es to use the free trade agreement TTIP between the EU and the US to achieve more success with its patent on the European market, reports the German website deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de. Monsanto alone has carried out 142 processes again agrarians in the US in the last year for mixing seeds. This tactic could also work in Europe.Previous to the rejection of the legal proposal about seeds in March 2014, over 700,000 citizens in Germany and Austria alone have signed petitions against the regulation. This petition was an action by the initiative 'Freiheit für die Vielfalt'. The EU responded to pressure from the citizens, who do not want to be told which fruits and vegetables they want to grow in their gardens.
The initiative hopes that the new Euro Commissioner will revoke the current design. A new attempt from the seed industry to limit the diversity of varieties could arise in the autumn. "It is possible that a new Euro Commissioner will submit a new design after the EU elections. But this won't happen before the end of the year," according to Benedikt Haerlin, initiator for 'Freiheit für die Vielfalt'.
"This will take the battle for the freedom of diversity into a second, decisive round. The international seed concerns will look for new ways to push through their industry standard and hybrid seed norms. The planned free trade agreement between the EU and the US could play a role in this," according to Haerlin.
This agreement could cater to the seed producers. Genetically modified plants are allowed restricted access in the US. A law also means that the producers are exempt from legal sentencing. This means that Monsanto and co would be immune to charges. On the other hand Monsanto has won countless procedures against agrarians in the US as a prosecutor.
