Seed monopolies: Who controls the world's food supply? dw.com/en/agriculture… Seed laws criminalizing farmers for using diverse crops that stand a better chance of adapting to climate change are threatening food security
For thousands of years of human agriculture, seeds were freely exchanged and shared. All that changed in the 1990s when laws were introduced to protect new #GMO crops. Today, 4 corporations — @Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and Limagrain — control more than 50% of the world's seeds. 
@Bayer Most countries only allow patents—exclusive ownership rights that weren't originally created with living organisms in mind—on #GMO seeds. But other plant varieties can also be strictly controlled by another type of intellectual property legislation called Plant Variety Protection
@Bayer Critics say imposing uniform seed rules on a global scale means forcing industrial farming onto parts of the world where food is still largely produced by smaller-scale more sustainable farms. "We're looking at this as neocolonialism destroying our livelihoods & our environment."
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