US prosecutors say the men were after the seed companies' 'inbred' or 'parent' lines of corn, which can take five to eight years and millions of dollars to develop. Inbred lines exhibit precise performance characteristics and engineered traits such as insect resistance and drought tolerance. Seed companies use them in production fields to cross pollinate with other superior inbred lines, and generate robust offspring known as first-generation hybrid seeds. The hybrid seeds are sold to farmers, but the parent seeds stay with the companies.
Seed companies take every reasonable precaution to protect their inbred lines, including monitoring sensitive field locations and limiting the information given to contract growers who manage production fields. In addition, they patent proprietary technology and require anyone who buys commercial hybrid seed to sign a technology agreement that restricts how the seed is used and transported. Beyond that, “There's not much you can do,” says Drew Kershen, who teaches agricultural biotech law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in Norman. “You can't grow it all in greenhouses,” and it's not practical to station guards at every field, he says. “There's no cost-effective way to provide absolute security,” adds Alan McHughen, a plant biotechnologist at University of California, Riverside.
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