Syrian seeds shake up Europe’s plant patent regime
Salvatore Ceccarelli knew he was engaging in a subversive act when, in 2010, he took two twenty kilo sacks of bread and durum wheat seeds from a seed bank outside of Aleppo, Syria and brought them to Italy during a visit back to his home country. Now, seven years later, those seeds from the Fertile Crescent, the birthplace of domesticated agriculture, with thousands of years of evolution behind them, are poised to challenge the system of plant patenting in Europe, and, soon enough perhaps, the United States.
Seed bank survives perils of civil war in Syria
An international research center that specializes in arid agriculture has managed to duplicate and transfer most of its 148,000 accessions to seed banks far outside the war zone in Syria.