Biopiracy - Novelty requirement

This topic has been talked about so much….it is almost like a drug of abuse!
What are the requirements for acquiring a patent according to the US Patent Laws?
1. be statutory,
2. be new, (“novel”)
3. be useful, and
4. be nonobvious.
Further information on the same can be obtained from http://www.bitlaw.com/patent/requirements.html
According to this, the 'novelty' requirement is not considered to be lost when an invention has been divulged outside the United States by 'non-written' means such as public use and sale. Remember the Basmati Rice example?
Section 102 of the US law, which defines 'prior art', reads as follows:
Conditions of patentability: Novelty and loss of right to patent. A person shall be entitled to a patent unless:
A. The invention was known or used by others in this country or patented or described in a publication in this or a foreign country before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent.
- or -
B. The invention was patented or described in a trade publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States.
By this it is obvious why the Basmati patent was even considered in the first place. There were no written records of it; it was only passed on through word of mouth. Thus there seemed to be necessity for any patent establishment. Thus according to the US laws, it does not come under ‘prior art’.

According to the latest addition (definition of ‘new invention’) to the Indian Patents Act, Section 2(l) of the principal Act now reads as below:
"new invention" means any invention or technology which has not been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filing of patent application with complete specification, i.e. the subject matter has not fallen in public domain or that it does not form part of the state of the art".
We can now see how the Indian law does not discriminate between the home country and foreign country while determining the 'novelty' of an 'invention'. But according to the US laws, only if we had had written proof of our TK could we have challenged the US laws. A surprising provision was thus made available to many unscrupulous US companies.
Note: I have tried to reproduce all the laws verbatim as much as possible.

References:
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/may/env-biopiracy.htm
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/blanket-cn.htm