Loopholes for corporations are closed, thereby protecting diversity
Vienna (OTS) – “Seed management and breeding are important areas of agriculture. They enable farmers to respond to the regional conditions of their soil and climate and thus secure their livelihood and our nutrition. Breeding thus ensures the continued existence of numerous farms and further develops agriculture as a whole. An important prerequisite for this is legal certainty. We are creating this through the patent law amendment,” says Clemens Stammler, spokesman for agriculture for the Greens and chairman of the Green Farmers (GBB). The patent law amendment was approved by a majority in the Committee for Research, Innovation and Digitization on April 12, 2023. It will be dealt with in the National Council at the end of April. Stammler goes on to explain: “As in every other sector, farmers need a minimum of freedom of movement. Patents that are too narrow and threats of legal action are of little help here and slow down any innovation. This clearly contradicts the intention of patent law.”
The amendment closes loopholes in Austria that have recently been increasingly exploited by corporations. Specifically, essentially biological processes are to be better protected. Until now, by exploiting the loopholes mentioned, it has been possible to protect properties of organisms that have been discovered in the laboratory but have not been invented oneself. In extreme cases, a single corporation might secure the exclusive rights of use of a strain that had previously been developed by farmers over generations. Stammler comments: “Specific breeds are often the work of generations. They are often the flagship of a region and part of the regional and rural identity. It would be an immense loss if we lost this diversity in favor of impersonal corporations operating with patents or the threat of litigation.”
Ultimately, for Stammler, it is also regarding a very existential question, regarding our food security: “In order to be able to meet the challenges of the future, such as the climate crisis, you need diversity. When it comes to survival issues, I don’t want to rely on a handful of corporations that hold most of the patents. Food security is achieved through diversity and not through monocultures, both in terms of varieties and suppliers.”
Questions & contact:
Green Club in Parliament
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