Legalities of Seed Saving

General Discussions
1

I’ve been reading Carol Deppe’s “Breed You Own Vegitable Varieties” recently and I came across a passage which answered many questions I’ve had about the legality of seed saving and selling. It was written in 2000 so hopefully it is still correct.

“You can grow your own seed from protected varieties as long as you don’t sell it. You can sell seed of your own varieties without protecting them. You can use protected varieties in developing your own. You are not allowed to use a protected variety to make hybrids to sell comercially, however, nor may you merely select from protected varieties without doing any crosses. But you can cross a protected variety to something else and then work with the progeny to develop your own variety. And you can use hybrids in any way you want. They are protected by secrecy, not by law”

This pertains to the US only. She goes on to say that in Europe “there are laws that prevent the sale of everything that isn’t on a special list”.

I really recomend her book for those that havent read it. It is definitely a very different thought process than Joseph’s “Landrace Gardening” book. It’s more about setting up controlled trials, taking lots of notes and producing stable varieties.

I still like landrace methodology better. Seems much more artistic and care free. Plus more resilient and sustainable in the long run due to genetic diversity.

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2

You also have to consider Utility Patents. Example: there’s a patent on the specific gene(s?) in the GMO Purple Tomato that code for the purple flesh, and that means you can’t use the Purple Tomato to breed your own unique variety of purple-fleshed tomato and sell seeds for it, since the gene sequence for purple flesh is what’s being protected. Any other GMOs that make it into public circulation (as opposed to large-scale commercial farming offerings) will likely also have utility patents that prevent using them for breeding.

Edit: To clarify, because I realized the above was probably a bit fuzzy on my point… Utility Patents don’t allow for breeding use… the standard Plant Variety Protection does.

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