Seeds for economically important crops are big business indeed. As the large seed companies continue to strive to improve their product in various ways, they make use of the original gene pools of various plants, which are often located in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. With the increasing recognition that plant germplasm is an important raw material, how this material will be exchanged and used has become a highly charged international dispute and a further point of contention between poor exporting nations and the wealthier manufacturing ones. In this work twenty experts from several nations representing both the natural and social sciences consider the historical background of this sensitive question, the issue of patent rights as applied to plant germplasm, the nature of global genetic interdependence, the internationalization of the seed industry, the implications of biotechnology on genetic resources, the Third World attitude toward the debate, and the viewpoints of the International Agricultural Research Centers.
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