Honestly, being able to have some protection over that (though likely not for long) seems reasonable to me. The challenge (to me) comes down to all of the weir

Honestly, being able to have some protection over that (though likely not for long) seems reasonable to me. The challenge (to me) comes down to all of the weird edge cases that come up when you try to actually implement that protection. - Keeping some portion of harvested product to plant next year is how we've farmed since we started farming. Is that now illegal? Does it require a licensing fee? - Some seeds blow in the wind, now the northern 10% of your neighbours plot has the fancy seed you paid for and they didn't. Are they "breaking the law"? What happens if they save some % of that seed for next year, is that doubly illegal? - If a consumer of the produce saves the seeds, then plants them in their own garden, are they breaking the law? These things all get really ugly really fast. The fact that the IP owner is usually Goliath, and the farmer David certainly doesn't help the IP owner's case in the minds of the public. So while I am in theory a fan of recognizing the effort that went into your onion, I find a lot of the repercussions of trying to protect your IP so distasteful I might not be willing to accept them.