Whose property are the seeds? Are we allowed to use a part of our crop as seeds for the next crop?

A few years ago, such questions would seem nonsense. What about now? Biotechnology industries have improved certain varieties of seed (e.g. so that they will not be vulnerable to a kind of fungus), and they sell them to farmers. However, farmers are not allowed to replant the seeds. The farmer has to buy new seeds to plant. Otherwise, they violate the copyright right of the company which produced it.

One could claim that since a company has spent funds to research and develop a variety of seeds, it should be able to protect its investment. However, the fact is that the top ten seed companies control the two-thirds (67%) of the global proprietary seed market. The top three companies together account 47% of the worldwide proprietary seed market. http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms/10558-the-worlds-top-ten-seed-companies-who-owns-nature

Due to the oligopoly of the international seed market, a huge number of traditional seeds extincts. It is hard to swallow that 94% of the seed varieties in the world have already extinct into the 20th century. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/collectiveeyefilms/seed-the-untold-story-the-final-push In Greece, almost 97% of the traditional varieties of vegetables have extinct only the last 50 years!!! Biodiversity becomes more and more restricted influencing possibly the evolution of life.

One of the most important consequences of the oligopoly of seeds is that if a variety becomes vulnerable to a specific fungus, then a huge part of the world production will be affected. This phenomenon would be almost impossible to happen in the past because a virus could affect only certain varieties which constitute only a small part of the world production. The influence of the virus which insulted the banana production, and specifically the variety Cavedish, which accounts for 45% of the fruit’s global crop is significant, according to the article of CNBC http://www.cnbc.com/id/101585189. On the other hand, about a thousand species of bananas have been observed in nature, most of the durable to the virus. The Cavendish banana variety became a favorite in the 1950's because it was found to be resistant to strains of Panama disease that hit the then-preferred Gros Michel variety of banana.

What would happen, if 45% of the world rice or wheat production was affected?

Already, farmers from many countries have reacted, leading to the reconsideration of the subject. Farmers, in majority from Canada and USA, fight in the courts against the prohibition of replanting “copyrighted” seeds.

At the same time, there has been an effort in making a world seed bank, a global non-profit online seed exchange company, where every farmer may ask for seeds from any traditional variety, an alternative to purchasing only specific seeds from the oligopoly of seed companies.

This campaign is in process and about 65.000 people worldwide have guaranteed to contribute financially to the establishment of this bank. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/seed_exchange_nd_loc/?slideshow

We support the sustainable development and the protection of environment. However, our actions have not to be limited to the wild fauna and flora, but also to what happens in the cultivated areas and on the consequences of actions that have not been properly researched.



Sources:

http://permaculturenews.org/2014/02/10/european-seed-law-potential-threat-biodiversity-everywhere/

http://foodsecurity.uchicago.edu/research/preserving-seed-diversity/

http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms/10558-the-worlds-top-ten-seed-companies-who-owns-nature

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16696.cfm

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/seed_exchange_nd_loc/?slideshow

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/collectiveeyefilms/seed-the-untold-story-the-final-push