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> few pay attention to the fact that most grains are protected or even patented

Government and legislative failure. Just protect the seeds by disallowing any protection/patenting, for the public good, that's why we pay taxes.

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It goes beyond country boundaries. There was an interesting case where China stole I think it was specialized corn to begin producing their own instead of spending large sums by buying the product or IP.

Another interesting case was PepsiCo suing farmers in India over a variety of potato. A few years later, PepsiCo withdrew their suit... only to have a group of farmers continue to press the claim and have the courts rule that PepsiCo couldn't patent a seed.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/india-revokes-pa...

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