Comment by lentil_soup
2 months ago
I don't understand the context. The idea of banning seed sharing is to stop counterfeits? That doesn't make much sense. Surely that'll just make it worse, no?
Also, what's the connection to the high yield ones? Is it because those get counterfeited the most?
Instead of doing things like securing their supply chains, the reaction of the seed companies is to... just make anyone else selling seeds illegal.
Not even just selling seeds. Saving seeds from the crop you planted from the previous year can also lead to infringement lawsuits.
And? How is this different than licensing software instances? You buy a license to use one instance of the seed, not infinity copies.
Not quite, the counterfeit seeds here are dramatically worse to the point where buyers will feel scammed and face significant hardship if they mistakenly use them.
Imagine if 90% counterfeit electronics caused house fires, the harm is way beyond the purchase price. At that point customers start caring a great deal, but corruption is difficult to avoid.
But there's nothing stopping the farmer from observing their saved or off brand seed is not as effective and buying from the original breeder again..?
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The idea of “counterfeit seeds” is absurd particularly against a backdrop of centuries of locally run seed stores.
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It worked so well in the War On Drugs... Don't do the hard work of taking down illegal supply chains; simply put the end consumers into jail for several years!
/s
From Nixon’s standpoint it worked great because they put brown people in jail.
Linked article claimed it was undertaken to prevent seed counterfeiting.
Edit: (I personally know basically nothing about the law or how it’s been implemented.)
shouldnt you, as the ceo of a company selling seeds in kenya, know about the laws related to saving and selling seeds in kenya...?
> Also, what's the connection to the high yield ones?
The high yield seeds are created by cross pollinating certain varieties. When the high yield seeds are planted, the new seeds should be eaten -not re-planted- since they will give poor yield.
So a counterfeiter can just buy cheaper food-seeds and resell them as expensive high-yield seeds.
Why does that make it sound like we are truly effed if we ever end up in situation where these processes or markets fail...
A lot of plants work like that. Apples very rarely come out tasting great if the tree is planted from a seed. You need to clone a good known apple tree from cuttings instead.