A Boring Dystopia

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Europe’s seeds are being privatised by patents - and it could threaten food security (www.euronews.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Prunebutt@slrpnk.net to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2037887

Europe has one of the most diverse seed industries in the world. In Germany, the Netherlands and France alone, hundreds of small breeders are creating new varieties of cereals, vegetables and legumes.

Relying on decades of careful selection to improve desired traits like yield, disease resistance and flavour, they adapt seeds to local environments through methods like cross-breeding.

This legion of plant breeders help maintain Europe’s biodiversity and ensure that our food supplies stay plentiful. But their work is under growing threat from the patent industry.

Although it’s illegal to patent plants in the EU, those created through technological means are classified as a technical innovation and so can be patented.

This means that small-scale breeders can no longer freely plant these seeds or use them for research purposes without paying licensing fees.

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[–] ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

These laws can always be changed to fix these issues. Especially if they cause issues with food supplies.

The benefit of patents is the information in a patent is public information. The technology is shared in exchange for a monopoly of that technology for a limited time.

So it should be an easy fix, in the future. A good fix for now is exemptions to academic research, especially in universities seeking to improve environment and food security. These issues should be a top priority, well and above protecting a businesses interest. They should also lose the ability to sue for patent infringement if their plants become so common in an area it’s beyond reasonable to avoid cross pollination.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 months ago

These laws can always be changed to fix these issues. Especially if they cause issues with food supplies.

Yeah, that worked out really great with the COVID vaccines, didn't it? /s