Johanna Eckhardt lives in Vienna and works for No patents on seeds! since 2016, focusing on coordinating the member organisations, public communication and the exchange with experts from Contracting States of the European Patent Office. In 2015, she completed a traineeship at the seed policy team of the seed saver organisation ARCHE NOAH and continued working for the organisation as a freelancer organising a political symposium and an event on tomato varieties. She studied Spanish, French and German as a foreign language at the University of Vienna and in Spain. She worked in Austria, Spain and France as a language teacher and in tourism.
“The growing number of patents on NGTs represent a further risk to traditional breeding. We have to protect the freedom to operate for breeders as the basis of food security and food sovereignty in Europe.”
