b"Kees van Ettekoven (right) receiving the UPOV Silver Medal from UPOV's vice secretary-general Peter Button.this, even without tampering with thesented as Explanatory Notes and Industry UPOV Convention. It is not realisedStandards, in practice will have the enough that already today the UPOVsame effect as changing the Convention. Convention leaves a lot of room for inter- It is evident that where multiple actors pretation. The founding fathers that cre- are involved, all bodies they represent ated the first Convention nearly 60 yearsshould be willing to make comparable ago already realized that when the aim isSuch an exerciseamendment in their position papers and to bring together as many member statesConventions.as possible in UPOV, there should remaincan only succeedAs an agricultural community we room for interpretation.if both sides arehave an obligation to ensure a proper food A number of Explanatory Notes andsupply in the coming decades. A growing Information documents have been devel- willing to look forpopulation, shrinking surface of arable oped to guide members in these inter- land, a healthy pressure on the use of pretations. These do not have the samecommon ground. fertilizers and crop protection measures weight as the text of the Convention,and climate change put strong pressure but in practice, as the membership hason farmers and breeders. The UPOV accepted them, are equally important. system plays an important role and if we It is through such a system of softscrew up, convinced of our own right, the law that the polder can do its work.same society we all pledge to work for will Reaching joint positions that can be pre- suffer.EUROPEAN-SEED.COMIEUROPEAN SEED I 47"