{"id":275572,"date":"2019-05-09T03:04:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T07:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiTmh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvbS90cmF2ZWwvc3RvcnkvMjAxOTA1MDgtZGlkLXRoZS1kdXRjaC1zdGVhbC10aGlzLWFmcmljYW4tZm9vZNIBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T15:52:23","slug":"bbc-a-dutch-patent-fight-over-teff-raised-ownership-questions-about-ethiopias-staple-grain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/275572","title":{"rendered":"BBC: a Dutch patent fight over teff raised ownership questions about Ethiopia\u2019s staple grain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In May 2019 BBC Travel told how teff, the tiny grain behind injera for more than two thousand years in Ethiopia and Eritrea, became the subject of a Dutch patent fight after seeds were sent to the Netherlands for research in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-291582\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/teff-injera.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"BBC: a Dutch patent fight over teff raised ownership questions about Ethiopia\u2019s staple grain\" \/>\n<p>Agronomist Jans Roosjen\u2019s company later held European patent claims on teff flour processing. Ethiopians watched in anger as a staple food was marketed abroad as a new superfood while the ownership paper sat in Europe. When a Dutch court voided key patent claims and appeal deadlines expired in early 2019, many treated it as a quiet victory.<\/p>\n<p>The story is not only about one businessman. It is about biodiversity, research partnerships, and who gets to profit when African crops become Western health brands.<\/p>\n<p>Kept as food and culture reference, the BBC teff file still matters whenever diaspora kitchens and global snack companies argue over a grain Ethiopians never stopped calling their own.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/travel\/story\/20190508-did-the-dutch-steal-this-african-food\">BBC Travel<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did the Dutch &#8216;steal&#8217; this African food?&nbsp;&nbsp;BBC NewsIt&#8217;s been the basis of Ethiopia&#8217;s staple dish for more than 2000 years, so how did a Dutch man claim ownership of the new &#8216;superfood&#8217; teff?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":291582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/teff-injera.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-19GI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275572"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754500,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275572\/revisions\/754500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}