Kent Whealy: SSE = Monsanto

[synergy]

In light of the watching a TED talk on the Global Seed depository given by Cary Fowler and another video on Dr. Mercola, I am back here looking for a link to the contract that depositors sign when they consign seed there. Yes it works like a bank, the seed is not given away, but I believe the contract creates a legal right of Accession which is then assigned to those organizing the seed depository granting them the right to access the public domain open pollinated seed genetics and through GMO manipulation or cloning and breeding the new right to copyright genetics resulting . I somehow think the legal implications of this are being overlooked over and over , that it is vital to why this was funded by that particular group of investors . There are a number of contentious issues mentioned and of course facets to appreciate are in all peoples best interest too but I just cannot seem to forget this contract should be held up to public scrutiny if there is deeper implications . Like ambiguous bylaws governing us that can be enacted to control populations , I do suspect the legal right created in that contract can pave the way to genetics being copyrighted and can create a challenge in preserving the public domain of genetics should it be fought in court at a later date . Also as open pollinated seed disappears from the public domain I feel this may well hasten in the marketing of copyrighted versions .

[synergy]

The link nordgen.org/sgsv/files/sgsv/SGSV-Standard-Depositors-Agreement.pdf is no longer on the internet to be found . Does anyone have a copy of it ?

[philagardener]

Hi synergy , try www.nordgen.org/sgsv/scope/sgsv/files/SGSV_Deposit_Agreement.pdf

[synergy]

Thank you, it is a changed document perhaps , no mention of the right of accession being granted yet the previous one clearly had that, I believe in clause 7 b but my memory may fail me which sub clause it was .

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Not sure if this is what you want or not:

www.nordgen.org/ngdoc/plants/mta/AEGIS_SMTA.pdf

or this:

www.nordgen.org/sgsv/scope/sgsv/files/SGSV_Deposit_Agreement_until150101.pdf

[steev]

This stuff having entered the legal-sphere, are you really hopeful that it will be responsive/available to individuals, as opposed to corporations?

[PatrickW]

Wow, I get distracted by other things for 5 years, and look at what happened to this thread!

Anyway, I haven't read all the discussion, so maybe I've missed something. The main issue with the depositors agreement is it can be or contain anything. There is a standard agreement, that's probably what was just linked to, but there's no guarantee that this was the agreement used for the SSE. Especially since Cary Fowler was representing both parties at the time the agreement was signed, there's good reason to think it contains some dodgy things.

I personally asked Cary Fowler for a copy of the signed agreement, but he declined. Instead he pointed me to the Nordgen website.

In the last few years seed activists in France have convinced the French government to at least partially de-fund the Crop Diversity Trust. The French government is a major source of funding. The French activists argued there is virtually no scientific proof of ANY value of ex-situ seed conservation. They argued, in fact, the ex-situ conservation of the Crop Diversity Trust hurts in-situ conservation, because the treaty covering their seeds are an unreasonable obstacle for the farmers who want to use the seeds. The French activists argues that instead of ex-situ conservation, the Crop Diversity Trust should be paid for it's in-situ conservation work.

I don't have a lot of other hard information, but I can say that from what I can see informally is this idea seems to be taking hold in Europe. This is the sort of thing the Crop Diversity Trust has to approach wealthy private investors for, and attitudes in these circles also seem to be changing.

Seed savers in Denmark recently changed the law there in consultation with the seed industry. The world is changing...

[avantgeared]

Is this thread still active and available for further discussion? I know it is 2/2021 and it started in 2010 but we are in as much need of it now as ithen.
I started a group in the dreaded Facebook, Biological Regenerative Agriculture, as a response to the admins of the group Regenerative Agriculture banning any discussion of ag politics and ag environmental issues (i.e. pesticides, gmo, etc etc) calling such people "whiners". Facebook is a black hole. Once a group has a hundred posts it is almost impossible to find anything in the so called "archives, unlike this webforum, which is a true breath of fresh air. Here is a post from Gavin Gardens/Recipes For Reciprocity: The Regenerative Way From Seed To Table:

Gavin Gardens

Until a hundred or so years ago, farmers saved their seeds to plant for the next season. Thousands of varieties evolved across the globe, constantly adapting to their environment and to the preferences of the culture and cuisine.
Just 50 years ago, some 1,000 small and family-owned seed companies were producing and distributing seeds in the United States; by 2009, there were fewer than 100.
Thanks to a series of mergers and acquisitions over the last few years, four multinational agrochemical firms — Corteva, ChemChina, Bayer and BASF — now control over 60 percent of global seed sales.
The slow march of seed consolidation suddenly turned into a sprint. Chemical and pharmaceutical companies with no historical interest in seed bought small regional and family-owned seed companies. Targeting cash crops like corn and soy, these companies saw seeds as part of a profitable package: They made herbicides and pesticides, and then engineered the seeds to produce crops that could survive that drench of chemicals. The same seed companies that now control more than 60 percent of seed sales also sell more than 60 percent of the pesticides.
GMO byproducts degrade and deplete soils of vital minerals and beneficial bacteria, both of which protect crops from pests, viruses, and other threatening elements. Glyphosate which is used in conjunction with GMO seeds does not biodegrade, which means it is continually accumulating in the environment without restraint, perpetually altering soil composition and contaminating natural resources.
If what we put into the soil is toxic, what we get out is toxic.
Regenerative organic growing reduces the use of harmful chemicals, improves the soil’s ability to sequester carbon and retain water, and strengthens biodiversity.
These efforts need more than our support; they demand our participation, the same engagement with seeds that humans had for thousands of years. Seeds not as commodities but as a vital part of our cultural commons; seeds not as software, but as living systems: seeds as the source of a new food revolution.
What can you do? Check out the links below, share this seed story, support companies saving our seeds (links to companies provided in the farmer's footprint article below) and take action to grow heirloom varieties in your own gardens (saving and sharing the resulting seed) to protect and preserve the biodiversity that took countless generations to create.
farmersfootprint.us/2020/04/07/seeds/...
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I passionately believe in Vandana Shiva’s work in protecting the integrity of our biosphere and heirloom seeds. I feel her work that relates to protecting heirloom seeds is extremely important. Her work is especially relevant now given the recent moves of people like Gates to buy up all the farm land, seed companies and push transgenic agriculture on a massive scale (see link at the bottom of this post for more on that).
To honor the important work of Vandana Shiva and the Navdanya foundation please sign the Seed Satyagraha pledge ❤
seedfreedom.info/seed-satyagraha/
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For information on a recent development related to the accelerated consolidation of our food and seed supply by an oligarch we have seen a lot of in the news recently see:
childrenshealthdefense.org/.../bill-gates-neo.../... "Bill Gates and Neo-Feudalism: A Closer Look at Farmer Bill:
Bill Gates has quietly made himself the largest owner of farmland in the United States. For a man obsessed with monopoly control, the opportunity to also dominate food production must seem irresistible."
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It is for times such as these that Gandhi used Satyagraha – the force of truth to resist unjust laws and empires peacefully and non violently. In nature one of her most innate truths and constants is her irrepressible capacity for regeneration. We can align with this innate facet of the living planet that sustains us and become irrepressible as well.
We will eat organic (and strive to eat regenerative organic) in our kitchens, our cafeterias, our schools and offices. We will strive to move our local food systems beyond ‘organic’ to become regenerative and we will give back to the living soils. We will remember the importance of the sacred act of saving seed and teach the next generation to do the same.
It is in the spirit of facilitating and empowering many to be able to engage is a decentralized movement to accomplish the above stated goals that I am in the process of publishing a book that provides practical knowledge, techniques and ideas which can assist with this.

You can learn more about my upcoming book here: recipesforreciprocity.com