Linda (potato)

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Freshly harvested Linda potatoes
Linda potato from organic farming, after three months of storage
Potato variety Linda; the meat is firm and has a strong yellow color

Linda is a waxy potato with a deep yellow inside that is considered particularly aromatic . During storage, the cooking property changes to floury. In 2004 Linda only had a market share of around 1.4% in Germany . However, it is an important variety for direct sales by organic farmers. A legal dispute had broken out over the extension of the German variety test. It ended with the new approval of the potato variety by the Bundessortenamt .

General information on plant variety protection in Germany

The production and sale of a potato variety in Germany requires prior approval by the Bundessortenamt and entry in the list of varieties. The registration or approval is for ten years and can be extended as often as required for a further ten years. The entry in the list of varieties results in obligations for the applicant: he is obliged to maintain proper breeding and is liable for fees to the competent authorities.

For new varieties, the breeder can apply for plant variety protection parallel to the entry in the list of varieties. This grants him the sole right of disposal over his variety for a period of 30 years. The plant variety protection for Linda was used by Europlant Pflanzenzucht GmbH.

If the approval is extended beyond the end of the plant variety protection (after 30 years for potatoes) or if no plant variety protection is applied for, any person can propagate and sell the plant material.

history

Linda was from the seed breeding Friedrich Böhm, Dare , bred . In 1974, the German gave Bundessortenamt the Plant Variety Rights at the request of the breeder to 2004 and was the variety into the variety list one. According to the Seed Traffic Act , this entry is necessary so that seeds can be traded commercially and thus the variety can be cultivated.

At the end of 2004, Europlant withdrew this approval with effect from January 1, 2005 for the commercial production of seedlings, which farmers could also have used after the end of plant variety protection. As a result, Karsten Ellenberg, organic farm operator and maintenance breeder of other, including rare potato varieties, applied for re-approval on January 10, 2005. He knew that the process would take a few years, but only the holder of the right can apply for an extension of the approval during plant variety protection. At the same time, a variety approval was applied for in Scotland under EU law. This process also took several years.

The Bundessortenamt had originally set an expiry period of six months, ie until June 30, 2005. It extended it to June 30, 2007, the longest possible expiry period under the Seed Traffic Act, after Ellenberg had requested this. After an unsuccessful objection, Europlant filed a claim for damages against the Bundessortenamt at the Hanover Administrative Court on July 7, 2005. She argued that because of the short period of expiry she had destroyed propagating material in the six to seven-digit euro range, which was produced at high cost by agricultural propagation companies and which she could have sold after the extension. Europlant pointed out to its previous producers of seedlings that they were contractually obliged to only deliver to Europlant, and on July 28, 2005, at the arbitration tribunal for seed disputes of the Hanover Chamber of Agriculture, three of their previous contractual partners had the Linda seedlings grown in violation of the contract until the final product Not allowed to market clarification. These claimed that the contract had expired.

The group of friends "Save the Linda", to which the consumer associations, Consumer Center Hamburg and Slow Food, as well as the peasant associations, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Peasant Agriculture , Bioland and Demeter belong, campaigned for the support of Linda under the campaign "Solidarity with Linda".

Saatgut-Treuhandverwaltungs GmbH, working on behalf of the owner of the variety protection, wanted information from many farmers about the varieties they had copied, including Linda. For this she received a Big Brother Award 2005 in the business category.

On April 14, 2007, Linda was named " Potato of the Year " by several agricultural and environmental organizations (including the working group for rural agriculture, Bioland and SlowFood) . Three weeks later, Europlant announced that it would now also produce Linda in 2007. The Lebensmittel-Zeitung writes (May 25, 2007): "The seed manufacturer Europlant has an understanding of the Linda potato variety and is surprisingly increasing the 'consumer favorite' again this year on a small area."

In 2008 Karsten Ellenberg imported Linda from Scotland and sold her.

Arguments for and against the extension of the approval

Europlant argues that Linda is very susceptible to late blight, tuber blight and viral necrosis and not resistant to nematodes and potato cancer . That is why they need an unnecessarily large amount of pesticides . Furthermore, their cooking properties are often not stable, that is, they change from firm to floury cooking during the storage period. In the interests of environmental and consumer protection , she therefore recommends other varieties.

Proponents of the Linda point to ecological agriculture , which further restricts pesticides compared to the already low legal limit values, so that any risk to the environment and consumers is negligible.

With the Belana potato that she also sells , Europlant has a higher quality substitute that is less prone to disease and does not lose its cooking properties in storage. At test meals by the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Agriculture and the Kieler Nachrichten it was also found that the new Belana variety tasted better for consumers. Linda's supporters disagree with the latter argument and particularly praise Linda's excellent taste; the shelf life, however, is not so important.

According to Europlant, new varieties are always better than previous ones, as this is a requirement of the Federal Plant Variety Office. Critics point out that the office does not decide on good taste. In a market economy this is the responsibility of the consumer. In contrast to the argument that the variety of varieties is decreasing, Europlant points out that withdrawing the Linda variety from the market does not completely result in Linda being replaced by a single new variety. On the contrary: the active breeding of new varieties by German entrepreneurs, including organic farmer Ellenberg, is more likely to result in an increase in the varieties available to consumers. Ten new potato varieties are approved in Germany every year.

Europlant refers to bad experiences with other varieties in which inferior quality was produced after the plant variety protection was discontinued. Without plant variety protection, farmers could produce the Linda variety under more cost-effective, quality-reducing conditions. The high quality associated with the variety name by the consumer is no longer fulfilled. On the other hand, the growers who continued to produce the affected variety in the best quality at high cost would lose their economic livelihood. Linda's supporters argue that Linda's buyers have always been particularly quality-conscious, and therefore do not attach quality to the name, but to quality seals. Consumers have learned from experience with other varieties such as Bintje and Sieglinde .

Europlant is criticized for hindering farmers after the loss of Linda's monopoly by exploiting a loophole in the Seed Traffic Act . Europlant would have even destroyed seedlings worth several hundred thousand euros that had already been produced. Since Europlant has a market share of 48%, previous Linda farmers would probably buy from Europlant again.

Proponents of the conservation of the Linda variety are of the opinion that the right to be able to use plant variety protection exclusively for 30 years is opposed to the right of the general public to subsequently use the variety freely without a license. The state-granted monopoly will only find acceptance if the variety becomes a public cultural asset . This applies in particular to basic foodstuffs , for which moral reasons also speak against exclusive use.

Approval from 2009

The UK Plant Variety Protection Office approved Linda in the UK on August 28, 2009 . This means that Linda can again be grown as seeds and potatoes in all EU countries.

As of 2010, the Bundessortenamt (Federal Plant Variety Office) issued the new approval for Germany under the identification number 3664 Karsten Ellenberg with the comment “Without the requirement of regional cultural value in accordance with Section 30 Paragraph 2 No. 4 SaatG ”. This approval is valid for ten years and can then be extended by him without the approval of Europlant.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: Tagesschau, February 26, 2010 ( Memento from March 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Ariane Bemmer: Crazy about Linda In: Der Tagesspiegel from April 12, 2005
  3. ↑ Big Brother Awards 2005, category economy
  4. ↑ Video turntable: Linda - potato import from Scotland (December 18, 2008, 2:40 min.)  In the ZDFmediathek , accessed on February 3, 2014. (offline)
  5. ^ "Potato variety back via England - Linda is on everyone's lips again" taz.de of August 28, 2009 , accessed on January 11, 2011
  6. ↑ What became of ... the Linda potato variety? ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brandeins.de
  7. ↑ Descriptive list of varieties as PDF ( memento of January 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 25, 2010

Web links

Commons : Linda  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files