A chance to act on seed saving/end point royalties etc

[grassfarmer]

Here is an opportunity for anyone that is serious about having their voice heard. Brought to you by the NFU Canada.

"Action Alert: Register today for Consultation meetings

The corporate seed industry has convinced the federal government to take the next step towards setting up a system to make farmers pay seed companies for seed every year even when we use farm-saved seed. They are proposing to change regulations under the UPOV '91 Plant Breeders Rights Act, and are looking at two ways to do this - End Point Royalties or Trailing Contracts. Both would collect money when farmers sell their harvested crop (a per bushel royalty) -- and the seed industry expects to collect millions of dollars more from farmers every year from these payments. This money would go to seed companies such as Bayer, Syngenta, BASF and DowDupont. The system for charging a royalty on crops harvested from farm saved seed would be developed for wheat first, with the intent of applying it to other cereal crops, pulse crops, and other crop kinds later.

The NFU calls for public funding and farmer-controlled check-off funding to support plant breeding instead. Farmers are urged to protect public plant breeding by speaking out at the federal government's consultation meetings:

The consultation meeting schedule is
Winnipeg – November 16, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Delta Hotels by Marriot Winnipeg, 350 St. Mary Ave
Ottawa – November 30, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Airport, 2400 Alert Rd
Saskatoon – December 4, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Saskatoon Inn and Conference Centre, 2002 Airport Dr
Edmonton – December 6, 2018 10:00am to 4:00 pm at Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel, 4236 36th St
To register for a consultation meeting send an email to Kyle Kierstead at kyle.kierstead@agr.gc.ca with the subject heading "Engagement session on value creation models" and say which meeting you want to attend, and your language of choice (English or French)."

The message came with the following attachments for background:
"Overview of plant breeders rights issues in Canada"
http://www.nfu.ca/issues/save-our-seed http://http://www.nfu.ca/issues/save-our-seed

"2014 article explaining the importance of maintaining the ability to use farm saved seed"
http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/The%20Value%20of%20Farm%20Saved%20Seed.pdf http://http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/The%20Value%20of%20Farm%20Saved%20Seed.pdf

[Guest]

Good post grass
A lot of us have a bad taste in our mouth from the ndp/nfu days but i think its time wevget over it
No one else is saying anything , good on the nfu
The likes of apas and all the check off scams are doing sfa

[furrowtickler]

Like everything in the Ag industry..... they think it’s an endless gravy train 🚂...... then add a completely useless carbon tax
I would like to see one example of when all these extra costs come into force of how the actual producer is going to net anything above zero ... some me the numbers

[LWeber]

Here is an opportunity for anyone that is serious about having their voice heard. Brought to you by the NFU Canada.

"Action Alert: Register today for Consultation meetings

The corporate seed industry has convinced the federal government to take the next step towards setting up a system to make farmers pay seed companies for seed every year even when we use farm-saved seed. They are proposing to change regulations under the UPOV '91 Plant Breeders Rights Act, and are looking at two ways to do this - End Point Royalties or Trailing Contracts. Both would collect money when farmers sell their harvested crop (a per bushel royalty) -- and the seed industry expects to collect millions of dollars more from farmers every year from these payments. This money would go to seed companies such as Bayer, Syngenta, BASF and DowDupont. The system for charging a royalty on crops harvested from farm saved seed would be developed for wheat first, with the intent of applying it to other cereal crops, pulse crops, and other crop kinds later.

The NFU calls for public funding and farmer-controlled check-off funding to support plant breeding instead. Farmers are urged to protect public plant breeding by speaking out at the federal government's consultation meetings:

The consultation meeting schedule is
Winnipeg – November 16, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Delta Hotels by Marriot Winnipeg, 350 St. Mary Ave
Ottawa – November 30, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Airport, 2400 Alert Rd
Saskatoon – December 4, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Saskatoon Inn and Conference Centre, 2002 Airport Dr
Edmonton – December 6, 2018 10:00am to 4:00 pm at Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel, 4236 36th St
To register for a consultation meeting send an email to Kyle Kierstead at kyle.kierstead@agr.gc.ca with the subject heading "Engagement session on value creation models" and say which meeting you want to attend, and your language of choice (English or French)."

The message came with the following attachments for background:
"Overview of plant breeders rights issues in Canada"
http://www.nfu.ca/issues/save-our-seed http://http://www.nfu.ca/issues/save-our-seed

"2014 article explaining the importance of maintaining the ability to use farm saved seed"
http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/The%20Value%20of%20Farm%20Saved%20Seed.pdf http://http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/The%20Value%20of%20Farm%20Saved%20Seed.pdf

So this, like your post on green energy expenditures, is bullshit?

grassfarmer
OCT 29, 2018 | 06:40 2
Next battleground? hardly this battle was fought and lost years ago. The agreements are in place, they have the right to charge end point royalties. Most farmers were asleep at the wheel when it happened. You let your organizations support UPOV91 while the NFU stood alone in opposing it. Now you get to live with the consequences.

[grassfarmer]

So this, like your post on green energy expenditures, is bullshit?

No, try to keep up. With the passage of Bill C-18 UPOV'78 was abandoned in favour of UPOV'91 despite the best efforts of the NFU. This change created the opportunity legally for seed companies to charge endpoint royalties.

This is stage two - putting that plan into play. Read the info below on the new proposal that was launched in October by Ag Canada and CFIA "a potential new funding mechanism for cereals research and variety development in Canada."........Both of the models being proposed for consideration are designed to generate additional revenue flows for breeders from farm saved seed and would be enabled through amendments to the Plant Breeders Rights Act Regulations."

Sniping and distraction don't help at this late stage - point is if farmers want to be involved in this the deadline to sign up to attend the consultations is Tomorrow If you want to achieve anything I'd suggest not just a handful show up - maybe in the thousands at each venue would send a message? Passing comment on Agriville from the beach won't achieve anything.

http://germination.ca/the-deadline-is-tomorrow-to-sign-up-for-consultations-on-value-creation/ http://https://germination.ca/the-deadline-is-tomorrow-to-sign-up-for-consultations-on-value-creation/

[vvalk]

Here is an opportunity for anyone that is serious about having their voice heard. Brought to you by the NFU Canada.

"Action Alert: Register today for Consultation meetings

The corporate seed industry has convinced the federal government to take the next step towards setting up a system to make farmers pay seed companies for seed every year even when we use farm-saved seed. They are proposing to change regulations under the UPOV '91 Plant Breeders Rights Act, and are looking at two ways to do this - End Point Royalties or Trailing Contracts. Both would collect money when farmers sell their harvested crop (a per bushel royalty) -- and the seed industry expects to collect millions of dollars more from farmers every year from these payments. This money would go to seed companies such as Bayer, Syngenta, BASF and DowDupont. The system for charging a royalty on crops harvested from farm saved seed would be developed for wheat first, with the intent of applying it to other cereal crops, pulse crops, and other crop kinds later.

The NFU calls for public funding and farmer-controlled check-off funding to support plant breeding instead. Farmers are urged to protect public plant breeding by speaking out at the federal government's consultation meetings:

The consultation meeting schedule is
Winnipeg – November 16, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Delta Hotels by Marriot Winnipeg, 350 St. Mary Ave
Ottawa – November 30, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn Ottawa Airport, 2400 Alert Rd
Saskatoon – December 4, 2018 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Saskatoon Inn and Conference Centre, 2002 Airport Dr
Edmonton – December 6, 2018 10:00am to 4:00 pm at Renaissance Edmonton Airport Hotel, 4236 36th St
To register for a consultation meeting send an email to Kyle Kierstead at kyle.kierstead@agr.gc.ca with the subject heading "Engagement session on value creation models" and say which meeting you want to attend, and your language of choice (English or French)."

The message came with the following attachments for background:
"Overview of plant breeders rights issues in Canada"
http://www.nfu.ca/issues/save-our-seed http://http://www.nfu.ca/issues/save-our-seed

"2014 article explaining the importance of maintaining the ability to use farm saved seed"
http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/The%20Value%20of%20Farm%20Saved%20Seed.pdf http://http://www.nfu.ca/sites/www.nfu.ca/files/The%20Value%20of%20Farm%20Saved%20Seed.pdf

Yup. Big bad agribusiness company spend $100 of millions to create a new variety so you can buy 100 bus of seed for $1000 and clean it forever.

[Guest]

Yup. Big bad agribusiness company spend $100 of millions to create a new variety so you can buy 100 bus of seed for $1000 and clean it forever.

Sure and then they de register it before you can use it
Deregister it for no reason other than to sell new seed at $18/bu

[farmaholic]

Yup. Big bad agribusiness company spend $100 of millions to create a new variety so you can buy 100 bus of seed for $1000 and clean it forever.

Thats a bit of an exaggeration.


Not a reply but just commenting...

All I know is I'm getting tired of "absorbing" extra costs with no effective way of passing them on.

I can't wait for the intelligent rebuttal of "if you don't like it, breed your own variety".

What percentage of your gross canola return is your seed cost(because it is different for everyone)? Now apply that percentage to your wheat gross return...if these potential changes follow the canola seed model, could you imagine paying the cost difference from what it costs you to seed wheat now to the potential costs ....year in year out. Hypothetically, "of course"!!!!!!!!!!

[farmaholic]

Grassy, every time one of the bulls that you bought sires a calf on your farm do you have to send the breeder a "royalty" when you sell it's progeny? Or do you have to send the breeder a per cow breeding fee for every cow he impregnated? Year in year out....

[farmaholic]

It's a good thing these new seed rules were adopted....its going to make us soooooo competitive(especially regarding quality) with the all the other grain producers of the world that don't have this or less corporate protection. Maybe the SeedCos can set up shop in Eastern Europe or some less Capitalistic environment. Also, there are an amazing number of places in the world were subsistence(self feeding and helping to supply a small local market) farming would never be able to support this model....why does it have to here?

[wd9]

Would there be both end royalty, or just end point royalty? The latter does make a lot of sense as long as that is the only royalty.

Consultations, that's funny, like you're going to change anything. Hilarious! They are called justification meetings saying they met and talked with farmers. It's already all written up.

[Guest]

So ask for your check off money back from all the ****ing leaches that sat on their asses and let this happen
Ask your RM why they are still supporting APAS?

[farmaholic]

Consultations, that's funny, like you're going to change anything. Hilarious! They are called justification meetings saying they met and talked with farmers. It's already all written up.

Exactly, they feed us what they want us to eat, they don't ask...they tell! Your going to eat it AND like it. Two choices...take it or leave it. It's a force feèding or a hunger strike...either way....


Open wide, here comes the Choo chòo train.

[sumdumguy]

So ask for your check off money back from all the ****ing leaches that sat on their asses and let this happen
Ask your RM why they are still supporting APAS?

Anyone running for RM council should be asked the question, “Will you support our RM buying into APAS? “ “If you do, you are not getting my frickin vote-Period”.

[sawfly1]

It is not like we were not warned about this.

I Do not know if we could have stopped it anyway.

We have to realize who we are dealing with. These companies are bigger than a lot of country's.

And they pay good money to have the ear of govt.s around the world.
Europe US and Canada too.

These UPOV regulations were written by the seed Co.s
Then with the right connections , they get the bought and sold govt.s to make them law.
Simple as that



Your gov. Pretended
you had a say. But you didn't.

The big lie has been the same all along.
We will guarantee you can plant
Your own seed.

They just failed to mention that you will never own a seed newer than 1985 again.

And at that ,they will do everything in their power to eliminate the old ones too.

Lots of blame to go round, and they love it when we fight amongst ourselves.
Let's them do whatever they want.
There were some real suckers wheat growers, seed growers etc.
But even if ,they were not total sellouts. It probably would not have mattered.

What now. At
Stop the infighting . pulse growers APAS. Etc.
That is exactly. What they want us to do.

Concentrate on the real enemy.
The corporations that are trying to enslave you and the consumer.
And the politicians that
Enable them.

When they own every seed, they will decide , what your cut will be.

Sure They will leave you enough to survive. Maybe.

got to keep the money coming in. Right

The consumer will ultimately pay this ransom.

The whole thing is just wrong.

At minimum farmers have to have free access to any /all off patent seed.

More important to the consumer than even us.

That is the ultimate big brother , control of every seed on the planet.

The only solution is
Free access to all off patent
Seeds

Then the seed Co.s can charge
Whatever they want for the improvements they have made.
And have them protected for 20 years.

The marketplace will reward them
For their work. For the value they add.

That is how it is supposed to work.

If they can extract every last dime from farmers and consumer's.
With 10 -20 year old varieties.
Why bother doing research for better ones.