tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post2822749303691984665..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Chinese Farming and Incremental ScienceJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-16492803479347494772018-04-19T07:52:12.231-04:002018-04-19T07:52:12.231-04:00Patenting plants and seeds is nothing new. It'...Patenting plants and seeds is nothing new. It's been going on for 90 years now -- most seeds are patented -- and agricultural production has increased over that time. Remove the financial incentive and research slows to a trickle. And China can well afford to buy what it needs, so this is not Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bred to feed his sister's children. Yes, what China and Chinese companies are doing is theft. <br /><br />http://www.patentgenius.com/class/PLT.html<br /><br />But if this bothers you, you can support <br /><br />https://osseeds.org/seeds/<br />Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-39185739206764378502018-04-18T06:53:27.883-04:002018-04-18T06:53:27.883-04:00@Shadow
I'm not certain what argument you'...@Shadow<br /><br />I'm not certain what argument you're trying to make here.<br /><br />China is bad, so therefor it's bad when they feed their people more cheaply and with less pollution without paying our arbitrary "intellectual property" tax, and line the pockets of our corporate overlords?<br /><br />Yes, China has had famines in the past century. We had one ourselves in the 1930s. How is that relevant to the current situation? Why even bring up famines, if you're going to immediately turn around and point out how they're irrelevant?<br /><br />You call this technology theft, but that's exactly what I dispute. The patenting of seed varieties is an extraordinarily recent form of insane capitalist greed. It didn't exist back when China had their famous famines, and if they had been able to avert those famines by importing western seed stock, we would have lauded it as a triumph of modern science and agriculture, and taken it as a compliment that other countries would look to <i>our</i> crops to solve their problems.<br /><br />You bring up how we have to pay to produce these seeds, but it was <i>our</i> choice to make that investment, and we've already <i>benefitted</i> from it. More importantly, we will <i>also</i> benefit from the Chinese having access to these seeds too - far more than we would ever benefit from <i>denying</i> them access.<br /><br />China accounts for a very significant portion of the world's agriculture. Consequently, we directly benefit from their being able to produce the same amount of food at lower cost, more efficiently, and with less pollution. Or do you feel that needlessly raising global grain prices, squandering the globe's limited arable land and fresh water resources through inefficiency, and polluting the planet through reliance on pesticides and fertilizers on an unprecedented scale is somehow a boon to us?<br /><br />If you want to talk about intellectual property such as which movie studio in what country gets to own what rights to which work of art or fiction, and whom has to pay how much to be allowed to use that sort of trivial nonsense, go right ahead.<br /><br />But when it comes to humanity feeding itself in as efficient, reliable and sustainable a manner as possible, that's an entirely different matter. We're all in the same boat on this. We can't afford to be short-sighted and selfish tribal idiots about it. When you can feed the hungry, house the homeless, and cure the sick <i>at no direct cost to yourself</i>, it is <i><b>a moral abomination</b></i> to refuse to do so until someone agrees to your extortion fee.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-36691617360082896102018-04-17T17:38:25.240-04:002018-04-17T17:38:25.240-04:00Oh, come on now! Do you think China is playing Ro...Oh, come on now! Do you think China is playing Robin Hood here? They are not. The last famine that killed millions occurred in the 1950s, and you know who was in charge then. China can feed its population without stealing, and it's getting richer, so it can afford to import food. This is just more technology theft. <br /><br />If by "share" you mean free, I suspect the seeds would never have been developed. Sounds like you don't mind that people in the U.S. have to pay for the produce these seeds produce, but China? Even though they can feed themselves, they should get it free?Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-41048737874529575502018-04-17T15:51:08.683-04:002018-04-17T15:51:08.683-04:00@Shadow
Oh come now. If people didn't "s...@Shadow<br /><br />Oh come now. If people didn't "steal" plants like this, there'd be no coffee grown outside of Arabia and the Horn of Africa, no silk raised outside Southeast Asia, no tomatoes or potatoes outside of the Americas, et cetera.<br /><br />If we're too selfish to share world-benefitting crops with other countries, then we deserve to be "robbed" of them. Although it's hard to consider it true robbery when we still retain the crop and all its benefits - we just don't get to extort other into paying us a ransom for access to the seeds.<br /><br />I'd rather other people be allowed resort to "theft", than that people be allowed to demand a "ransom" for seeds which will feed the hungry and cure the sick, by providing more nutrition at less cost and with less pollution.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-60097663916474655662018-04-17T10:12:51.520-04:002018-04-17T10:12:51.520-04:00Stealing helps too.
http://naturalsociety.com/chi...Stealing helps too.<br /><br />http://naturalsociety.com/chinese-spy-steal-millions-dollars-gm-seed-68142/<br /><br />https://www.yahoo.com/news/three-chinese-men-charged-stealing-u-seed-technology-224644437--sector.html<br /><br /><br /><br />Shadowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05353532874773316117noreply@blogger.com