So, when the farmers stop farming becauser they can't buy the seed, are the
big *head honchos* going to go hungry too?? Seems the only route left open
is to "grow yer own" - "they" can't toss everyone in the cooler for having
seeds... remember - we are the many - "they" are the few....



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 9:06 AM
Subject: [Biofuel] Seed Companies Want To Ban Farm-saved Seed


> New from GRAIN
> February 2007
> http://www.grain.org/?nfg=470
>
>
> SEED COMPANIES WANT TO BAN FARM-SAVED SEED
>
> A new report from GRAIN reveals the new lobbying offensive from the
> global seed industry to make it a crime for farmers to save seeds for
> the next year's planting. This briefing traces the recent discussions
> within the seed industry and explores what will happen if a plant
> variety right becomes virtually indistinguishable from a patent.
>
> BACKGROUND
>
> Seed companies already have strong legal support from governments. In
> many countries, seed laws require farmers to use only certified seed
> of government-approved varieties. That seed is often available only
> from commercial seed companies.
>
> A rapidly increasing number of governments also grant legal monopoly
> rights for commercial seed, by means of industrial patents and
> so-called plant variety protection (PVP). Until recently, both seed
> patents and PVP existed only in developed countries. But since the
> World Trade Organisation (WTO) was created in 1994, all member
> governments must provide some form of monopoly rights on seeds. There
> is now enormous pressure on developing countries to adopt the
> developed country models. Many have been persuaded to join the
> international PVP system, managed by UPOV (International Union for
> the Protection of New Varieties of Plants). In the past ten years,
> UPOV has more than doubled its membership. Most new members are
> developing countries.
>
> The UPOV system was originally set up in 1961, in response to many
> years of lobbying by the seed industry. What the companies really
> wanted was to have industrial patents on seeds. Patents give absolute
> rights to control all uses of the seed, both for planting and for
> further breeding. But at the time many governments felt that patents
> would give industry too much power over farmers. The UPOV PVP was
> created as a compromise. From the beginning, it gave seed companies a
> monopoly on only the commercial multiplication and the marketing of
> seeds. Farmers remained free to save seed from their own harvest to
> plant in the following year, and other breeders could freely use any
> variety, protected or not, to develop a new one.
>
> During the 1980s, the development of genetic engineering attracted
> large transnational companies from the pharmaceuticals and chemical
> sectors into plant breeding. With their much greater lobbying power,
> they began a new offensive to strengthen monopoly rights on plant
> breeding in developed countries. First, they got industrial patents
> on plants bred with genetic engineering (GE) and related techniques.
> This meant, in practice, that they got the absolute monopoly that
> conventional breeders had been refused two decades earlier.
>
> Second, the UPOV PVP rights were radically expanded for all plant
> varieties, GE or conventional. Since 1991, the PVP monopoly has
> applied not only to seed multiplication but also to the harvest and
> sometimes the final product as well. The previously unlimited right
> for farmers to save seed for the following year's planting has been
> changed into an optional exception. Only if the national government
> allows it can farm-saved seed still be used, and a royalty has to be
> paid to the seed company even for seeds grown on-farm.
>
> Third, these much stronger monopoly rights are required for
> membership in the WTO, as already described. This is the starting
> point for the new lobby offensive now being prepared by the global
> seed industry. The goal this time is to remove the few remaining
> differences between the PVP system and patents, so that companies
> will have an absolute monopoly over seeds all over the world,
> regardless of which legal system is used, for all crops and all
> countries.
>
> THE REAL TARGET - FARM-SAVED SEED
>
> Farm-saved seed will be a primary target of this offensive. At least
> two-thirds of the global crop area is currently planted with
> farm-saved seed every year. In many developing countries, it
> represents 80--90 per cent of all seed used, but even in developed
> countries it commonly accounts for a large share (30--60 per cent).
> If farmers were legally forced to plant all of this area with
> commercial seed, it could easily mean a doubling of seed industry
> turnover, that is, an extra US$20 billion annually -- all taken out
> of farmers' pockets and delivered to transnational giants such as
> DuPont, Bayer, Syngenta, and Monsanto.
>
> Another key industry demand will be to restrict or eliminate the
> freedom to use PVP-protected varieties for breeding -- the other
> major difference between the UPOV system and patents. The purpose is
> simply to block competition. If nobody else is allowed to improve on
> a variety until after the term of protection -- 20 years or so -- a
> seed company will be able to sell the unimproved variety for a much
> longer period, and postpone the cost of new research. The net effect:
> increased profits for the PVP owner, higher seed prices and fewer new
> varieties for farmers.
>
> The seed industry has every reason to fear competition from
> farm-saved seed and more innovative independent breeders. Even
> individual farmers can often match or beat the performance of
> commercial varieties by simple on-farm selection. With constantly
> stronger monopoly rights and increasing consolidation into a few
> giant conglomerates, seed companies have produced fewer and fewer
> products of value to farmers. The big strides in yield and resistance
> improvement were made early in the 20th century, before any monopoly
> rights were available on seeds. And those improvements came mainly
> from selecting and crossing the very best of the thousands of farmer
> varieties which had been developed over centuries, not from any
> industry-sponsored research.
>
> The failure of commercial plant breeding has left global agriculture
> badly prepared for the challenges of the near future, such as climate
> change and the need to wean ourselves off dependence on fossil fuels.
> It is now time to start rolling back the monopoly privileges of the
> seed industry, not to strengthen them further.
>
> ===========================================================
>
> GRAIN, The end of farm-saved seed? Industry's wish-list for the next
> revision of UPOV, GRAIN Briefing, February 2007,
> http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=202, available in PDF and HTML.
> The summary in PDF is also available on this page. Also currently
> available in French, and soon in Spanish.
>
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