Brussels, Belgium
26 April 2010
This year’s World Intellectual Property Day provides an opportunity to reflect on how innovation helps to link the world. Worldwide, we are linked by the universal need for safe, nutritious food, fibre, and fuel — and plant science innovations help farmers fill this growing need.
“Intellectual property protection plays an important part in fuelling innovation and providing incentives for researchers to produce new and improved agricultural technologies for farmers,” said CropLife International’s President and CEO, Howard Minigh. “During each meal, consumers are benefiting from an ongoing evolution of agricultural advances that have led to increased food variety, safer and oftentimes better-tasting food products, and healthier foods. These advances are enabled by intellectual property protection.”
For years, the plant science industry has provided innovative tools to farmers that enable them to farm more sustainably and decrease agriculture’s impact on the environment — from improving soil and water quality, to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from farm equipment, to increasing the productivity of farmlands. These innovations can only be achieved through resource-intensive and costly research and development. Intellectual property rights help inventors receive a fair return — which encourages them to continue to find solutions to emerging farming challenges.
“Agriculture has become an essential part of international trade and the global economy — we are increasingly linked by this industry,” continued Minigh. “Advances in agriculture have enabled farmers to remain competitive, provided new marketplaces for countries, and provided consumers with more choices. Protecting inventions is just one part of the research-to-marketplace continuum that brings about new products and innovative ways to grow food for an increasing population.”
To help improve understanding of the role intellectual property plays in furthering plant science innovation, CropLife International has launched a new section of its Crop News Network Web site (http://www.cropnewsnetwork.com/intellectual-property/) that serves as an online resource on this subject.
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