Among the many misconceptions about modern agriculture, perhaps one of the most pervasive surrounds the role of intellectual property (IP) in plant breeding.
One of the arguments of those calling for a 'food system transformation' is that intellectual property rights give big companies monopoly power over our food supply, drive up costs for farmers, work against the interests of smallholder producers in developing countries, and restrict the use of genetic resources by promoting monoculture and eroding biodiversity.
Instead, there are calls for the unfettered exchange and home-saving of seeds, arguing that no one should claim ownership or rights over Mother Nature's bounty.
The reality is that intellectual property rights are responsible for generating a diversity of new, high-performing varieties for farmers, enabling them to be more successful in meeting the needs of consumers. For any farmers that prefer not to use new plant varieties that are protected by intellectual property rights, there are thousands upon thousands of crop varieties available that are no longer protected by time-limited IP rights, and many so-called 'heritage' varieties whose seeds can be used free of royalty payment, and without any restrictions on exchanging between producers, or on home-saving as seed for replanting.
Read more at geneticliteracyproject.org