The Battle for African Agriculture Podcast – How the World Lost Control of Seeds with Pat Mooney

In this episode of The Battle for African Agriculture, the first part of a three part series, Dr. Million Belay speaks with Pat Mooney, a member of the IPES-Food, co founder and former director of ETC Group, IFOAM Ambassador, and chair of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, often known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Pearson Peace Prize from Canada’s Governor General, and the American Giraffe Award for “sticking his neck out,” and has also received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Waterloo in Canada and the 17 Advanced Research Institutes in Mexico.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in global civil society struggles for seed sovereignty, biodiversity, and food justice, Pat reflects on a journey that began in the 1960s, when early exposure to global hunger debates and international food politics pushed him beyond a simple belief in development assistance and toward a deeper understanding of power, inequality, and control in food systems.

The conversation traces Pat Mooney’s central role in exposing the rise of corporate control over seeds and agricultural research. He explains how, from the 1970s onward, large oil, chemical, and pharmaceutical companies began buying seed companies and pushing intellectual property regimes that would give them monopoly power over agriculture. He discusses the founding of RAFI, later ETC Group, and the long political battles around plant breeders’ rights, farmers’ rights, biopiracy, and the creation of international mechanisms on plant genetic resources.

Throughout the discussion, Pat emphasizes that the consolidation of power in agriculture has never been simply about feeding the world, but about control over markets, technologies, and regulatory systems. He argues that patents and other monopoly tools have narrowed diversity, strengthened corporate influence over public research and policy, and enabled a handful of firms to dominate global agriculture. Looking ahead, he warns that the same historical logic is now unfolding through data and digital technologies, with new corporate actors seeking to control agriculture through platforms, artificial intelligence, and information systems. For him, understanding that history is essential, because the future of resistance depends on recognizing how these systems evolved, why they succeeded, and how they continue to reshape the food system today.