

In France, reseeding will soon be illegal due to firms’ patents - bpierre
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bastamag.net%2Farticle3548.html

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a3n
Food 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)

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rwmj
So what's to stop me/farmers using ordinary seeds?

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noptic
This 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-comm...](http://www.collective-
evolution.com/2013/06/05/european-commission-to-criminalize-seeds-and-plants-
not-registered-with-the-government/)

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taybin
How 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.

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dec0dedab0de
I upvoted you, but I think part of the problem is cross pollination, and
runoff of chemicals from neighboring farms.

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rayiner
Is 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.

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cm2012
The 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.

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jeswin
I 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)

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servowire
I 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.

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ddebernardy
Won'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.

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chris_wot
Er, don't patents have to be _novel_? Surely you could claim prior invention?

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thyrsus
The patent is on "novel" sequences, like "Roundup-Ready", but plants have a
tendency to broadcast (old meaning) their genome (e.g., pollen).

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throwawaykf
Interesting 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.

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Dylan16807
The terminator gene made them still broadcast, but the end result was sterile
seeds. Which is definitely a risky option to take, and deserves backlash.

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qwerta
It 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.

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lignuist
Yeah, let's sue those plants who spread their seeds without paying the patent
holder. And the birds! That will teach them.

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imdsm
This has gone too far now.

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rflrob
I 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.

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hipsters_unite
There'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.

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f055
Mother Nature should sue the hell out of these businesses, she was after all
the maker of all the seeds :P

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gesman
Can president issue an executive order to invalidate food patents?

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tsaoutourpants
In 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.

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static_typed
The 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.

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rmc
OH yes. France has a very strong labour union movement. The joke is the French
will protest when it's cold in winter, and set Paris on fire to warm things
up.

