Another Victory for Seed Freedom

argylesock says… Who owns the seeds? This really matters. It’s a more important question than whether or not it’s safe to eat foods made from GM (genetically modified, also called genetically engineered) crops. That question needed answering but there’s very little evidence to doubt food safety when the crops are GM. I say people should ask instead: is it safe to let a few huge companies own people’s rights to grow the crops they choose? No, say I, that’s not safe. I’m glad that the Indian Court has decided against this patent application.

The Noah Project

Dr. Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned advocate for seed freedom and opponent of GMO’s, explains why the Indian Court’s rejection of Monsanto’s climate resilient plant patent is so important to seed freedom:

Monsanto tried to create an irrelevant and false opposition of natural production of plants versus production based on human intervention. This is false because farmers’ breeding and conventional breeding also involves substantial human intervention. The patent office and the appellate board correctly rejected this argument, and stressed Monsanto’s application was not an invention but based on many generic steps that are essentially biological, taken in sequence, still essentially biological.

This decision will have far reaching impact on India’s biodiversity, farmers rights and food security.

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