Comment by trollbridge
2 months ago
Instead of doing things like securing their supply chains, the reaction of the seed companies is to... just make anyone else selling seeds illegal.
2 months ago
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..?
Aside from destitution from a terrible crop yield and no safety net?
2 replies →
The idea of “counterfeit seeds” is absurd particularly against a backdrop of centuries of locally run seed stores.
That’s a comment born from ignorance. Farmers want hybrids for a wide range of crops because the are wildly more productive than heirloom varieties thus making them more money.
The first generation of Hybrid seeds are on average several times more productive than the second generation, yet they look the same. Further it’s much easier to gather a second generation of seeds than the first. Thus significantly worse product that’s cheaper to produce but looks identical barring genetic testing = counterfeit.
2 replies →
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.