Breeding for the right qualities in any plant is pretty complex
It is unfortunate for the people in the hop industry to have to wait so long to yield any real measurable results.
God Bless em'
They are blessed, but I think it's by the US patent office with a patent on their plant's genetics so that only those who pay to play can grow their plants.
I realize that the patents provide incentive to create new varieties, but I'm not a big fan of companies patenting living things.
It's a difficult area. How many of you would be surprised to find out that Cascade is 75% Fuggles? It's true.
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Google "Monsanto": they are a cautionary tale about patents and monopolies.
I'm guessing everyone here knows about Monsanto
I feel like a legit farmer should be able to keep their proprietary breeding efforts to themselves for some amount of time after all it was their years of breeding and hard work and their if they choose not to sell their rhizomes
that is strictly their business and choice. you don't see coca-cola giving away their secret formula
but the parentage is fair game so technically someone could breed something very similar if they tried
we all know Monstanto are some dirty ****ers but don't lump them in with the Washington crew just for the fact that hop farmers are only protecting their work
Last edited by BigfootCounty; 11-23-2011 at 10:33 PM.
I feel like a legit farmer should be able to keep their proprietary breeding efforts to themselves for some amount of time after all it was their years of breeding and hard work and their if they choose not to sell their rhizomes
that is strictly their business and choice. you don't see coca-cola giving away their secret formula
but the parentage is fair game so technically someone could breed something very similar if they tried
we all know Monstanto are some dirty ****ers but don't lump them in with the Washington crew just for the fact that hop farmers are only protecting their work
Was not my intent at all to "lump them in with Washington crew" simply giving an example of when it goes entirely too far; Monsanto is a good example in more areas than just patents on strains of plants; Monsanto has gone too far in many arenas.
A good example of someone utilizing the patent if a living species appropriately would be New Mexico Chili institute and their patent on the "ghost chili" or Bhut Jolokia
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We all chitter about the "one that got away"- and ignore all the other fish in the lake!
I agree that plant patents are a touchy subject, but they do expire-
I would guess that 10 years (or sooner) from now Simcoe, Citra, Summit, Amarillo, etc. will be as available as Cascade. Patience . . .
Good post B-Hoppy! (we needed a good "winter" discussion thread!)
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