The Seed Savers Network was created in 1986 in response to Plant Variety Rights legislation. The seed savers network website is a mine of information, and issues discussed include the preservation of plant varieties historically, what is likely to happen in future, and worldwide issues. For example a recent post on plant variety rights ownership:
‘Since 1995 the speed of take overs of seed companies has increased astronomically. Now some 75% of all seed companies are owned by a few corporations – Monsanto, Bayer, Rhone Poulenc, Dupont, Syngenta, BASF, Hoechs, Novartis and Geigi. Most of these used to be chemical or pharmaceutical companies. They retain the trading names of the seed companies they take over so farmers and gardeners are none the wiser as to who controls them….’ And it is followed by a very comprehensive list of which seed companies are owned by the first five corporations listed above.
Plant Variety Rights legislation was before parliament in the early 1980s when I was at ag. college, so it was an issue we discussed. It was argued by some that allowing ownership of plant varieties would be a great thing for the world because multi-national companies would have a vested interest in creating fabulous new varieties of plants that would help feed the world’s poor by increasing yields, drought tolerance, plant disease resistance, etc, if they were allowed to claim ownership of plant varieties and the resulting profits from the sale of the seeds and plants.
Believing that any company larger than a small family-run operation has a number one motive of anything other than financial profitability, is naieve in the extreme.
Plant variety rights legislation was pushed by big business who saw the guarantee of big profits, and sure enough, in they’ve rolled. GM crops are everywhere, and what a tragedy that the Australian Federal Government did not sieze the unique opportunity we have because we live on an island continent, by banning GM crops from Australia.
The Seed Savers Network is well worth visiting by anyone with a reason to be interested in: health, food, agriculture, native animals and plants, the welfare of future generations, etc – i.e. all of us.
Tags: Australian quarantine and biosecurity, Conservation and the environment