Presented by Vandana Shiva from Navdanya International. Vandana will share an analysis of how patents on plants and seeds are based on the assumption that seeds and plants are machines, invented by the biotech industry. The ontology of seeds as autopoeitic and self-organised, evolutionary systems will also be discussed along with how article 3 j of India’s patent laws excludes plants,

Presented by Kjell Ericson from Kyoto University. Registration details to come. A movement calling for plants to be treated as patentable inventions emerged in 1970s Japan. Among the loudest proponents of reform were people who had long engaged in the breeding and propagation of fruits and flowers, in certain cases far beyond Japan's post-1945 borders. My presentation contextualizes the activities

Presented by Courtney Fullilove from Wesleyan University. This talk aims to unite diverse insights in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences by theorizing seeds as deep time technologies.  Regarding the seed as a technology allows us to understand actors and processes of improvement that constitute the material form of the seed and its demarcation according to commercial and scientific

Presented by Graham Dutfield from the University of Leeds. Registration details to come. In 1996, a book called “Beyond Intellectual Property” was published by International Development Research Centre. A law book written by two people entirely unschooled in law, of whom one is the present speaker, this was hardly a world-changing event. The book was very much of its time,