[CH] Patenting tepins?
Margaret Lauterbach (melauter@earthlink.net)
Tue, 14 Oct 2003 10:19:26 -0600
I checked Redwood City Seeds' website to see if they were bragging about
having patented tepin chile seeds. Nothing there. It is possible,
unfortunately, because the way our present patent laws (maybe it's the
international patent laws) are written, the mega-seed companies are
"patenting" seeds for crops Andean farmers have grown for
centuries. Popping beans, for instance. The farmers are justly furious,
and so am I. It seems to me if someone has created something, they should
have the right to patent it. If they find something, they shouldn't. If
you use corn gluten meal sold by Gardens Alive for a pre-emergent
herbicide, you're paying royalties to Iowa State University because some of
their faculty discovered that corn meal inhibits seed germination so the
university patented their discovery. Corn gluten meal is used because it's
cheaper than corn meal, being a byproduct of corn syrup production. Margaret L
I received an e-mail on Friday from my UK wholesale customer saying that
Thompson & Morgan had dropped their claim of the exclusive right to sell Tepin
chile seeds.
I also received an e-mail from a potential customer in the Netherlands. I
suggested
that she join this group because we had several members who live there. I also
referred her to the Chilechick website and then decided to take a look at
it too.
Dewi has done a great job with her website and if you haven't looked at it
in a while,
I strongly recommend that you spend some time there. Excellent images of
some of
the more notorious characters we hear from occasionally with great
descriptions:-)
Great idea to scan and post her Chile-Heads membership card. Think I'll do the
same at my web site.
It's at: http://www.chilechick.tmfweb.nl
Dave Anderson
TLCC
Chile-Head #2156
http://www.tough-love.com