Seeds of Deception

Multinational agrochemical giants, like Bayer and Syngenta, are racing to patent more and more plant varieties. With the help of the European Patent Organisation (EPO), a little known entity independent from the EU but with the final say on the EU’s patents, the big companies often obtain their requested patents. The mounting number of patents could have profound implications for our biodiversity, disrupting our food supply, and creating higher costs for farmers.

The project also showed how small and mid-sized plant breeders and farmers in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece and Romania are increasingly affected by these patents. Our investigation also explored how the situation could get significantly worse as the EU continues to discuss the new regulations on new genomic techniques like Crispr Cas, which could open even wider doors for corporate patenting.

Photo: The wheat field of a conventional plant breeder in Germany (c) Katharina Wecker