Europe has one of the most diverse seed industries in the world. In Germany, the Netherlands and France alone, hundreds of small breeders are creating new varieties of cereals, vegetables and legumes.
Relying on decades of careful selection to improve desired traits like yield, disease resistance and flavour, they adapt seeds to local environments through methods like cross-breeding.
This legion of plant breeders help maintain Europe’s biodiversity and ensure that our food supplies stay plentiful. But their work is under growing threat from the patent industry.
Although it’s illegal to patent plants in the EU, those created through technological means are classified as a technical innovation and so can be patented.
This means that small-scale breeders can no longer freely plant these seeds or use them for research purposes without paying licensing fees.
Android shows which apps consume the most energy since the last charge.
It's great, I've used it a lot.
Specially with relatives. It also lists 'Display', and shows how much your screen use was draining that new phone. I had to explain this to a friend recently, with their new phone. They thought it might be defective. It wasn't.