[joseph]

I would be greatly pleased with a 5% royalty if anyone were to grow out my seed and resell it. That's the target that I aim for when sending royalty payments to seed breeders. Even if I am only growing the plants to sell as vegetables at market, I often send royalties to the small scale amateur/professional breeders who's work I am using. They don't expect it, and it wasn't part of our arrangements, but it seems right to me. 10% is a burden to me, but 5% slips out of my fingers easy as can be. I think of it as akin to "freeware", or "shareware" in the software industry, which often come with a contract that says something like "make as many copies as you like. If you find the program useful send a donation of your choosing to the programmer." I often send software royalties and seed royalties.

I really dislike selling bulk seed. Because people want to pay me a pittance for it, and then I feel cheated about all the sales that I could have had to sell as individual packets.

The corporations can make their profits from selling seed. I never send royalty payments to a corporation.

I could easily make hybrid seed. Even genetically diverse hybrid seed. But in the same way that I choose not to buy corporate operating systems or software programs, I choose to not use corporate seeds, and to not adapt the corporate model of seed distribution.

I haven't bought seed for two growing seasons now. Partly because I raise my own seed, and partly because my trading network provides more than sufficient seed for my farm.

But my primary motivation for growing seed is not to sell seed. I grow seed because landrace seeds that have adapted to my soil, climate, pests, and way of doing things grow much more reliably for me than any corporate seed that is tested for average performance in average gardens. The corporate seed model cannot provide suitable seed for my unique conditions, so I have to develop my own varieties. Some of the traits that make my plants useful in my garden have proven useful in gardens in way different climates, and so I gain a reputation, and my collaboration and swap network grows. I value the prestige over the $.