The Rural Voice, 1989-08, Page 6CROPS UPDATE FEEDBACK
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CENTRALIA RESEARCH — DEMONSTRATION FARM
4 Km north of CCAT Campus
Wednesday,
August 16, 1989
9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Featuring:
• Presentations by OMAF and
CCAT crop specialists and guest
speeches by representatives of
various marketing boards,
including Ontario Bean
Producers' Marketing Board
• Tours of research plots, eg.
- White Beans
- Corn and Sweet Corn
- Rutabagas
- Weed Control Demonstration
Lunch Available
12 noon - 1 p.m.
For further information contact:
Ministry of
Agriculture
and Food
ONTARIO Huron Park, Ontario NOM 1Y0
Jack Riddell, Minister
CENTRALIA
COLLEGE
(519) 228-6691
4 THE RURAL VOICE
PBR Legislation Will
Create Monopolies
If there is anything to be learned
by history and experience, we should
look south of the border for shades of
things to come should PBR (Plant
Breeders' Rights) become law in
Canada.
Since the Plant Variety Protection
Act (the U.S. version of PBR) came
into effect in 1970, agribusiness has
sought and conquered the entire food
chain (referred to as vertical integra-
tion) right from the field direct to the
processed product. Agribusiness is
in the position to dictate the future of
agriculture globally: who will eat and
what they will eat. You see, agribusi-
ness has the capital and the technol-
ogy, and controls the market. Govern-
ments have little or no power over it;
it knows no national boundaries.
PBR goes well beyond offering
an opportunity for a return on costly
breeding investments through royalty
payments; PBR grants exclusive mo-
nopoly over the condition for access to
a plant variety. PBR is scale -biased,
allowing larger enterprises easier
cross -licensing and excluding small
breeder participation. Legal require-
ments to prove "ownership" over sev-
eral generations of a living organism
could intimidate smaller enterprises.
GROW (Genetic Resources for Our
World) believes that PBR in other
countries has increased crop genetic
uniformity, reduced the quality of
innovations in plant breeding, and
allowed corporate power to become
more concentrated.
Decades of monopoly grants in the
form of industrial patents have failed
to stimulate much industrial R and D
in Canada. The problem is that effec-
tive R and D requires a significant
scale of operations. The principal
beneficiaries of monopoly rights in