The UPOV 1991 allows right holders to prohibit the multiplication, sale, and export of both reproductive and harvested material from their protected varieties. In the U.S., in the 1980s, utility patents were extended to all living organisms, except humans, as a result of legal cases that many consider dubious and possibly controvertible. Patents, in particular, allow holders an exclusive monopoly on a process or product for a period of 17 to 22 years. Already we have the economic rudiments of how to judge who the winners and losers in the biotechnology industry will be. Still, this basically tautological answer does not describe what it really means to be a winner or a loser.
Biotechnology is primarily an economic tool.
I attempt to describe exactly who is affected by its rapid evolution and how.