Subject: PANUPS: Action Alert
From: [email-masked] (Pesticide Action Network North America Reg Ctr)
Date: 23 May 1994 17:19:01 -0400
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

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  PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA UPDATES SERVICE
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May 20, 1994

                        ACTION NEEDED
                             to 
                    Protect Farmer's Rights 
            Under U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act

Hearings on H.R. 2927, Amendments to the Plant Variety 
Protection Act, will be held on Tuesday, May 24th, before the 
House Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations and 
Nutrition. Though seemingly innocuous, this bill threatens to 
eliminate the U.S. farmer's traditional right to save and sell 
proprietary seed, jeopardizes conservation and exchange of 
biological resources, and exasperates problems of crop genetic 
erosion.

Letters and/or phone calls to members of the House Agriculture 
Committee are needed now!

The seed industry, now dominated by chemical and pharmaceutical 
corporations, wants to take away the farmer's right to save and 
sell limited quantities of proprietary seed. Here's the 
American Seed Trade Association's official position:

Farmers should have restrictions on their ability to save and 
plant saved seed of varieties protected by PVP and varieties 
which contain patented genetic components. The "right to save 
seed" exemption for farmers under the PVP Act must be 
significantly tightened to prevent abuses which now 
substantially undermine breeders rights, and farmers rights to 
sell seed for reproductive purposes should be eliminated.(see 
note 1)

% Let your Congressional representative know that you oppose 
greater monopoly control over seeds!

% Urge members of Congress to preserve the farmer's exemption 
under PVPA. No action should be taken to eliminate the farmer's 
right to save proprietary seed for re-planting on his/her own 
holdings or to sell limited quantities of seed to his/her 
neighbor.

% Ask them to decline to ratify the 1991 UPOV Convention, 
pending further study and a comprehensive policy review of the 
social and economic impacts of plant breeders' rights and other 
forms of intellectual property rights on farmers, plant 
breeding and germplasm activities, and future access to and 
exchange of plant genetic resources, both domestically and 
internationally.

*What is the Plant Variety Protection Act?* 

As an alternative to the industrial patent system, the Plant 
Variety Protection Act (PVPA) was established in 1970 to 
provide breeders with limited monopoly rights over the 
production, marketing and sale of new, sexually reproduced 
(open-pollintated) plant varieties for 18 years. The "farmers' 
exemption" has always been a prominent feature of the Plant 
Variety Protection Act. It permits farmers to save and re-plant 
proprietary seed from their harvest, and to sell limited 
quantities of harvested seed for reproductive purposes without 
having to pay royalties or ask permission.

H.R. 2927 seeks to restrict the farmer's exemption by making it 
illegal for a farmer to sell limited quantities of proprietary 
seed to his/her neighbor. This would give the seed industry 
virtual monopoly control over protected varieties, and will 
ultimately lead to a ban on farmer-saved seed.

Letters and Phone Calls to Members of Congress Needed Hearings 
on H.R. 2927 will be held on May 24 before the Ag. Subcommittee 
on Dept. Operations and Nutrition. The bill was introduced by 
Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Kika de la Garza (D-
Texas), George Brown (D-California) and Pat Roberts (R-Kansas).

The following members of Congress need to know that Amendments 
to the Plant Variety Protection Act are controversial, with 
negative implications for farmers, U.S. agriculture and world 
food security.

Members of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Dept. 
Operations and Nutrition

	Charles Stenholm (D-TX) Robert Smith (R-OR) George Brown 
	(D-CA) Bill Emerson (R-MO) Bill Sarpalius (D-TX) Steve 
	Gunderson (R-WI) Calvin Dooley (D-CA) Wayne Allard (R-CO) 
	Jay Inslee (D-WA) Bill Barrett (R-NE) Glenn English (D-
	OK) Tom Ewing (R-IL) Dan Glickman (D-KS) Jack Kingston 
	(R-GA) Tim Johnson (D-SD) Charles Canady (R-FL) Cynthia 
	McKinney (D-GA) Sanford Bishop (D-GA) Harold Volkmer (D-
	MO) Eva Clayton (D-NC) Tim Holden (D-PA) Charlie Rose (D-
	NC)

	Address: US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 
	20515

If you have questions, or need more information, please contact 
Hope Shand at RAFI-USA, P.O. Box 655, Pittsboro, NC 27312; 
phone (919) 542- 1396; fax (919) 542-2460; email 
[email-masked].

1 American Seed Trade Association, "ASTA Position Statement on 
Intellectual Property Rights for the Seed Industry." Approved 
by the ASTA Board of Directors, June 29, 1990.

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The Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS) is a 
pesticide-related news service posted weekly by the Pesticide 
Action Network North America Regional Center (PANNA). PANNA is 
located at 116 New Montgomery Street, #810, San Francisco, CA 
94105. Tel: (415) 541-9140. Fax: (415) 541-9253. To receive a 
standard information packet about the Pesticide Action Network 
send a short e-mail message to [email-masked].
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