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A comment on Indigenous Maize: Who Owns the Rights to Mexico’s ‘Wonder’ Plant?. Parent comment

Re:Indigenous Maize: Who Owns the Rights to Mexico’s ‘Wonder... by 13of40 on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @02:21AM (#20572090)
> can we find a way to reward the farmers who genetically engineered this plant by selecting for the strongest individuals for the last several thousands years?

In a very concrete sense we cannot, because the people who did it are dead. We're really talking about rewarding (the people we presume to be) their descendants. Is that something we would do in a completely European context? For example, if we found a strain of worm-resistant apple that had been growing in a particular suburb of Manchester since before anyone's grandma could remember, would you consider giving patent rights to anyone who had a tree in their back yard?

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Re:Indigenous Maize: Who Owns the Rights to Mexico’s ‘Wonder... by harimau777 on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @07:43AM (#20573504)
Isn't that basically what inheritance is? Rewarding descendants for what their ancestors did?
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Re:Indigenous Maize: Who Owns the Rights to Mexico’s ‘Wonder... by cglace on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @08:53AM (#20573993)
I think you are missing most of their point.
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