Agribusiness giant Monsanto is marketing a purple carrot originating in Turkey over which Monsanto has claims plant variety rights in the EU and the US.
News
by APBREBES
In December 2013, Canada’s Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz, introduced an agriculture bill in Parliament called the "Agricultural Growth Act" (Bill C-18). One of the main aims being to bring the Canadian Plant Breeders Rights Act in conformity with UPOV 1991 to enable Canada to ratify UPOV 1991.
by APBREBES
Farmer, labour unions, religious, political and civil society organisations took to the streets of Accra on 28th January to demonstrate against the adoption of the Plant Breeders’ Bill that is before the Parliament. The Bill is based on UPOV 1991, and following its adoption the Ghana government intended to ratify and become a member of the 1991 UPOV Convention.
by APBREBES
This new study commissioned by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament sheds light on the increasing concentration within the EU seed market. It concludes that industry's mantra that the EU market is healthy and diversified , with 7000 mainly small and medium enterprises is misleading.
It finds that the 7000 seed companies operating in the EU are mainly seed producers/multipliers and traders rather than breeders and they are increasingly being bought up or becoming dependent upon a few huge companies.
by APBREBES
Two new publications published by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) focus on TRIPS-compatible alternatives to UPOV-style plant variety protection systems, as applied in Thailand and in India. According to QUNO, the publications aim to encourage and support countries wishing to develop a PVP system suited to their own specific needs, tailored in particular to their agriculture, food security, innovation and economic development priorities.
by European Coordination Via Campesina
On 20 January 2014, peasants from all over Europe demonstrated before the European Parliament. They called on European institutions to ban GMOs, reject intellectual property rights over seeds and to recognise peasants' rights to select, preserve, use, exchange and sell seeds.
For more information see Farmers mobilize in Brussels: “Reclaiming peasants' rights over our own seeds”
by APBREBES
The ability to grow resilient, nutritious food in adequate quantity for a growing global population in the face of climate change must necessarily be rooted in the revival of seed diversity. Thus, farmers’ complex knowledge, and their right to save, adapt, exchange and sell seed must be recognized and protected in policy and practice.
by APBREBES
UPOV does not make all its documents accessible to the public, but UPOV member states that have freedom of information legislation provide access to Restricted Area documents.
The 5th session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) convened from 24 to 28 September 2013 in Muscat, Oman. The UPOV Convention was again, and more intensely than ever before, a topic of discussions and resolutions.
Farmers’ Rights
by María Isabel Manzur
The Plant Breeders Bill, Bulletin 6355-01, was approved in March 2010 by the Chilean Deputy Chamber and is now before the Senate. It will implement the UPOV 91 accession of Chile. Large demonstrations took place in around twenty Chilean cities against this bill (for more information see the article by Lucía Sepúlveda further below).
Chile has in 1996 joined the 1978 Act of the UPOV Convention to meet the WTO/TRIPS requirement for intellectual property rights protection of plant varieties. This agreement is implemented by The Law of Plant Breeders Rights N° 19.342 of 1994.