Thus freedom to trade is also part of the IP story. However, using international production and trade data in the 15 crops critical to food security throughout the developing world, we show that exports from developing to developed countries are generally dwarfed by production and consumption in the developing world, the value of these exports is concentrated in a few crops and a few exporting countries, and the bulk of these exports go to Western Europe. Thus for now, most LDC researchers can focus primarily on domestic IPR in determining their freedom to operate with respect to food staples. Undue concern with current freedom to operate is diverting attention from the lack of financial and technical support necessary for the effective generation, evaluation, adaptation, and regulation of newly available technologies by public and international nonprofit breeders in LDCs, given the continued inability of private-sector research to fill the gap. Download full-text discussion paper .
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