105
‘Laying claim to nature’s work’: plant patents sow fear among small growers
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Biodiversity
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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.
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I think most of these seeds are modified in a way that they don't reproduce. This is what creates the dependency of farmers, they have a well growing plant with good harvest, but need to buy the seeds year for year.
The problem discussed in the article is that people that develop new plants are working under a high uncertainty, as big cooperations have patented a variety of plants and could make claims that some of their "inventions" have been used to develop new one or that new development look the same than their patented "development".
I think patents were a good idea then we used to have many small companies. But in today's economy it is overly used and slowing down innovation instead of making innovation attractive for inventors.