Do private multinational companies control GMOs?
In many developing countries, GMOs are being developed not by private companies but by public sector government research institutes (such as KARI, in Kenya). These national agricultural research institutes often have permission to sell the GMO seeds they are developing locally without paying any fees to any foreign holders of patents on the technology, and the local farmers that get these seeds can also save, exchange, and replant them without restriction, in keeping with the “farmers’ privileges” that are recognized in nearly all local intellectual property laws.
