Dear Christoph,

The case is quite interesting, as the farmer was only growing the plants, which he had bought from a nursery. The nursery was propagating the F1 patented plants via "stup" i.e. vegetative propagation, the only way to reproduce identical hybrid plants.

The case was initiated by Syngenta and AIB (Anti-Infringement Bureau for Intellectual Property Rights on Plant Material) who were looking for a scaping goat in an area where these practices are widely spread. This sentence should set an example to warn others from doing the same.

This article, in Italian, is very informative and is published by an organisation actively campaigning for farmers rights in Italy, especially in the South and areas controlled by criminal organisations.
https://www.terrelibere.org/carcere-pomodori-guerra-semi-bruxelles-ragusa/

I have informed the organisation about your interest on the case. The journalist who researched this case seems very informed and has written a book on the unethical value chains behind super markets https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonello-mangano/

Best,

Matteo

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 at 15:30, Christoph Then <info@no-patents-on-seeds.org> wrote:

Dear Matteo

thanks a lot! we are very very much interested!

we will try to study the case.

Cheers

Christoph

Am 11.06.20 um 14:56 schrieb Matteo Petitti:

Hello, I just wanted to point out this news to you: a Sicilian farmer of Ragusa province was sentenced to one year prison and 15k € fine for planting patented Syngenta tomatoes without permission. I will try to find out more details. Best regards, Matteo Petitti https://agricoltura.usb.it/leggi-notizia/nel-ragusano-la-prima-condanna-per-uso-non-autorizzato-di-sementi-brevettate-un-anno-sfruttamento-della-terra-e-dei-lavoratori-lagricoltura-vista-unicamente-come-profitto-1549-1.html

--

__________

Rete Semi Rurali

piazza Brunelleschi, 8

50018 Scandicci (FI)

www.semirurali.net