b"where a farmer uses seed they grew from one of their previous crops, which is legal. Brown-bag sales are illegal seed sales to other farmers, as opposed to purchasing pedigreed seed from an authorized retailer. It most commonly happens with cereal crop varieties suchWhen someone is selling as wheat, barley and oats. brown-bag seed, theyre The purpose of Plant Breeders Rights is to try to stimulate investment in innovation in plant breeding. And it does so byessentially free riding providing specific private rights to the breeder, much like anoff of someone elses inventor seeks patent protection. So, they can have exclusivity over their invention, no one else can use it but them unless that personinnovation. That farmer did has been authorized, Parker says in a phone interview. not put the 10 to 12 years in When seed is illegally sold via brown-bag sales, it impacts the whole seed chain, from the breeding lab to farmers fields. At thebreeding efforts to create plant breeding level, it reduces income plant breeders receive fromthat great new variety. sales of certified seed, as those profits are what plant breeders use to fund work to breed future varieties. At the seed grower level, itAnthony Parkerimpacts the number of sales theyre able to make which can lessen the amount of seed they grow in future years reducing the amount of new varieties available to farmers.When someone is selling brown-bag seed, they're essentially free riding off of someone else's innovation. That farmer did not put the 10 to 12 years in breeding efforts to create that great new variety. They just essentially stole someone else's IP and made money off of it. So, you've denied an opportunity for the breeder to recover some of their costs, Parker explains.These sales also impact seed companies willingness to invest or partner with research institutions for new varietal development. Churko says it also impacts taxpayer dollars. The largest plant breeder in Canada is Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), which means when brown-bag seed sales happen on AAFC varieties then taxpayers are left paying more for future varietal development to make up for those lost profits. If it was a healthy system, and everybody that purchases a new variety pays that small amount for the use of that intellectual property, the entire weight to the system sort of comes down. And so there actually ends up being more money available to move it all forward, Churko explains.The exact volume of brown-bag sales happening in Canada is unknown, but previous studies have estimated it at as high as 20 per cent of cereal seed sales nationally, Parker says. This is higher than in comparable regions such as the European Union or Australia. Think about that. Could an author succeed if 20 per cent of the books that they sold were illegal books? he adds. It's nearly impossible to succeed if the level of illegal, uncompensated sales are that high.Seeds Canada does do an annual market survey with seed companies to track the legal seed sales market, says Churko, who is a Seeds Canada board member and chair of the business services steering committee. From there Seeds Canada will compare seedChris Churko, CEO of FP Genetics and chair of Seeds Canada business services sale numbers with data available from crop insurance statingsteering committee12seed.ab.ca"