2. monopolisation of $ € € D  In 1985 global seed trade totalled 18 bn $ The four highest ranking companies covered 8 % of the market  In 2006 global seed sales totalled 34 bn $ The top four companies held 30 % of the market. Monsanto is global leader.  In 2008 two thirds of commercial seed in the world is sold by just ten companies.

4. Industrial seeds Farm seeds  Uniform: not adapted to local conditions  High yields possible  High imput: technology, fertilizer, pesticides: energy consuming crop  selected for transportability, storage life  Narrow resistance  Private variety (PBR or patented)  Difficult to reproduce, biotech (GURTS) or legal restrictions (IPRs)  Diverse: landraces adapted to local conditions  stable yields  low imput: efficient, energy producing crop  Selected for nutritious value, taste.  Broad resilience  Common variety  Fertile, reproducable

5. Welcome to the EU  Only seeds listed in the Common Catalogue can be used commercially  Farm seeds/varieties are dynamic and evolve with the circumstances in the field. They do not meet the required industrial standards of Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS).

6. Intellectual Property: monopoly on reproduction Restricting free seeds and diversity IPR WTO TRIPS UPOV EPO PBR European Common Catalogue

8. Patents + food = trouble - Market monopolies : price rises: corn, cotton - Block innovation: breeders can’t develop a patented plant further, researchers need permission - Re-sowing illegal: farmer has to buy new seed -Stricter controls, higher penalties - Each patented plant draws from common genetic heritage - Patent thickets: judicial jungle – wide range - Holder can block patented varieties

10. July 2010:international protest against the broccoli patent at the European Patent Office in Munchen

11. Farmers and activists demand: Exclude from patentability processes for breeding, genetic material, plants and animals and food derived thereof. No patents on life!

16. Seed protest 2011 26 October 2011 Munchen EPO Public hearing at the EPO November 8th

17.  European wide:  Nyeleni forum  SOS Save our Seeds  European GM-free regions  Liberate Diversity: Seed sovereignty network  Countless seed saving farmers and amateurs  Transition Towns, community gardens  Via Campesina - Reclaim the Fields etc etc