People Plants and the Law

Presented by Daniela Soleri, Alma Piñeyro, and Emmanuel Carlos González Ortega. In situ conserved crop genetic resources (CGRs) occur in the form of native or local crop varieties, developed and cultivated by peasant/farming communities, including indigenous communities across North America. The global significance of these CGRs has led to the construction of legal frameworks regarding core issues of access, use,

Presented by Susannah Chapman. Over the past several decades, many fruit breeding programs have begun to commercialize new varieties via the strategic use to two legal techniques: the use of plant variety protection—coupled with contracts to create small “clubs” of select growers—and the use of branding to foster ready consumer demand for the protected fruit that the club would produce.