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Apéndice: páginas 115-126

Foreword.. The Seed Situation.. Chapter 1.. The ‘Gene-Rich’ and the ‘Gene-Poor’.. 1.1 Common Origins.. 1.2 The Degree of Interdependence.. Chapter 2.. Genetic Erosion.. 2.1 The‘Erosion’Process.. 2.2 The Lessons of History.. 2.3 Ongoing Lessons.. 2.4 Wild Species.. Chapter 3.. Genetic Conservation.. 3.1 The Conservation‘Network’.. 3.2 Storehouse, Prison or Tomb?.. The Seed Revolution.. Chapter 4.. The Green Revolution.. 4.1 History and Scope.. 4.2 Criticisms.. Chapter 5.. The Seed Revolution.. 5.1 Elements of Phase II.. Chapter 6.. The New Seedsmen.. 6.1 The “Acquirers’ Romance”.. 6.2 Who are the New Seedsmen?.. 6.3 The Significance of PBR.. Restrictive Varietal Legislation.. Chapter 7.. The Implications of Restrictive Varietal Legislation.. 7.1 The Genetic Resources Link.. 7.2 Public Versus Private Breeding.. 7.3 The Regulatory Maze.. Chapter 8. Biases in Corporate Breeding.. 8.1 The ‘YUF Bias.. 8.2 The Hybrid Bias.. 8.3 The Patent Bias.. 8.4 The Chemical Bias.. Chapter 9.. Learning from Corporate Experience.. 9.1 Learning from the Agrichemical Experience.. 9.2 Learning from the Pharmaceutical Experience.. Summary.. Recommendations.. Postscript.. Appendices.. Appendix A Corporate Profiles.. Appendix B Abbreviations

Briefly put, the themes of this booklet are the seriousness of the current genetic erosion of the germplasm resources of crop plants and the aggravation of this process which the author considers will result from wider granting of plant breeders' rights. Few will dispute the reality of genetic erosion, and conservation of genetic resources is now a major concern at both national and international levels. The effects of protective legislation are not so simple to evaluate. The author supposes that the large-scale take-overs of seed firms by internationally operating chemical companies have led to a situation where restrictive legislation to protect newly bred varieties will be exercised to eliminate older varieties and deplete the germplasm pool. It is also supposed that breeding could be orientated towards producing new varieties dependent on particular chemicals, for example herbicides, and so promoting the market for such chemicals. Clearly the autbor anticipates that the larger chemical companies will put their own interests first and adduces examples of bad practice in the past as a warning of what may happen in the future. There is no doubt that a real problem is touched upon. Much of the evidence on which the author relies is from trade reports, and he quotes numerous extracts from letters and telephone conversations with geneticists and plant breeders. More confidence would attach to the overall picture if the author were a little less shrill and showed a greater grasp of the technicalities of the subject with which he deals. Inglés