Access, Commons and Plant Breeding Reframing the legal system to face the challenges of an increasing world population and the preservation of agrobiodiversity

Informations

Funding country

France

Acronym

CommonPlant

URL

-

Start date

10/1/2015

End date

-

Budget

30,405 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The joint challenges of food safety and conservation of agrobiodiversity are making us rethink the issue of agricultural production. We have to produce more, but especially better in order to sustain biological diversity and to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In this prospect, it is urgent for us to develop a sustainable crop production system that relies less on natural resources (soils, water-aquifer), fertilizers and protection products. There are probably many ways to address these challenges; and it is undisputed that sciences and technics have a major role to play in this respect. But if we remember that many aspects of the plant breeding model and the crop production system have been influenced by policy choices, as well as by legislative and regulative options, thus it appears clearly that, to a great extent, food safety and conservation of agrobiodiversity are tightly linked with policy choices made in respect of intellectual property. Social sciences, and more especially Law, can contribute to reframing the current legal framework and to achieving a better balance between the necessary requirements of progress and innovation – which could not be fulfilled without sufficient incentives for industry in the form of intellectual property rights – and the need for protection of informal innovation systems carried out by farmers, and local and indigenous communities. What seems to be a very fruitful avenue of reflection for the project of research would be to investigate the concept of property as classic liberal and neo-liberal thinkers have established it. The challenge is therefore to interrogate private ownership and what can be seen as its main distinguishing feature in the Western world, namely the right to exclude. In this prospect, the debate on access in the law of property provides a good starting point. Due consideration must be given to pioneering works developed in political economy field, especially those of Jeremy Rifkin who has been able to perceive the change in modern capitalism with a power no longer based on property but on access to service. To be sure, Rifkin points out the risk of communication of cultural experiences. But it highlights something we have long time ago lost sight of: ownership can be thought differently so that cooperation can replace self-interest, access trumps ownership; in sum, property can be defined as the right not to be excluded. It has recently been suggested to move beyond this reflection upon private property and access. Another fruitful avenue to explore would be the acknowledgment of a third way between public and public property. What is at stake here is to frame new “commons” (“biens communs”) or preserve and promote existing “commons”. The last decade has seen a growing interest in, and thorough reflection on, the commons – natural resources commons as well as intellectual commons –, especially in the United States and in Italy. But very few studies have been carried out on the commons in plant breeding. This issue would merit further debate, if only because the term “the commons” is commonly used when it comes to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), participatory plant breeding or collaborative research program to support the genomics research.