4 ms·
In France, reseeding will soon be illegal due to firms’ patents
- chris_wot 13y agoEr, don't patents have to be novel? Surely you could claim prior invention?
- thyrsus 13y agoThe patent is on "novel" sequences, like "Roundup-Ready", but plants have a tendency to broadcast (old meaning) their genome (e.g., pollen).
- throwawaykf 13y agoInteresting you should mention that tendency to "broadcast", because Monsanto engineered their seeds to not do that (see: the "terminator gene") but did not put it into production because of the huge backlash it caused.
- Dylan16807 13y agoThe terminator gene made them still broadcast, but the end result was sterile seeds. Which is definitely a risky option to take, and deserves backlash.
- throwawaykf 13y agoNew species are created all the time, such as though cross-breeding.
- imdsm 13y agoThis has gone too far now.
- jeswin 13y agoI have lost faith in our system, thanks to patents. Wrote this just a few hours back https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/399c21224f8b https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/399c21224f8b
- static_typed 13y agoThe French farmers would not stand for this, they will probably be out burning truck loads of seeds, having first forced the truck to stop via roadblock.
- f055 13y agoMother Nature should sue the hell out of these businesses, she was after all the maker of all the seeds :P
- servowire 13y agoI hope this only applies to the Gentec seed; in a way this is understandable, but unsustainable. Seeds (nature) are made/evolved to prosper and re-grow, making claims to some-one for doing this with a modified version of this product of nature is kind of un-ethical. The seed is a derivative of nature, and imho cannot be patented.
- lignuist 13y agoYeah, let's sue those plants who spread their seeds without paying the patent holder. And the birds! That will teach them.
- noptic 13y agoThis will only apply to "quality" seeds which went through "quality ensurance" and are sold by large companys. So what is the logical consequence? Bann all other seeds! This is not a joke http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/06/05/european-commission-to-criminalize-seeds-and-plants-not-registered-with-the-government/ http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/06/05/european-comm...
- hipsters_unite 13y agoThere's an amazing section in the documentary Food, Inc. that deals with the consequences of this in the US. Genuinely disturbing, hopefully this is overturned or at least protested against before it can be enforced.
- ddebernardy 13y agoWon't happen imho. Not in France, anyway. The farmers will eventually hit the streets and block all road traffic in "Opérations Escargot" until the thing gets repelled.
- taybin 13y agoHow about not buying seeds that are encumbered like this? "Oh no, but I need my roundup!" Buy organic and support the farmers who don't need weedkiller resistant crops.
- dec0dedab0de 13y agoI upvoted you, but I think part of the problem is cross pollination, and runoff of chemicals from neighboring farms.
- rayiner 13y agoIs that part of the problem though? Is anyone actually trying to enforce patents against people whose plants get cross-pollinated with engineered crops? EDIT: I realize Monsanto has sued farmers who took advantage of the cross-pollination to apply Roundup (which otherwise kills the plants) to their crops. But as far as I know, they're not suing farmers merely because of the cross-pollination by itself.
- mildtrepidation 13y agoSorry if I'm off base or misunderstanding you, but isn't this exactly what Monsanto has done to get their claws into a lot of US farmers that don't otherwise use their products?
- dec0dedab0de 13y agoIf they then try to reuse those new seeds. In the US at least.
- aroberge 13y agoMonsanto does all the time.
- cm2012 13y agoThe only lawsuits Monsanto has ever filed have been against farmers who both got cross pollinated with their seeds, and then knowingly took advantage of this by using Roundup chemicals. Monsanto has never filed a lawsuit against a farmer who didn't use Roundup on their crops.
- a3n 13y agoFood has always been "free" in the sense that anyone could produce or harvest it, as long as they had the resources. This is part of a two part process to steal the freedom of food from humanity: 1) produce these technically unique and patented seeds, 2) wait for those seeds to crowd out unencumbered seeds. Once there are essentially only patented seeds, Monsanto et al. become our new overlords. This will probably happen with GM animals too. The ultimate in rent seeking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking
- csmuk 13y agoAnd as usual, there are other solutions: http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ http://www.realseeds.co.uk/ for example which involves cultivating and selling heritage non-hybrid seeds. Stuff tastes good as well - I grow quite a bit.
- rwmj 13y agoSo what's to stop me/farmers using ordinary seeds?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sparkie 13y agoHere's another process, tinhat mode fully on: 1) Kill of significant number of bees on which we depend to pollinate crops via pesticides, fertilizers, GMOs or combination of. 2) Buy leading bee research company investigating bee deaths to hide evidence of wrongdoing. 3) Use research company to develop GMO bees which are resistant to other Monsanto products, and further, modify them to only pollinate Monsanto products. 4) Kill off the remaining natural bee population.
- gesman 13y agoCan president issue an executive order to invalidate food patents?
- tsaoutourpants 13y agoIn America, no. Then again, Obama seems to think he has the authority to override the law with EOs, but they would likely be struck down by a court if challenged.
- rflrob 13y agoI think it's worth noting that Europe in General, and France in particular, is very anti-GMO, so this will mostly apply to conventionally bred (but still patentable) plants. If IP is your problem, I'll admit that GMOs aren't innocent, but banning them won't fix the problem.
- qwerta 13y agoIt is even worse, EU agricultural commission is pushing replanting ban for entire EU, for any seed regardless of copyright. In Europe each county or even village has its own breed of apples, plums and other fruit. Various mutation added some unique traits. For example resistance to cold or parasites, sweetness, time of harvest... This would be golden mine for any geneticist. But 99% of breeds disappeared over last 70 years.