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Requested the gathering of seeds from those serving in foreign posts to redistribution to American farmers
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Established seed collection and distribution effort
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USDA distributed "public seed" to U.S. farmers for free
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Established Land Grant College System, including experiments in seed production and distribution
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First industry interested group; sought to diminish or eliminate federal seed distribution programs.
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Established college experiment stations
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Established cooperative extension service
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Established legal basis for patents for non-sexually reproduced plants (via grafting, cuttings, etc.)
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Established Certificates of Protection for novel, sexually reproduced plants for an limited period of 18 years; allowed farmers to save these same seeds.
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Among the first civil society organizations dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of traditional, land race seed varieties.
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Codified the first patent on life (a bacterium used to treat oil spills). Precipitated the issuance of "Utility patents" for plants and seeds, including rights of exclusion.
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Expansion of regional efforts to preserve traditional seed varieties
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Expansion of the seed preservation efforts into Indigenous seed systems, especially in the southwest.
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GMO seed begin meteoric rise to market dominance
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Rigid Ryegrass
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Four agro-chemical seed companies control 49% of the world's proprietary seed
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Removed from Farm Bill
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The percentage of seed varieties lost over the last century