I farm in the US in the state of Colorado. Wheat is one of my main crops, and I am very concerned with what I see happening with seed from other crops in the US; that being, Monsanto’s prosecution of over four hundred farmers for saving canola, soybean, and cotton seed for their own use. It’s not that I want to save wheat seed; I usually don’t. However, the fact that farmers can save seed if they choose is what keeps the price of seed reasonable. This used to be true with soybeans and cotton until Monsanto came along. The US Plant Variety Protection Act allows farmers to save seed for their own use. However, farmers cannot sell or trade seed grown from PVPA protected varieties to other farmers, a practice know as brownbagging. The prohibition against brownbagging is well enforced. But the PVPA, which enabled seed companies to sell new, certified seed on about 75% of all cotton and soybean acreage planted, does not bother me. But the recent practice of obtaining utility patents on seed, in addition to PVPA protection, does bother me. The very broad rights that utility patents confer allow seed companies to prohibit farmers from saving seed for their own use, not to mention how they will eventually negatively affect researchers and consumers. According to what I have heard, EU law allows farmers to save seed through derogation of patent rights. However, upon saving seed, farmers are then supposed to remunerate seed companies part of the original tech fee or royalty charged on the original seed. Is this how the system really works in the UK and the rest of the EU? Also, is it true that EU farmers have to plant certified seed in order to be eligible for any government farm programs? If that requirement exists, does it effectively prohibit seed saving or can one certify farm saved seed? I see that in Argentina, Monsanto, Nidera, and Klein are now selling on the extended royalty system. While I haven’t been able to find any information on what Monsanto charges, Nidera is charging US $2 plus taxes for every 50 kilos of soybean seed saved, including Roundup Ready as it’s all RR there, and US$ 1.50 for every 50 kilos of wheat seed saved. Klein is charging 10% of the commodity value of wheat seed saved. If you are paying extended royalties in Europe, how do these rates compare with yours?

Not sure about rest of EU, but yes we in the UK pay royalties on "home saved" seed at a rate per ton or acre. It is a lessor rate than if bought in. BUT older varieties (before system was set up) are still free of this royalty. The ironic thing is on some newer varieties the royalty/ ton is higher than the farmers sale price when grown!. Some crops like OSR (canola) have to be tested or certified for area aid, but generally not. What i would like to know is will there be any product warranty for home savers in case of crop failure? (remember moulin wheat?)

Moulin Wheat, that takes me back! We never grew it but one farmer I heard about averaged only 3 grains in every 4 ears.... Some farmers burnt their standing crops in disgust!

I grew it from home saved..but as it was a second wheat with lots of volunteers to pollinate it, i got a yield of 3.5 ton of milling wheat while my first wheat neighbours got 3 cwt with no claim as they had also home saved. Buyers of seed did get compenstion, but details were hushed up.

Though I'm not familiar with Moulin wheat, its fertility problems remind me of what biological seed saving prohibition enforcers would be like, namely, the notorious Terminator and Traitor technologies: save your own seed and have nothing to reap. Believe it or not, these technologies still have many supporters in the US, even among public researchers. Anyway, Terminator and Traitor seed aside, I would assume a farmer forfeits any warranty on farm saved seed when he pays no royalty upon doing so. But, on the other hand, the warranties US seed companies offer aren’t that good in the first place. They mostly deal with offering replant seed at half price if one needs to replant or try to lock farmers in to using the seed company’s proprietary products in order to be eligible for any warranty protection or incentives. Monsanto’s so-called “Technology Agreement,” which farmers are required to sign upon buying Monsanto GMO seed, is very one-sided. If anyone wants to see Monsanto’s 2002 Tech agreement, send me your e-mail address and I will send you a copy in Adobe Acrobat Reader format. My e-mail address is: ddech8029@aol.com So far, farmers aren’t required to sign such agreements upon buying non-GMO seed, even if a utility patent in addition to a PVPA certificate covers it. And, seed companies so far haven’t been prosecuting farmers for saving patented, non-GMO seed. But, there is a major problem brewing, as most new non-GMO crop varieties are getting patented. Most farmers are not aware of this, nor do they know that there is nothing to stop seed companies someday from prohibiting farmers from saving such seed. In fact, Monsanto’s ex-employee, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, helped make this possible when he wrote the Court’s majority opinion in favor of granting utility patents on seed, completely ignoring the Congressional intent in the PVPA.

David, are there any good forums in the US you would recommend us limeys to visit?Have tried www.agriculture.com.

Like agriculture.com, this site also gets quite a bit of traffic, especially on its "Crop Scouting" page: http://talk.newagtalk.com/ These sites also have talk pages: http://www.agweb.com/ http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/

Many thanks David!

Try www.cropchoice.com It has several links that may be of interest as well. Jim Goodman