3 ms·

Seed companies have been 'owning biological progeny' since the invention of hybrid seeds in the 1920s.

• Glyptodon 13y ago
  With hybrid seeds you don't need arbitrary patent ownership to necessitate a producer, you naturally need companies operating in a near-perfect-competition situation to produce the seed as successive generations become genetically erratic and no longer cleanly express the 'hybrid vigor' if you attempt to reuse the seed. In fact much of these kinds of researches and developments originated in public/land grant universities and were part of a the ROI of public research and were successfully spread and marketed without single entity IP ownership (specialized hybridizing just isn't patentable). So your comment and claim is pretty much completely false.
  • jrkelly 13y ago
    I might not be following you, but it sounded like you were worried about farmers losing the right to save seeds due to Monsanto patents. Seed saving largely ended with hybrid seeds in the 20s. Is there something else you were trying to say?
    • twic 13y ago
      To be clear: it ended for maize, because that's the only crop routinely grown with hybrid seeds. Seed saving is still done for everything else.
      • TheSpiceIsLife 13y ago
        Australia grows a lot of hybrid wheat, and it's sought after on the global market due to it's higher than usual protein content.
    • mcv 13y ago
      Seed saving never ended. A lot of farmers all over the world still rely on it.