GMW: Monsanto's new invention: the pig!

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GMW: Monsanto's new invention: the pig!

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 3 Aug 2005 18:34:56 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Monsanto files patent for new invention: the pig

 

As the article below explains, Monsanto has filed several patents on

breeding herds of pigs!

 

This is only the latest attempt by Monsanto to monopolize a food

source. Where patents have been granted to Monsanto, the corporation has

sought to aggressively police their " rights " .

 

TELL MONSANTO TO STOP PATENTING LIFE

Let Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant (no relation to the actor who plays a

sleazy corporate executive in Bridget Jones' Diary) and the board of

Monsanto know you don't want them patenting your food.

http://www.greenpeace.org/no-pig-patent

 

Click below to send a link to a delightful pig image + this message as

an E-card to your friends and associates: " The Earth is flat, pigs were

invented by Monsanto, and genetically modified organisms are safe.

Right. "

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/photosvideos/photos/the-earth-is-flat-pi\

gs-were-i

 

Click below to send a link to an image of Monsanto's President + this

message as an E-card: " MONSANTO: NO FOOD SHALL BE GROWN THAT WE DON'T

OWN "

http://act.greenpeace.org/ecs/s2?i=1835 & sk=std & la=en

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Monsanto files patent for new invention: the pig

 

Greenpeace researcher uncovers chilling patent plans

 

Brian Thomas Fitzgerald

 

02 August 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.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/suicide-seeds

 

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.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto-wins-right-to-pollute

 

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. "

 

Good breeding always shows

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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