Genetically Modified Foods: Recent Developments: Intellectual Property

The continued consolidation in the agricultural chain of production, combined with intellectual property regulations that favor industry concerns, may lock farmers into a system in which they have little choice over what to grow, with which chemicals, whom to sell to, and at what price. When planting GM seeds, farmers sign legally binding agreements that forbid them to save and replant the seed. In regions of the world with customary seed-saving and exchanging norms, this model of agricultural practice creates a potentially destructive relationship. Moreover, the regulatory infrastructure created by patent law provides a uniquely privileged position and great influence over farming practice to the companies that control the technology. As industry enforces their intellectual property right, activists fear that adoption of GM crops will transfer agricultural resources from the public sphere to private ownership in the form of patents owned by multinational corporations. As a result, the World Trade Organization’s controversial Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement, which requires nations to establish some form of protection for plant varieties, has become the focus of international scrutiny.