PDC LESSON 3.2 SEEDS – PLANT BREEDERS RIGHTS

 

PERMACULTURE COURSE AGRO-ECONOMY

PDC LESSON 3.2 SEEDS – PLANT BREEDERS RIGHTS

Plant breeder’s rights

This is a further threat to the biodiversity of patenting of plants through the plant breeders rights act. It remains to be legally tested whether this legislation could be used to stop seed saving effectively. This means it might become illegal to save and sell locally grown seed!!

We all must eat so we all must share a little of the responsibility to ensure that we and our children will have a healthy food supply. As organic gardeners we must also take this a step further by learning how to save organic, open-pollinated seed to secure healthy food for the present and also the future.

 

What is open-pollinated seed?

In the natural world, flowers are pollinated by wind, insects, and birds. This is the natural way of the reproduction of plant species. When man started doing selective breeding, he found he could manipulate certain characteristics that he favoured and hence we have the food that we eat today. By selectively breeding through hand pollinating, he could breed plants for colour, taste, and texture.

In the wild, certain plants crossed because they were closely related, generally of a certain family hence new varieties also occurred naturally.

Text from the roots, Elisabeth Ferkonia (Aus.) PDC studied with Bill Mollison,