Fwd: GMW:_USDA_employees_earn_extra_from_GM_crops

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GMW:_USDA_employees_earn_extra_from_GM_crops

" GM_WATCH "

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 10:47:47 GMT

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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In response to our item yesterday about the enormous waste of public and

foundation monies on GM crops, Craig Sams has written to point out, " the fact

that the US govt funds research and that USDA employees then get royalties from

the patents on that research is an outrage. How on earth can they be expected to

make rational choices when a pro-GM choice [which is patentable] can increase

their income up to the annual cap of $150,000 a year and a non-GM choice leaves

them with nothing but their salary? "

 

Here's Craig's supporting evidence. The Terminator information is given added

interest with Terminator being one of the issues currently up for discussion at

COP7.

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The Terminator gene in particular, but any USDA discovered gene construct in

general, can generate

huge profits for USDA researchers, as outlined in the following two extracts:

 

http://www.sustainable-city.org/articles/terminat.htm

 

On March 3, 1998, the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Delta and

Pine Land

Company, a Mississippi firm and the largest cotton seed company in the world,

announced that they had jointly developed and received a patent (US patent

number 5,723,765) on a new, agricultural biotechnology. Benignly titled,

" Control of Plant Gene Expression”, the new patent will permit its

owners and licensees to create sterile seed by cleverly and selectively

programming a plant’s DNA to kill its own embryos. The patent applies to plants

and seeds of all species. The result? If saved at harvest for future crops, the

seed produced by these plants will not grow. Pea pods, tomatoes, peppers, heads

of wheat and ears of corn will essentially become seed morgues. In one broad,

brazen stroke of his hand, man will have irretrievably broken the

plant-to-seed-to-plant-to-seed cycle, THE cycle that supports most life on the

planet. No seed, no food -- unless -- unless you buy more seed. This is

obviously good for seed companies. As it turns out, it is also good for the US

Department of Agriculture.

 

In a recent interview with RAFI, the Canada-based Rural Advancement Foundation

International, US

Department of Agriculture (USDA) spokesman, Willard Phelps, explained that the

USDA wants this technology to be " widely licensed and made expeditiously

available to many seed companies. " The goal, he said, is " to increase the value

of proprietary seed owned by US seed companies and to open up new markets in

Second and Third World countries. " The USDA and Delta & Pine Land Co. have

applied for patents on the terminator technology in at least 78 countries! Once

the technology is

commercialized, the USDA will earn royalties of about 5% of net sales. " I think

it will be profitable for USDA, " Phelps said. (Royalties? Profits? For a

Department of the US Federal Government? What’s wrong with this picture?)

 

Upper limits on earnings:

 

There’s a ceiling of $150,000 per annum of royalty income that a USDA researcher

is permitted to earn. The way people in the private sector get around it is to

defer part of the income or treat it in some way so that it ends up as part of

the researcher’s pension. Details at:

 

http://www.newscientistjobs.com/site/ns/recnews/article.jsp?id=recruit73

Another way in which the USDA differs from an academic institution is in its

relationship with industry. The USDA is eager to pass technology on to the

private sector, and researchers work closely with companies. But they are not

allowed to create start-ups the way many university professors are now

encouraged to do. Once an idea is ripe for implementation, the USDA casts about

for an industrial partner. Then, typically, the government retains the patent

and the company gets the first licensing rights to the technology. Researchers

cannot invest in these companies, but they do get a 25 per cent share of the

licensing royalties up to a maximum of $150,000 a year.

 

Craig

 

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