Yes, I am concerned with those things.
In terms of a mechanism to get a clear path forward with off-patent genes, a company like Monsanto would simply have to make a variety available with only that gene in it, which they would have had in their gene banks from many years ago, and make that available so it didn't have the other 200 patents that would restrict you from using it. That would be their obligation for having patent protection—just give you the gene in an unrestricted germplasm. It could be relatively simple, but they banked it up with all these other genes and then they don't make that available.
The whole reason for a farmer-owned plant-breeding company is to provide some competition. We need what they have to a large degree, but I don't think it's the only answer, and I'd hate for it to be the only answer. They can make good presentations of all the things they can do, but they don't have the only answer out there.
Whether or a not a farmer-owned seed co-op or breeding organization would dominate the market is questionable, but if we even had 5% or 10%, although I'd like to see 25% or 50%, at least there's an alternative there. Perhaps it makes the companies that price the seed based on what they can get out of the market a little bit more modest in what they think they can get out of it.
One example is anhydrous ammonia. The cost of production is $200 a tonne, but we're paying $1,000 a tonne just because farmers don't own any of those resources. It's almost criminal what's happening in the nitrogen business right now.
As these new regulations get put in place, we need those checks and balances so that we get good access to the off-patent stuff, they have freedom to operate with good patents and protection as they move forward, and we also have the ability to work in developing traits with whomever we can in the world, whether it's CIMMYT or ICARDA or universities in Kenya, wherever in the world that we can. There are good technologies in Wales that we're looking at, with a different trait altogether from what most people are looking at.
I think there are some opportunities there, but we just have to be careful not to give all the cards to the multinationals.