Seeds of Discord

How Intellectual Property Transforms Our Seeds and Our Food Future

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Introduction
Roots of IP on Seeds
Philippines Case Study
North/South Impact
Alternative Tools
Future Directions

At the heart of our plates, a silent revolution has accelerated the erosion of our genetic heritage: 75% of cultivated varieties have disappeared in a century, sacrificed on the altar of agricultural standardization ⁴ . This catastrophic loss coincides with an equally worrying phenomenon: four multinationals now control 60% of the global seed market, locking access to living organisms through increasingly restrictive intellectual property rights (IPR) ¹ .

Key fact: 75% of agricultural biodiversity has been lost in just 100 years due to industrial farming practices.

I. The Roots of Intellectual Property on Seeds

1930: Plant Patent Act (USA)

First breach in the common seed heritage, this law granted patents on asexually reproducing plants (fruit trees, roses). Its promoter, Luther Burbank, creator of hundreds of varieties, never benefited from this protection ² .

1970: Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA)

Extended protection to sexually reproducing plants (cereals, vegetables), creating Plant Variety Protection certificates. Major innovation: farmers retained the right to resow their harvest (farmer's privilege) and breeders could use protected varieties to create new ones (breeder's exemption) ⁴ .

1980: Diamond vs. Chakrabarty

Landmark US Supreme Court decision authorizing the patenting of a genetically modified microorganism. Justice Burger declared: "Anything under the sun that is made by man is patentable." This decision paved the way for gene and genetic trait patenting ² .

Table 1: Distribution of plant variety rights in the US (2004-2008)

Protection Type	Dominant Crops	Market Share
Utility Patents	Corn (46%), Soy (38%)	87% of protections
PVPA Certificates	Cereals (29%), Oilseeds (20%)	50% on 4 crops
Plant Patents	Ornamental Horticulture	96% of protections

Source: ²

II. The Crucial Experiment: Community Seed System in the Philippines

Methodology in 4 Steps

1

Participatory Identification

2

Adaptive Evaluation

3

Evolutionary Selection

4

Horizontal Diffusion

Table 2: Adoption of community varieties after 3 years

Parameter	Formal System	Community System	Change
Adoption Rate	18% of farms	67% of farms	+272%
Varietal Diversity	2.1 varieties/family	6.7 varieties/family	+219%
Seed Cost	$23.50/ha	$4.20/ha	-82%

Source:

Key Findings

Comparable yields: +4.2% for peasant varieties under water stress
Climate resilience: 92% of community varieties survived Typhoon Haiyan vs 41% of commercial varieties
Empowerment: 78% of "seed keepers" are women, reversing traditional gender dynamics

"This experiment demonstrates that informal seed systems are not relics of the past, but dynamic systems of biocultural innovation. Their strength lies in their ability to produce hyperlocal varieties adapted to micro-ecological niches that centralized breeding programs neglect."

III. The Differentiated North/South Impact: When Law Hinders Resilience

In the Global North

Use contracts: Patented seeds prohibit replanting (e.g., Roundup Ready® soy)
Germplasm control: MTAs (Material Transfer Agreements) from public gene banks limit access for small breeders
Criminalization of exchanges: In Pennsylvania (2014), a seed library was threatened with closure for "agricultural terrorism"

In the Global South

UPOV 91: Prohibits farmer exchange of protected seeds. Under AGOA pressure, 38 African countries adopted this standard
Loss of sovereignty: Ethiopia lost 94% of local wheat varieties in 15 years after WTO accession
Food insecurity: 90% of small farmers' seeds come from informal systems. Their criminalization threatens food security

Table 3: Impact of IPR regimes on crop diversity

Indicator	Before UPOV 91	After UPOV 91
Number of local varieties	450 (Ghana rice)	< 50
% peasant seeds	90% (Mozambique)	42%
Seed prices (+5 years)	$1.25/kg (corn)	$8.70/kg

Source: ³

IV. Toolbox: Alternatives in Action

Faced with accelerated privatization, innovative initiatives are emerging to preserve seeds as a common good:

Open Source Licenses (OSSI)

Inspired by free software, these licenses prohibit exclusive appropriation. Used on 500+ varieties in the US ¹ .

Trademarks over Patents

EarthWork Seeds uses registered trademarks rather than patents, protecting the brand but not the genetic resource ¹ .

Community Gene Banks

Indigenous "Seed Keepers" network conserves 1,200+ traditional varieties following sacred cultural protocols ⁴ .

Intermediate Seed Systems

Kenya's "Quality Declared Seed" allows farmer-multipliers to commercialize "semi-formal" seeds at 70% of market price .

The Free Seed Defender's Toolkit

Tool	Function	Concrete Example
Defensive Publication	Anticipates and blocks patents	Project "Prior-Art.org" (India)
Portable Phytoscanner	Detects GMO contaminants	Used by La Via Campesina
Collective Origin Certificate	Protects indigenous knowledge	ARIPO System (Africa)
Community Seed Banks	In situ conservation	500+ in the US

Source: ¹ ⁴

V. Cultivating the Future: Toward Plural Seed Systems

The climate crisis exacerbates the urgency of preserving genetic diversity: 75% of local rice varieties in Asia show natural salinity tolerance superior to commercial varieties – a vital resource facing rising oceans .

Legal Pluralism

sui generis regimes like the Nagoya Protocol recognize indigenous communities' rights over their genetic resources ⁵ .

Technical Integration

Participatory breeding programs now incorporate genome editing (CRISPR) to accelerate climate adaptation without privatization .

Circular Financing

In Portugal, a 0.5% tax on commercial seeds funds community gene banks .

"These seeds do not belong to us, we are temporary guardians for future generations."

The seed of resistance has already sprouted

Movements like the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) and La Via Campesina weave a global web defending the principle that seeds are to humanity what blood is to life: an inalienable common good. Their struggle goes beyond simple conservation; it's about rehabilitating indigenous and peasant knowledge systems that shaped our seed heritage for millennia.