No patents on seeds: watch the video
February 9, 2023
By WeMove Europe
Right now - small farmers are going out of business. All because a handful of greedy corporations call the shots on what local farmers can grow. They’re controlling the food we put on the table and how much we pay for it.
Corporations - like the giant German agribusiness KWS - use legal loopholes in our patent system to get the exclusive right to grow and sell fruits and vegetables like corn, broccoli, tomatoes, and barley to make beer. [1]
In December 2022, activists and small farmers travelled to KWS’s headquarters in a small town in Germany during their annual shareholder’s meeting to save the future of our food.
While KWS discussed profits with their shareholders, we protested outside their offices on a tractor and with sculptures of screaming vegetables. And our partners No Patents on Seeds! released a report highlighting the risks that the KWS patents pose. [2]
We put the spotlight on KWS and the protest helped create the bad publicity they deserve. [3]
References [1] When corporations get patents on seeds, if a small farmer wants to produce corn in Europe, they may need to get a licence or otherwise face lengthy and expensive litigation. The result is that many small farmers don’t want to take this risk and wont grow crops at all. Find out more about how corporations are manipulating the patent rules here, https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/sites/default/files/news/No%20patents%20on%20seeds%20-%20Overview%202018-2019_1.pdf
[2] https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php/en/news/kws https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/sites/default/files/news/Patents%20of%20KWS.pdf
[3] https://www.bioecoactual.com/en/2022/12/09/patents-filed-by-kws-are-a-threat-to-plant-breeding-in-europe/ https://www.topagrar.com/acker/news/patentgegner-demonstrieren-von-kws-in-einbeck-13250595.html https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/niedersachsen/braunschweig_harz_goettingen/Keine-Patente-auf-Saatgut-Demo-gegen-KWS-in-Einbeck,saatgutpatente106.html (with video)
](https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/nopatents-conference)
While KWS discussed profits with their shareholders, **we protested outside their offices** on a tractor and with sculptures of screaming vegetables. And our partners _No Patents on Seeds!_ released a report **highlighting the risks that the KWS patents pose.** [2]
We put the spotlight on KWS and the protest helped create the bad publicity they deserve. [3]
References
\[1\] When corporations get patents on seeds, if a small farmer wants to produce corn in Europe, they may need to get a licence or otherwise face lengthy and expensive litigation. The result is that many small farmers don’t want to take this risk and wont grow crops at all. Find out more about how corporations are manipulating the patent rules here, https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/sites/default/files/news/No%20patents%20on%20seeds%20-%20Overview%202018-2019_1.pdf
\[2\] https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php/en/news/kws
https://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/sites/default/files/news/Patents%20of%20KWS.pdf
\[3\] https://www.bioecoactual.com/en/2022/12/09/patents-filed-by-kws-are-a-threat-to-plant-breeding-in-europe/
https://www.topagrar.com/acker/news/patentgegner-demonstrieren-von-kws-in-einbeck-13250595.html
https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/niedersachsen/braunschweig_harz_goettingen/Keine-Patente-auf-Saatgut-Demo-gegen-KWS-in-Einbeck,saatgutpatente106.html (with video)
){kind=link}