Tell me we don’t live in a plutocracy, ffs.
The federal government wants to restrict farmers’ ability to save seeds and other reproductive plant materials like tree grafts for some crops – and is asking farmers to comment on the changes during the height of the growing season.
Last month, the government announced it is considering amendments to Canada’s seed laws that would force farmers to pay seed companies royalties for decades after their original purchase of seeds from protected varieties of plants. Even if farmers grow that plant variety in later years with seed they produced themselves from earlier crops, instead of buying new seed, they must pay the royalties for over 20 years.
If passed, the changes will apply to horticultural crops like vegetables, fruit trees and ornamental plants. They will also restrict farmers’ ability to save and use hybrid seeds, which combine the desirable traits of several genetically different varieties. Public consultations on the proposed changes opened May 29, 2024 and ends on July 12, 2024.
Critics say the move will further exacerbate a crisis in Canadian seed diversity, supply and resilience to climate change. Over the past 100 years, 75 per cent of agricultural biodiversity has declined globally, and only 10 per cent of remaining crop varieties are commercially available in the country.
Different take: seed genome is like a MP3. Piracy (illegal copying) is enforced based on IP. Seeds doing it “naturally on a farm” just means that you have grounds to sue the farmer for not stopping illegal copying.
I think a better analogy would be: it’s like if you bought an MP3 and the company expected you to delete it after you listened to it once, or pay for it again.
The piracy analogy would apply more for farmers sharing seeds.
