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Navdanya logo represents unity of seed saving and plant breeding Sustaining agrobiodiversity CONSERVATION WORKS BEST AS LIVED EXPERIENCE Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA |March 31, 2014 The struggle over the control of seed stocks did not start with the advent of modern agriculture at mid-20 th C. The Romans built granaries from rough-hewn granite and guarded their wheat, rye, barley, and seed stores for a reason ( Rickman 1971 ). The Colhua Mexica raided the seed dispensaries of Azcapotzalco after burning the codices in the libraries of the tyrant Maxtla when they first achieved independence from their Tecpanec oppressors in a revolt led by Tlacaélel ( León-Portillo 1963 [1990] ). Today, a handful of global biotechnology corporations and their philantrocapitalist allies are seeking an oligopolistic level of global control over seed stocks. This is once again pushing the frontiers of the struggle over seed into an extraordinary period of conflict that will redefine the nature of our collec...

EU No Patents protest. Munich. Photo credit: No Patents on Seed! Monsanto wants patent on severed broccoli heads NO PATENTS CAMPAIGN IN EU OPPOSED TO OWNERSHIP OF NON-GMO SEEDS Devon G. Peña | Shoreline, WA | March 10, 2014 The No Patents on Seeds Campaign is reporting out of Munich (12.3.2014) that there is very strong and broad opposition against the European patent EP 1597965 granted to Monsanto-owned Seminis, Inc.  Capitalist copycats seem to always want to imagine that they have invented things that exist that are actually by-products of the creativity of farmers and plant breeders. The target this time is a variation of the broccoli plant, derived from conventional breeding, and seen by the Gene Giant as an invention because “it grows in such a way as to allow mechanical harvesting.” The No Patents on Seeds organization states that, if granted, “…the patent covers the plants, the seeds, and the ‘severed broccoli head’ as an invention” and also “covers a ‘plurality of broccol...