Pepple  in trade matters, and King  Jubo Jubogha  of  Opobo , who bore the pseudonym  Captain Jaja . Both Pepple and Jaja would bequeath their trade names to their royal descendants as official  surnames  upon their deaths.


In  Singapore , there is no filing requirement for a "trading as" name, but there are requirements for disclosure of the underlying business or company's registered name and unique entity number. [ 10 ]


In the  United Kingdom , there is no filing requirement for a "business name", defined as "any name under which someone carries on business" that, for a company or limited liability partnership, "is not its registered name", but there are requirements for disclosure of the owner's true name and some restrictions on the use of certain names. [ 11 ]


A minority of U.S. states, including  Washington , still use the term  trade name  to refer to "doing business as" (DBA) names. [ 12 ]  In most U.S. states now, however, DBAs are officially referred to using other terms. Almost half of the states, including  New York  and  Oregon , use the terms  assumed business name  or  assumed name ; [ 13 ] [ 14 ]  nearly as many, including  Pennsylvania , use the term  fictitious name . [ 15 ]


For  consumer protection  purposes, many U.S. jurisdictions require businesses operating with fictitious names to file a DBA statement, though names including the first and last name of the owner may be accepted. [ 16 ]  This also reduces the possibility of two local businesses operating under the same name, although some jurisdictions do not provide exclusivity for a name, or may allow more than one party to register the same name. Note, though, that this is not a substitute for filing a  trademark  application. A DBA filing carries no legal weight in establishing trademark rights. [ 17 ]  In the U.S., trademark rights are acquired by use in commerce, but there can be substantial benefits to filing a trademark application. [ 18 ]   Sole proprietors  are the most common users of DBAs. Sole proprietors are individual business owners who run their businesses themselves. Since most people in these circumstances use a business name other than their own name, [ citation needed ]  it is often necessary for them to get DBAs.


Generally, a DBA must be registered with a local or state government, or both, depending on the jurisdiction. For example, California, Texas and Virginia require a DBA to be registered with each county (or  independent city  in the case of Virginia) where the owner does business. Maryland and Colorado have DBAs registered with a state agency. Virginia also requires corporations and LLCs to file a copy of their registration with the county or city to be registered with the State Corporation Commission.


DBA statements are often used in conjunction with a  franchise . The franchisee will have a legal name under which it may sue and be sued, but will conduct business under the franchiser's  brand name  (which the public would recognize). A typical real-world example can be found in a well-known pricing  mistake  case,  Donovan v. RRL Corp. ,  26 Cal. 4th 261  (2001), where the named defendant, RRL Corporation, was a Lexus  car dealership  doing business as " Lexus  of  Westminster ", but remaining a separate legal entity from Lexus, a division of  Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. .


In  California , filing a DBA statement also requires that a notice of the fictitious name be published in local  newspapers  for some set period of time to inform the public of the owner's intent to operate under an  assumed name . The intention of the law is to protect the public from fraud, by compelling the business owner to first file or register his fictitious business name with the county clerk, and then making a further public record of it by publishing it in a newspaper. [ 19 ]  Several other states, such as  Illinois , require print notices as well. [ 20 ]


In  Uruguay , a trade name is known as a  nombre fantasía , and the legal name of business is called a  razón social .


The  United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues  ( UNPFII  or  PFII ) is the  UN 's central coordinating body for matters relating to the concerns and  rights  of the world's  indigenous peoples . There are more than 370 million indigenous people (also known as native, original, aboriginal and first peoples) in some 70 countries worldwide. [ 1 ]


The forum was created in 2000 as an outcome of the UN's  International Year for the World's Indigenous People  in 1993, within the first  International Decade of the World's Indigenous People  (1995–2004). It is an advisory body within the framework of the  United Nations System  that reports to the  UN 's  Economic and Social Council  (ECOSOC).


Resolution 45/164 of the  United Nations General Assembly  was adopted on 18 December 1990, proclaiming that 1993 would be the International Year for the World's Indigenous People, "with a view to strengthening international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous communities in areas such as human rights, the environment, development, education and health". [ 2 ] [ 3 ]  The year was launched in Australia by Prime Minister  Paul Keating 's memorable  Redfern speech  on 10 December 1992, in which he addressed  Indigenous Australians ' disadvantage. [ 4 ]


The creation of the permanent forum was discussed at the 1993  World Conference on Human Rights  in  Vienna , Austria. The  Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action  recommended that such a forum should be established within the first United Nations International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. [ 5 ]


A working group was formed and various other meetings took place that led to the establishment of the permanent forum by  Economic and Social Council  Resolution 2000/22 on 28 July 2000. [ 6 ]


It submits recommendations to the Council on issues related to indigenous peoples. It holds a two-week session each year which takes place at the  United Nations Headquarters  in New York City but it could also take place in  Geneva  or any other place as decided by the forum. [ citation needed ]


The mandate of the Forum is to discuss indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and  human rights . The forum is to: [ 7 ] [ 8 ]


The forum is composed of 16 independent experts, functioning in their personal capacity, who are appointed to three-year terms. At the end of their term, they can be re-elected or re-appointed for one additional term.


Of these 16 members, eight are nominated by the member governments and eight directly nominated by indigenous organizations. Those nominated by the governments are then elected to office by the Economic and Social Council based on the five regional groupings of the United Nations. Whereas those nominated by indigenous organisations are appointed by the  President of the Economic and Social Council  and represent the seven socio-cultural regions for broad representation of the world's indigenous peoples. [ 8 ]


To date, eighteen sessions have been held, all at UN Headquarters, New York: [ 10 ]


April 2024


The Secretariat of the PFII was established by the  General Assembly  in 2002 with Resolution 57/191. [ 17 ]  It is based in the New York within the Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). [ 18 ]  The Secretariat, among other things, prepares the annual sessions of the Forum, provides support and assistance to the Forum's members, promotes awareness of indigenous issues within the UN system, governments and the public, and serves as a source of information and a coordination point for indigenous-related efforts.


The first International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, "Indigenous People: Partnership in Action" (1995–2004), was proclaimed by  General Assembly resolution  48/163 with the main objective of strengthening international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous peoples in areas such as human rights, environment, development, health and education. [ 19 ]


The Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, "Partnership for Action and Dignity" (2005–2015), was proclaimed by the General Assembly at its 59th session, and the programme of action was adopted at the 60th session. [ 20 ]


Its objectives are:


On 28 February 2020, 500 participants of a high-level assembly adopted the "Los Pinos Declaration" which concentrates on the indigenous language users' human rights.


To ensure diversity, members are elected from different regions depending on who nominated them: [ 8 ]


The  WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge [ 1 ]  or  GRATK Treaty  is an international legal instrument to combat  biopiracy [ 2 ]  through disclosure requirements for  patent   applicants  whose  inventions  are based on  genetic resources  and/or  associated traditional knowledge . [ 3 ]


The treaty was concluded at the headquarters of the  World Intellectual Property Organization  (WIPO) in  Geneva ,  Switzerland , on 24 May 2024, [ 4 ]  after more than two decades [ 5 ]  of previous developments by WIPO's  Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore  (IGC). [ 6 ]


The treaty was deemed "historic in many regards" [ 7 ]  by some observers, qualified by the  Indigenous Caucus [ 8 ]  as a "first step towards guaranteeing just and transparent access to these resources." [ 9 ]


The IGC was established in 2001 by the General Assembly of  WIPO . [ 10 ] [ 11 ]


Since 2010, the mandate of the IGC has remained that of concluding a consensual text which would bridge the gaps between the numerous existing international legal instruments provide some, but insufficient protection on either  traditional knowledge ,  traditional cultural expressions , or  genetic resources  ( UNDRIP ,  Convention on Biological Diversity ,  Nagoya Protocol ,  FAO plant treaty ,  UNESCO  conventions on culture and intangible heritage, etc.), none of which include explicit protections for  indigenous peoples  and  local communities . [ 12 ] [ 13 ]


IGC's negotiations were suspended in 2020 because of the pandemic of  SARS-CoV-2 , and resumed in 2022. [ 13 ]


In 2022, the IGC agreed to move on to the next steps of treaty negotiation, and WIPO agreed to convene a  Diplomatic Conference  by 2024 to consider a draft treaty that the Committee had been working on. [ 14 ]


The selection of the draft text that had to serve as a basis for the negotiations of the final text of the treaty received some criticism from civil society observers. [ 15 ] [ 16 ]  The 2022 WIPO General Assembly decided that a short version of the draft (the "Chair's text") which had been drafted by Australian ambassador Ian Gross, Chair of the IGC in 2019, would be the basis for the treaty's negotiations. Prior to that decision, the text which was expected to be used as basis for the negotiations was the "Consolidated text", a more comprehensive document on which IGC Member States had been working on by consensus during years. [ 15 ]


Contrary to the  Consolidated text  which addressed  traditional knowledge  and  traditional cultural expressions  as such, and different forms of intellectual property, the  Chair's text  focused only on  genetic resources  and the  patent system . [ 17 ]


In August 2023,  India  submitted a proposal with a series of amendments to the  Chair’s text , aiming to add back some elements from the  Consolidated text  in the discussion.


Ahead of the Diplomatic Conference, two extraordinary meetings were convened to prepare the Conference:


The  Special Session  which took place from 4 to 8 September 2023, reviewed part of the  Chair's text  containing substantive articles. The  Preparatory Committee  which was held the week after, addressed administrative and procedural parts of the draft. [ 18 ]  Jointly, these two meetings yielded a revised draft, which serves as the basis for the 2024 Diplomatic Conference discussions.


The  Preparatory Committee  also adopted Draft Rules of Procedure for the Diplomatic Conference, as well as a List of Invitees. On 13 September 2023, the committee had to suspend its session due to the absence of submission by Member States of proposals to host the Diplomatic Conference. On 13 December, the committee reconvened to adopt a decision to hold the Diplomatic Conference at WIPO's headquarters in Geneva, facing the lack of alternative proposals. [ 19 ]


As explained on the website of the Diplomatic Conference:


On July 21, 2022, the WIPO General Assembly decided to convene a Diplomatic Conference to conclude an International Legal Instrument Relating to Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge Associated with Genetic Resources no later than 2024. [ 20 ]


The Diplomatic Conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, between 13 and 24 May 2024. [ 19 ]  During the Conference, the draft resulting from the  Special Session  and  Preparatory Committee  was discussed and amended.


The final legal instrument, the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (often referred to by its acronym "GRATK" [ 5 ] [ 21 ] ) was adopted in the night [ 22 ]  of Thursday 23 to Friday 24 May 2024, and opened for signature the 24 May in the afternoon, at the WIPO headquarter in Geneva. [ 2 ]


This is the first WIPO Treaty to address the interface between intellectual property, genetic resources and traditional knowledge and the first WIPO Treaty to include provisions specifically for  Indigenous Peoples  as well as local communities. The Treaty, once it enters into force with 15 contracting parties, will establish in international law a new disclosure requirement for patent applicants whose inventions are based on genetic resources and/or associated traditional knowledge. [ 4 ]


The Treaty was concluded on 24 May 2024 and immediately opened for signature. Under the Treaty's Article 16, it is stated that the Treaty will be "open for signature at the Diplomatic Conference in Geneva and thereafter […] for one year after its adoption." [ 1 ]


At the closing of the Diplomatic Conference, on 24 May 2024, the Treaty was signed by 30 countries: Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Eswatini, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, North Korea, Paraguay, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uruguay, and Vanuatu. [ 5 ]


Under Article 17, the Treaty is planned to  enter into force 3 months after ratification or accession by 15 countries .


Signature, ratification and accession is open to any Member State of the  WIPO , under the Treaty's Article 12. Countries that sign the Treaty within the first year period (until 24 May 2025) have to further ratify it in order for the Treaty to enter into force. Countries deciding to join after the initial one-year period will join through "adhesion" (equivalent to both signature and ratification).


Wendland, Wend (October 3, 2024).  "The new WIPO Treaty 25 years in the making: what does it mean and what happens next?" .  WIPO . Retrieved  2025-01-10 .


The  Luca Coscioni Association for the freedom of scientific research  was founded on September 20, 2002, by  Luca Coscioni , who had  amyotrophic lateral sclerosis  and was a member of the  Italian Radical Party  who promoted the campaign for the freedom of scientific research on  embryonic stem cells .


In 2001 he was the head of the list of Radical candidates in the political elections and received the support of 51 Nobel Prize Laureates worldwide.  In 2005, the Association launched the pro-referendum campaign aimed at abrogating Law 40 which imposed a ban on  assisted fertilization  and on research on  embryonic stem cells , by collecting the signatures of over a million voters. Although the referendum query obtained a majority of votes, it was cancelled for not obtaining the required quorum pursuant to the pro-abstention campaign promoted by the Italian  Catholic Church  and by many political parties.


The Association is also promoter of the  World Congress for Freedom of Scientific Research , an international platform of scientists, patients and citizens.


In 2006, it played a leading role in the legal and political battle in favour of  euthanasia  and of the principle of a “Biological Testament” (Living Will) promoted by  Piergiorgio Welby , the President of the Association, who suffered from progressive  muscular dystrophy . After having addressed an open letter to the Italian President of the Republic and having filed a petition with the competent Court to respect his will to die, Piergiorgio Welby died on December 20, 2006, after having received sedation and being disconnected from mechanical pulmonary ventilation thanks to an act of  civil disobedience  organized by the Luca Coscioni Association.


Clonaid  is an American-based   human cloning  organization, registered as a company in  the Bahamas . Founded in 1997, it has philosophical ties with the  UFO religion   Raëlism , [ 1 ]  which sees cloning as the first step in achieving  immortality . On December 27, 2002, Clonaid's chief executive,  Brigitte Boisselier , claimed that a baby clone, named Eve, was born. Media coverage of the claim sparked serious criticism and ethical debate that lasted more than a year. Florida attorney  Bernard Siegel  tried to appoint a special guardian for Eve and threatened to sue Clonaid, because he was afraid that the child might be treated like a lab rat. [ 2 ]   Siegel, who heard the company's actual name was not Clonaid, decided that the Clonaid project was a sham. [ 3 ]  Bioethicist Clara Alto condemned Clonaid for premature human experimentation and noted the high incidence of malformations and thousands of fetal deaths in animal cloning. [ 4 ]


On May 31, 1997, an issue of the  popular science  magazine  New Scientist  said that the International Raëlian Movement was starting a company to fund the research and development of human cloning.  This alarmed bioethicists who were opposed to such plans.  They warned lawmakers against failing to regulate human cloning.  At the time, European countries such as Britain had banned human cloning, but the United States had merely a  moratorium  on the use of federal funds for  human cloning  research. U.S. President  Bill Clinton  requested that private companies pass their own moratorium.   Claude Vorilhon , the founder of Raëlism, was opposed to this move and denied that the technology used to clone was inherently dangerous. [ 5 ]


On June 15, 1998, Brigitte Boisselier said the headquarters of Clonaid was located in  Las Vegas  and that Clonaid did not have enough funds for human cloning research. [ 6 ]   On December 19, 1998, a  New Scientist  article said the cost of Clonaid cloning services would be  $ 200,000, much lower than the $2.3 million that researchers at  Texas A&M University  planned to use for cloning a dog named Missy. Mainstream scientists said it was unlikely that Clonaid would be able to clone anything in the near future. [ 7 ]   Although the project's ultimate objective was human cloning, Boisselier said that  pet cloning  would help finance the operations. [ 6 ]


On June 9, 1997, Clonaid stated its intention to offer homosexual and/or infertile couples the chance to have a genetically identical child and take a step toward  immortality .  According to an Internet announcement, the Raëlian leader and a group of investors founded a company in the Bahamas and called it  Valiant Venture Ltd. , whose project mission was named Clonaid.  Valiant Venture expected to have one million potential customers. [ 8 ]


Claude Vorilhon  held a meeting in a  Montreal  hotel on September 21, 2000, where he announced that a wealthy American couple was willing to fund the Clonaid project.  The first pending clone, according to Vorilhon at the time, was the couple's 10-month-old girl, who had died due to a medical mistake.  He said that the couple was willing to pay $1,500,000 to clone their deceased daughter, but the wife was not willing to be the surrogate mother.  Jamie Grifo, a fertility specialist at the  New York University School of Medicine , and Nobel laureate  Paul Berg  of  Stanford University  said that Vorilhon was providing a false hope that the child was going to be the same one.  Boisselier revealed the roles of four scientists she says were involved—"a biochemist, a geneticist, a cell fusion expert and a French medical doctor"—but without revealing their identity.  She did not identify the wealthy American couple. [ 9 ]


According to cloning specialist and physiologist George Seidel of  Colorado State University , cloning a human being would not be difficult if many people donated their eggs or offered their wombs for implantation of clone embryos. [ 9 ]   Lee Silver , a molecular biologist from  Princeton University , noted the advantages that Raëlians had, as a pro-cloning religious group, in finding willing surrogates. [ 9 ]   A biotechnology company called  Advanced Cell Technology  had cloned human embryo cells for medical purposes, and its CEO  Michael D. West  said that the directions for cloning a human being were available in published scientific literature. [ 9 ]   Experts knowledgeable of the scientific advances in the field have noted that human reproductive chemistry is better understood than that of most animals. [ 9 ]   For this reason, they thought that a higher rate of success was possible in human cloning compared with animal cloning. [ 9 ]   Brigitte Boisselier anticipated that the work could begin on the preserved cells as soon as October, but there was no evidence that Clonaid had medical knowledge necessary for its success. [ 9 ]   There was no evidence that the Clonaid claim was more than a publicity stunt. [ 9 ]  No verification or evidence proving that a successful clone has been made. [ citation needed ]


In the spring of 2001, [ 10 ]  the  Food and Drug Administration   Office of Criminal Investigations  inspected Clonaid's lab in the small city of  Nitro  in  West Virginia . [ 11 ]   It was located inside a rented room within a former high school.  Staff scientists reviewed the lab's research documentation and found them inadequate, the work of a graduate student extracting ovum from cow ovaries from a slaughterhouse. The  FDA  said that the equipment in lab was state-of-the-art and had been bought by  Mark Hunt, a former West Virginia state legislator , who wanted to clone his 10-month-old son, Andrew, who died in 1999 due to congenital heart disease. Following investigation of the West Virginia lab, Mark Hunt made an agreement with the FDA-OCI to not clone his dead son within the United States. [ 11 ]


In March 2001, Boisselier said that a woman would be pregnant with a cloned fetus in April.  She said that cells had reached the blastocyst stage, but she refused to speak of any specific implantation or pregnancy associated with them. According to a  CNN  article that November, the Clonaid laboratory was outside the United States.  Clonaid claimed that it had developed human cloned embryos before Advanced Cell Technology was able to do the same. [ 12 ]   CNN  could not confirm the unpublished work.  Due to Clonaid's association with Raëlians and the lack of evidence for cloning, authorities remained skeptical as to whether Clonaid could clone anything at all. [ 13 ]


On Friday, December 27, 2002, Boisselier, a Raëlian bishop and CEO of Clonaid, announced at a press conference in  Hollywood, Florida  that Clonaid had successfully performed the first human reproductive cloning.  Boisselier said that the mother delivered Eve by  Caesarean section  somewhere outside the  United States  and that both were healthy. Dr. Boisselier did not present the mother or child, or  DNA  samples that would allow for confirmation of her claim at the press conference. It has subsequently become apparent that she announced the birth before  genetic testing  to evaluate whether the child in question is actually a clone: Dr. Boisselier was therefore stating her belief that her procedure had resulted in a clone, not announcing results showing that the child was a clone. [ 14 ]


Shortly after the announcement, Korean prosecutors raided the offices of Clonaid's Korean branch, BioFusion Tech. In the process, the prosecutors removed records from homes and offices while barring two representatives of BioFusion Tech from leaving the country.  An official company statement revealed that three Korean women applied to become surrogate mothers.  Officials of BioFusion Tech told the prosecutors that 10 Korean women wanted to clone themselves and have filled out applications. [ citation needed ]


The  Food and Drug Administration  stated its intention to investigate Clonaid to see if it had done anything illegal.  The FDA contended that its regulations forbid human cloning without prior agency permission.  However, some members of the  United States Congress  believed that the jurisdiction of the FDA on human cloning matters was shaky and decided to push Congress to explicitly ban human cloning. [ 15 ]


US President  George W. Bush  said that human cloning was "deeply troubling" to most Americans.   Kansas  Republican  Sam Brownback  said that Congress should ban all human cloning, while some Democrats were worried that Clonaid's announcement would lead to the banning of  therapeutic cloning .  FDA biotechnology chief Dr. Phil Noguchi warned that the human cloning, even if it worked, risked transferring sexually transmitted diseases to the newly born child. [ 15 ]  The  White House  was also critical of the claims. [ 4 ]


Panos Zavos , a former professor of the  University of Kentucky , at the time had plans to create human clone embryos, but he stated to the effect that Clonaid's claims were without merit and that Eve did not exist. [ 16 ]   Severino Antinori , who had worked with Zavos on the development of human clone embryos, was critical of Klondyke's announcement, and said of it that, "An announcement of this type has no scientific corroboration and risks creating confusion." [ 14 ]   Robert Lanza  of Advanced Cell Technologies said that Clonaid has no record of accomplishment for cloning anything, but he said that if Clonaid actually succeeded, there would be public unrest that may lead to the banning of therapeutic cloning, which has the capacity to cure millions of patients. The  Vatican  said that the claims expressed a mentality that was brutal and lacked ethical consideration. [ 4 ]  The  Christian Coalition of America  urged a human cloning ban and saw the alleged clone baby as an "aberration". [ 16 ]


University of Wisconsin–Madison  bioethicist  Alta Charo  said that even in other ape-like mammals, the risk for miscarriage, birth defects, and life problems remains high. [ 4 ]   Arthur Caplan , the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, expressed concerns that many dead and sick children could result from the cloning of human beings. [ 16 ]


Clonaid spokeswoman Nadine Gary claimed that Eve went home with her mother on December 30, 2002, [ 17 ]  but Florida attorney Bernard Siegel filed a petition as a private citizen [ 18 ]  in the  Broward County  Circuit Court requesting that a temporary guardian be appointed for the purported cloned child. Two local attorneys, Barry Wax and Jonathan Schwartz were retained to represent Clonaid in the matter. [ citation needed ]  As the court case played out over the next month, Dr. Boisselier testified under oath that there was a cloned child born outside of the U.S. living in Israel. However, Clonaid did not present demonstrative evidence that the child really existed. [ 19 ]   Boisselier said that Eve would travel to the United States that day for DNA tests.  She said that a pediatrician saw Eve and her mother in good condition, but she refused to mention the location of the surrogate birth, the testing lab, or the biological mother's home, which she wanted to reveal at a later time.  The mother was said to be 31 years old with an infertile husband. [ 4 ]


Siegel subpoenaed Thomas Kaenzig, a vice president of Clonaid, to appear on a civil proceeding set to occur on January 22, 2003.  Siegel's office sent summonses to Thomas Kaenzig and "Jane Doe", the purported mother of Eve.  Siegel hoped that the action would coax those involved to provide some answers. He believed the child, if she existed, needed an appointed guardian and would need extensive medical treatment which he doubted Clonaid could offer. He wanted the court to make a decision on how to best protect her. However, Clonaid prevented scientists from meeting the purported child and mother. [ 20 ]


Michael Guillen, a former  ABC News  science editor, made an agreement with Boisselier for him to choose independent experts to test for a  DNA  match. Clonaid refused to identify the independent experts, because if revealed too soon, others could track the baby from the testing place into the mother's house. Clonaid said the parents had the final say on whether they want to test the baby and that a Dutch lesbian couple would be the parents of the next cloned baby. [ 21 ]  Boisselier said she would hand over the evidence to show that a clone had been born but was concerned that the details of Clonaid's cloning procedure might leak out. [ 4 ]  The next day, Vorilhon claimed that the baby was healthy.  He said those who are against cloning for ethical reasons would be dismayed if the clone baby was in good condition. [ 4 ]


Thomas Kaenzig refused to testify in a court hearing, but Florida judge John Frusciante Sr., father of musician  John Frusciante , [ 22 ]  was able to convince Kaenzig through a telephone call to reveal some of the details.  Kaenzig testified that Clonaid left him ignorant of the cloning project and that it was not even a corporation. The judge summoned Kaenzig and Brigitte Boisselier to a Florida court and warned the two that they would be condemned if they did not show there on January 29, 2003. [ 23 ]  As the court case played out, Boisselier testified under oath that she saw videos of a cloned child born in Israel. [ 19 ]


Michael Guillen was disappointed when he discovered that Clonaid withdrew their offer to provide the tests. The company said that before the tests were done, the parents wanted to be sure that their baby would not be sent away, but Florida attorney Bernard Siegel asked that a guardian for Eve be appointed and threatened the company with a lawsuit. [ 19 ]  Guillen, who remained skeptical, said it would be unwise to dismiss the Clonaid project without proper confirmation. [ 24 ]


The day after Boisselier made her announcement, she added that four more human clones were to be born within a few weeks, [ 25 ]  Boisselier claimed that Clonaid had a list of couples who were ready to have a cloned child. [ 15 ]  and that 20 more implantations of human clones were on the way after the first 10 which happened in the previous year.  She said that other companies have used cloning procedures with different specifics that lead to their high failure rate.  Boisselier argued that failed attempts at human cloning would be like those of  in vitro  fertilization where early miscarriages occurred more frequently than abortions.  Nevertheless, she said that if "deformities or abnormalities" were detected in a cloned fetus, the fetus would be aborted. [ 4 ]


Raëlian spokesman Bart Overvliet claimed that another cloned baby was born to a Dutch lesbian couple in the Netherlands the previous day and that the mother and baby were in good health.  A Dutch Raëlian spokeswoman could not comment on any further details about the mother, but Boisselier said that the mother gave birth to her own clone.  An official from the Dutch Health Ministry told  Reuters  that the Netherlands forbade human cloning but not the birth of baby clones. [ 26 ]   On January 5, 2003, Brigitte Boisselier said to the  BBC  that her medical team produced hundreds of human clone embryos before proceeding to ten implantations, two of which led to births. The head of the UK  Roslin Institute  was critical of the assertion, "Clonaid [has] no track record but claim[s] to have cloned hundreds of embryos – it just doesn't ring true." [ 27 ]


A Raëlian spokeswoman from Japan [ 23 ]  claimed that a baby boy, cloned from a comatose two-year-old of a Japanese couple, was born the previous day.  Boisselier said that a surrogate participated since the biological mother was 41 and more likely to have a miscarriage.  Scientists knew that many cloned animals suffer arthritis and ailments with the lungs and liver, and they were concerned that too many unanswered questions surround the prospect of cloning of humans safely.  Clonaid set up press conferences in which they described their method of cloning, but they did not give any details.  However, they did say that the third cloning was different in that it did not involve a mother's egg, but the surrogate's egg with the injection of the boy's DNA. [ 28 ]


According to Boisselier, Mark and Tracy Hunt, who were seeking to clone their dead son, invested $500,000 in the former Clonaid lab in West Virginia and its equipment, which the  Food and Drug Administration  shut down.  The Clonaid CEO proposed a cloning lab on  Brazilian Island  for creating the next generation of clone babies. [ 3 ]  Clonaid claimed that five baby clones were born between December 26, 2002, and February 4, 2003, which had developed normally. [ 29 ]


In late July 2002, Clonaid's branch in South Korea, BioFusion Tech, said a woman became pregnant with a human clone. However, in the week of September 27, 2002, South Korea's  Ministry of Health and Welfare  announced that it would ban human cloning and sentence violators to a 10-year prison term. [ citation needed ]


In February 2004, Clonaid claimed that a sixth clone baby was born in  Australia . [ 30 ]   Additionally, it claimed to have produced human embryos in  South Korea . The small number of companies that have access to cloning technology has resulted skepticism by cloning experts in Korea, who accused Clonaid of defaming the now debunked stem cell work of Doctor  Hwang Woo-suk . [ 31 ]   By March 2004, Clonaid claimed that eight extra baby clones had been brought to term for a total of thirteen baby clones. [ 32 ]


In September 2018, rapper  Kid Buu  claimed he was a human clone produced by Clonaid. However, this is commonly perceived as a publicity stunt. [ 33 ] [ 34 ]


Besides offering cloning services, Clonaid has developed one product, an "embryonic cell fusion device" called the  RMX 2010 . [ 35 ]


Clonaid, a human cloning firm, has established an affiliate company in Korea, participants at the International Bio Expo in Japan said Thursday. Participants and foreign media who attended the first biotechnology exposition in Tokyo, said that Clonaid's vice president Thomas Kaenzig claimed that BioFusion Tech Inc., a South Korean company owned by Clonaid, had developed an "embryonic cell fusion system or RMX2010." The sources in Japan said that the RMX2010 allegedly creates a stable electronic pulse required to develop human embryos to the blastocyst stage. The blastocyst stage is the state an embryo reaches five or six days after it has been fertilized, which is a critical step to instigate the cloning procedure.
They also said that Kaenzig believes human cloning will become "commonplace" within ten years, though he failed to comment on any advances the company has made toward actually cloning a human being. Related to this, an official at BioFusion Tech Inc. confirmed that the company was set up two months ago as a wholly owned subsidiary of Clonaid and that there were currently three Korean technicians and six foreign employees working at the company. The BioFusion employee also said that about 10 Koreans have asked for cloning services, which according to the company Web site (www.clonaid.com) can cost around $200,000. [ 36 ]


CNN Money  has listed the RMX 2010 as the fourth "Dumbest Moment in Business 2003", stating "Clonaid sells the RMX 2010, a $9,220 contraption that ... well, nobody's quite sure what it does. To help clarify the matter, Clonaid lends one to a British science museum—under strict orders not to open it to find out what's inside." [ 37 ]


Scientists interviewed about the announcement expressed skepticism regarding both the authenticity and the ethics of Clonaid's procedures. These included Lord  Robert Winston , [ 38 ]  head of the  IVF  research team at London's  Hammersmith Hospital , and Tanja Dominko [ 39 ]  of the Oregon Regional Primate Center's monkey cloning project.  Scientists with experience in animal cloning have encountered low rates of success per implantation, where cloned fetuses are often malformed and dead before birth. Regardless, people continue to be surprised that Clonaid appears to have overcome those problems; either Clonaid has been extremely lucky in discovering a superior method of cloning, or the company is making false claims. [ 28 ]


Clonaid charges up to $200,000 for its "cloning" services. [ 9 ]   Clonaid has not shown verifiable evidence of any human cloning, despite claims that they would do this within days of their initial announcement.  They claim that the parents of the first cloned child had second thoughts about submitting their child to scientific tests after attorney Bernard Siegel filed suit. [ 23 ]  According to sealed court documents received by the  Boston Globe  which were reported on 27 April 2003, Clonaid had two employees but no address or board of directors. [ 40 ]   CBS News  reported that Clonaid was not a company.  Boisselier revealed that in a strict sense, Clonaid was just the product name, even though Clonaid's website [ 41 ]  had touted it as the company name. [ 3 ]


Long-running American comedy series  Saturday Night Live  parodied Clonaid's claim to have created Eve. The skit depicted the baby as deformed. [ 42 ]


The  Coalition for Genetic Fairness  (CGF) is a public interest group concerned about genetic discrimination. [ 1 ]  The group was founded in 1997 by several organizations. Much of the CGF's work to date has been surrounding the  Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act .


The following is a partial list of CGF's members: