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UPOV Secretary-General Francis Gurry
sees plant breeders’ rights as a key to our
very survival.
“We are facing a situation in which
food security is increasingly a global
challenge,” he said by phone from UPOV
headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Gurry argued that UPOV is essential in
an increasingly urbanized world—a world
that may contain more than nine billion
people by the year 2050.
“We’re going to have to improve
agricultural productivity by roughly
70 per cent over current levels.
We think plant breeding has a very
important contribution to that improved
productivity.”
Canada is now about to step into line
with UPOV—even if it’s stepping very
carefully.
“Canadian farmers want to see growth
and innovation being fostered,” said Ritz
in a written statement to
GrainsWest
.
“That is why our government is
encouraged by the ongoing farmer- and
industry-led discussions with respect to
adopting and implementing UPOV 91.
“Any update to legislation will come
before Parliament for a full debate.”
Anthony Parker, commissioner of
the PBR Office of the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA), is pleased to
see the changes moving ahead.
Parker believes the new legislation
will spur domestic investment in
plant breeding, because it gives
companies here the same protection
being provided by our major trading
partners. He also thinks it will
encourage foreign plant breeders to
bring their varieties into Canada. In
the long run, Canadian farmers should
benefit as well, he said.
“The net result of
having an increased
level of investment
in Canadian plant
breeding, as well as
more varieties coming
into the Canadian
marketplace,
hopefully spurs on
innovation and gives
farmers more choice
in accessing varieties
that are in demand by
the market.”
UPOV
acknowledges that
farmers may end up bearing some of the
cost, said Gurry.
“There, the question we have to
ask is, ‘How are you going to finance
innovation? How are you going to
finance the development of new
and useful varieties?’ Because that
development costs human and financial
resources. You have to have a way
of compensating that. And that’s the
purpose of the plant breeders’ rights.”
In return, said Gurry, new plant
varieties will then become available for
further breeding and experimentation.
“We think it’s a good balance between
encouraging the necessary investment
in innovation on the one hand, and
making available the social benefit of the
innovation on the other hand.”
Gurry had expected that Canada
would soon change its legislation to
conform to UPOV 91.
“We don’t understand that there
are any really substantive obstacles,”
he said. “But any matters concerning
agriculture, or any matters concerning
innovation, tend these days to attract a
certain amount of public interest, if not
controversy.”
UPOV 91 is certainly attracting
controversy at the National Farmers
Union (NFU). In a Nov. 15, 2013, media
release, former NFU president Terry
Boehm slammed the pending deal in no
uncertain terms.
“Yet again Gerry Ritz is proving himself
to be the Canadian agriculture minister
most hostile to
farmers ever by giving
a choice plum to the
biggest corporations
in the world: the right
to exploit farmers
through UPOV 91,” he
said.
“Ritz is pretending
that the only way we
will get innovation
is to [hand] control
of our seed sector
to huge corporation
and plant breeders,”
Boehm continued. “At
the end of the day, however, this is not
about innovation at all. It is just another
way for consolidated multinational
agribusiness to maximize the dollars
they extract from farmers. UPOV 91
gives these companies all the tools they
need—and more.”
One of the NFU’s main complaints is
that UPOV 91 opens the door to end-
point royalties—the option for plant
breeders to collect fees based on the
final harvest, rather than on the seeds
provided.
“Farmers should be very aware that
this regime will allow breeders to collect
royalties on the entire crop—not just on
the seed as allowed under our current
Plant Breeder’s Rights legislation,”
Boehm said.
Not all farmers agree with Boehm,
however.
Kent Erickson, chairman of the Alberta
Wheat Commission (AWC), said, “We’re
generally supportive of updating to
UPOV 91.”
Erickson sees plant breeders’ rights,
including end-point royalties, as a way to
Winter
2014
Grains
West
28
“This is not about
innovation at all. It
is just another way
for consolidated
multinational
agribusiness to
maximize the dollars
they extract from
farmers.”
– Terry Boehm
UPOV
The International
Convention for the
Protection of New
Varieties of Plants was es-
tablished in 1961.