Client / Financial Support: LPP, LPPS
Duration: 26 minutes

In the past cattle breeding was deeply embedded into the social fabric of communities around the world. Communities created thousands of breeds that were not only suited to their respective needs and conditions, but also reflected their skills as animal breeders.

But community controlled animal breeding is becoming increasingly rare. During the last half century, animal breeding has turned into the domain of scientists and genetic companies. And that has brought in its wake various Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) that this film documents. It highlights the major IPRs such as patents, trade secrets, trademarks and geographical indications and the conflicts that such IPRs instigate between the scientific community and the civil society.