Patenting the earth.

Alex Kirby investigates the controversy about the ICGB Maya Project which is collecting plants for medical research, and possible patents for drug companies, from the Chiapas Region of Mexico. So far they have collected 6,000 plants for their herbarium. More contentious is the plan to collect plants in quantity, gather information on medicinal uses from the local people, and patent any medicinal uses identified. Ryan Zin fiercely opposes plant collection as exploitation, and destruction of the rights of the Mayan Indians who would then find the cost of medicine unaffordable. Brent Berlin tries to understand why the opposition is so nasty? The plants are to be sent to "Molecular Nature", a company in Aberystwyth.