Greenpeace researcher
uncovers chilling patent plans
02/08/2005 — It's official. Monsanto Corporation
is out to own the world's food supply, the
dangers of genetic engineering and reduced
biodiversity notwithstanding, as they pig-headedly
set about hog-tying farmers with their monopoly
plans. We've discovered chilling new evidence
of this in recent patents that seek to establish
ownership rights over pigs and their offspring.
In the crop department, Monsanto is well on
their way to dictating what consumers will
eat, what farmers will grow, and how much
Monsanto will get paid for seeds. In some
cases those seeds are designed not to reproduce
sowable offspring. In others, a flock of lawyers
stand ready to swoop down on farmers who illegally,
or even unknowingly, end up with Monsanto's
private property growing in their fields.
One way or another, Monsanto wants to make
sure no food is grown that they don't own
-- and the record shows they don't care if
it's safe for the environment or not. Monsanto
has aggressively set out to bulldoze environmental
concerns about its genetically engineered
(GE) seeds at every regulatory level.
So why stop in the field? Not content to own
the pesticide and the herbicide and the crop,
they've made a move on the barnyard by filing
two patents which would make the corporate
giant the sole owner of that famous Monsanto
invention: the pig.
The Monsanto Pig (Patent pending)
The patent applications were published in
February 2005 at the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. A Greenpeace
researcher who monitors patent applications,
Christoph Then, uncovered the fact that Monsanto
is seeking patents not only on methods of
breeding, but on actual breeding herds of
pigs as well as the offspring that result.
"If these patents are granted, Monsanto
can legally prevent breeders and farmers from
breeding pigs whose characteristics are described
in the patent claims, or force them to pay
royalties," says Then. "It's a first
step toward the same kind of corporate control
of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively
pursuing with various grain and vegetable
lines."
There are more than 160 countries and territories
mentioned where the patent is sought including
Europe, the Russian Federation, Asia (India,
China, Philippines) America (USA, Brazil,
Mexico), Australia and New Zealand. WIPO itself
can only receive applications, not grant patents.
The applications are forwarded to regional
patent offices.
The patents are based on simple procedures,
but are incredibly broad in their claims.
In one application (WO 2005/015989 to be precise)
Monsanto is describing very general methods
of crossbreeding and selection, using artificial
insemination and other breeding methods which
are already in use. The main "invention"
is nothing more than a particular combination
of these elements designed to speed up the
breeding cycle for selected traits, in order
to make the animals more commercially profitable.
(Monsanto chirps gleefully about lower fat
content and higher nutritional value. But
we've looked and we couldn't find any "Philanthropic
altruism" line item in their annual reports,
despite the fact that it's an omnipresent
factor in their advertising.)
According to Then, "I couldn't belive
this. I've been reviewing patents for 10 years
and I had to read this three times. Monsanto
isn't just seeking a patent for the method,
they are seeking a patent on the actual pigs
which are bred from this method. It's an astoundingly
broad and dangerous claim."
Take patent application WO 2005/017204. This
refers to pigs in which a certain gene sequence
related to faster growth is detected. This
is a variation on a natural occurring sequence
-- Monsanto didn't invent it.
It was first identified in mice and humans.
Monsanto wants to use the detection of this
gene sequence to screen pig populations, in
order to find which animals are likely to
produce more pork per pound of feed. (And
that will be Monsanto Brand genetically engineered
feed grown from Monsanto Brand genetically
engineered seed raised in fields sprayed with
Monsanto Brand Roundup Ready herbicide and
doused with Monsanto Brand pesticides, of
course).
But again, Monsanto wants to own not just
the selection and breeding method, not just
the information about the genetic indicators,
but, if you pardon the expression, the whole
hog.
• Claim 16 asks for a patent on: "A pig
offspring produced by a method ..."
• Claim 17 asks for a patent on: "A pig
herd having an increased frequency of a specific
...gene..."
• Claim 23 asks for a patent on: "A pig
population produced by the method..."
• Claim 30 asks for a patent on: "A swine
herd produced by a method..."
This means the pigs, their offspring, and
the use of the genetic information for breeding
will be entirely owned by Monsanto, Inc. and
any replication or infringement of their patent
by man or beast will mean royalties or jail
for the offending swine.
Not pig fodder
When it comes to profits, pigs are big. Monsanto
notes that "The economic impact of the
industry in rural America is immense. Annual
farm sales typically exceed US$ 11 billion,
while the retail value of pork sold to consumers
reaches US$ 38 billion each year."
At almost every level of food production,
Monsanto is seeking a monopoly position.
The company once earned its money almost exclusively
through agrochemicals. But in the last ten
years they've spent about US$ 10 billion buying
up seed producers and companies in other sectors
of the agricultural business. Their last big
acquisition was Seminis, the biggest producer
of vegetable seeds in the world.
Monsanto holds extremely broad patents on
seeds, most, but not all of them, related
to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Monsanto has also claimed patent rights on
such non-Monsanto inventions as traditionally
bred wheat from India and soy plants from
China. Many of these patents apply not only
to the use of seeds but all uses of the plants
and harvest that result.
Monsanto's GMO corn threatens biodiversity.
Orwellian: "The Earth is flat, pigs were
invented by Monsanto, and GMOs are safe."
The big picture is chilling to anyone who
mistrusts Monsanto's record disinterest for
environmental safety.
And if you're not worried, you should be:
central control of food supply has been a
standard ingredient for social and political
control throughout history. By creating a
monopoly position, Monsanto can force dangerous
experiments like the release of GMOs into
the environment on an unwilling public. They
can ensure that GMOs will be sold and consumed
wherever they say they will.
By claiming global monopoly patent rights
throughout the entire food chain, Monsanto
seeks to make farmers and food producers,
and ultimately consumers, entirely dependent
and reliant on one single corporate entity
for a basic human need. It's the same dependence
that Russian peasants had on the Soviet Government
following the Russian revolution. The same
dependence that French peasants had on Feudal
kings during the middle ages. But control
of a significant proportion of the global
food supply by a single corporation would
be unprecedented in human history.
It's time to ensure that doesn't happen.
It's time for a global ban of patents on seeds
and farm animals.
It's time to tell Monsanto we've had enough
of this hogwash.
— Brian Thomas Fitzgerald