4 ms·
If genetics and biotech knowledge is a public good, then one alternative to IP would be to let the public i.e. governments fund the development of this knowledg
by arebop 13y ago
If genetics and biotech knowledge is a public good, then one alternative to IP would be to let the public i.e. governments fund the development of this knowledge.
I agree that buying seeds yearly seems pretty practical to me too, but alternatives are imaginable.
- mpyne 13y agoI do agree that both would and should be public goods, but on the other hand I am all too familiar with the inefficiency of government in actually overseeing projects like this, and that's not counting the very large pool of people who oppose government involvement in this kind of thing anyways. But I wonder why that wouldn't work in Europe... it seems Germany, France, even Hungary and other EU nations could combine to beat Monsanto at their own game... of course, U.S. farmers would then just use those seeds if they ended up being really good and so the EU would have subsidized the U.S.'s development on that. As long as that's acceptable to the EU that could certainly work though.