GMW: Syngenta - a step closer to owning our food

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GMW: Syngenta - a step closer to " owning " our food

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 13:03:01 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Syngenta patenting is threat to Indian food security

2.Syngenta – a step closer to " owning " our food

 

COMMENT

 

Last week as researchers from the International Rice Genome Sequencing

Project (IRGSP) completed a sequence of the rice genome - the first

crop plant to be sequenced, it emerged that GM giant Syngenta is claiming

it invented more than 30,000 gene sequences of rice!

 

Syngenta has filed 15 global patent applications to give the company

control over them. And because gene sequences are very similar in many

crops, Syngenta's claims would cover genes with the same structure in

other plants. (item 2)

 

It has also emerged that Syngenta's interest in the controversial

project of genetically engineered 'Golden Rice' is primarily lead by

commercial considerations and the interests of its shareholders,

despite the

company's repeated claims that this is purely a humanitarian project.

(item 2)

 

Don't say you weren't warned. In Feb 2004, Devinder Sharma, chair of

the New Delhi-based Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security, warned about

Syngenta's design to 'own' rice in his analytical piece: " Rice is now

Oryza syngenta "

http://indiatogether.org/2004/feb/dsh-riceyear.htm

 

RESOUCE: Syngenta: patent applications pending in Europe, US, Canada,

Australia

http://www.swissaid.ch/news/e/documents/Syngenta-PatenteRechercheenglish.pdf

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1.AgriBusiness: Syngenta patenting is threat to Indian food security

The Hindu Business Line

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/07131106.htm

 

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to have monopoly control over rice, Swiss

biotech giant, Syngenta has sought global patents over nearly 30,000 gene

sequences in rice, which has serious implications for the future of rice

research and food security of India.

 

If Syngenta's application for global patents is accepted, India will

lose all control over the staple grain. " It will be the beginning of a

scientific apartheid not only against India but for all third world

countries, " said Dr Devinder Sharma, Chairpers on of the New Delhi-based

Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security.

 

India is one of the seats of origin of rice, which is world's most

important staple crop. A single grain of rice contains 37, 544 genes,

roughly one-fourth more than the genes in a human body.

 

Syngenta's patent claims are also aimed at other important food crops

such as wheat, corn, sorghum, rye, banana, soyabean, fruits and

vegetables besides others.

 

The company claims that most of the gene sequences that it has

'invented' are identical in other crops and therefore the patent needs to

extend to those crops also. In all, Syngenta has filed for patents on 15

gene sequences covering thousands of genes, peptides, transgenic plants

and seeds and method of genetic engineering, Dr Sharma said.

 

These patents have been filed before the European Patent Office, US

Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Rights

Organisation (WIPO). Syngenta made this known to a few NGOs on August 9,

saying that the scope of many of these pat ents will be reduced as the

examination of patents proceeds.

 

Staple food for more than half the world's population, rice is part of

the Asian culture. Nearly 91 per cent of world's rice is produced in

Asia, and 92 per cent is eaten in Asia. Rice is the principal food of

three of the world's four most populous nati ons: China, India and

Indonesia. For more than 2.5 billion people in these three countries

alone -

rice is what they grow up with. For centuries, rice has been the

sociology, tradition and lifeline for the majority world.

 

" As the world finished commemorating the international year of rice in

2004, the multinational agribusiness giant, Syngenta, has already

claimed ownership of rice.

 

" In other words, biological inheritance of the world's major food crop

is now in the hands of a Swiss multinational, " Mr Sharma said, adding

that Syngenta, in collaboration with Myriad Genetics Inc of USA, has

beaten Monsanto in the game by sequencing mo re than 99.5 per cent of the

rice genome. - UNI

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2.Syngenta – a step closer to " owning " our food

 

Media Release, 11. August 2005

http://www.swissaid.ch/news/e/documents/pm_reisgenom_110805_e.pdf

 

Zurich, 11 August 2005 - Biotech company Syngenta has taken a huge step

closer to " owning "

seeds in the future, by filing 15 global patent applications on several

thousand gene sequences

from rice and other highly important crop plants (1). This would mean,

in practice, that the

company would be able to determine price, access, research and re-use

of seeds in the future. On

a meeting with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) this week (2),

Syngenta refused to drop its

so-called 'megagenomic' patents.

 

" With these patents Syngenta is claiming the work of breeders and

farmers from the past centuries

as the company's own invention. The attempt to monopolise thousands of

gene sequences from

most important crop plants in one rush is nothing less than a theft of

common goods, " says Tina

Goethe from Swissaid. " Not to the mention the fact that these patents

could block future research

to a large extent. "

 

According to Syngenta patent experts, the company will claim all gene

sequences that could be of commercial interest, thus trying really to

get most of the 15 patent applications granted. By

claiming the genetic information of rice, the company aims to

monopolise also all similar gene

sequences in any other useful plants, enabling Syngenta and other

companies to determine prices

and access to all kinds of seeds (3). The company is also trying to

patent the use of the plants in

food and animal feed. The only commitment Syngenta was able to give in

the meeting was not to follow this kind of patents in least developed

countries

 

" These patents must never be granted. If the company follows its

claims, they should expect public protests and legal actions against it.

Politicians should initiate a legal framework to stop companies such as

Syngenta, Monsanto, DuPont and Bayer to gain control on genetic

resources, "

says Francois Meienberg from Berne Declaration.

 

The meeting with Syngenta also revealed that the interest of the

company in the controversial

project of genetically engineered 'Golden Rice' was primarily lead by

commercial reasons. As the

company engaged with the project Syngenta presented Golden Rice as the

most effective solution to malnutrition in developing countries as it

is enhanced with Vitamin A-related substances.

In his e-mail sent to NGOs before the meeting, Adrian Dubock, head of

Biotechnology ventures in

Syngenta, states: " Syngenta's original commercial interest

(discontinued for now, but not

necessarily for ever) was for sales in the industrialised countries of

nutritionally enhanced crops, included, but not limited to rice. "

According to Dubock, the patent on the GE rice will not be

dropped because " Our shareholders wouldn't thank us if we had forgone

that possibility. " Yet the

company claims there are no commercial interests in this technology at

the moment.

 

" This statement clearly shows a commercial background of this so-called

humanitarian project. It

didn't mean to help people in developing countries: the primary goal

was to benefit shareholders.

The whole project is based on a concept of misleading the public, "

concluded Greenpeace

International campaigner Christoph Then.

 

Contacts:

 

Christoph Then, Greenpeace International, Tel + 49 171 8780832

www.greenpeace.org

 

François Meienberg, Berne Declaration, +41 1 277 70 04, www.evb.ch

 

Tina Goethe, Swissaid, +41-31-350 5375; www.swissaid.ch

 

Ruth Tippe " No Patents On Life! " , +49 1728963858, www.keinpatent.de

 

Notes:

(1) As the German NGO " No Patents On Life! " shows in its recent

research. According to

Syngenta, some patent applications will be dropped for technical or

economical reasons but

they will try to have most of them granted in at least the United

States and Europe.

 

(2) Participating NGOs: Berne Declaration (Switzerland), Swissaid

(Switzerland), the German

NGO " No Patents on Life " and Greenpeace. The meeting was organised

after the NGOs

had made public already four of the 15 patent applications during the

AGM of Syngenta in

April 2005. (add link to our report and IPR from April on our homepage)

 

(3) Gene sequences in many crops are very similar. With these patents

Syngenta claims for

any genes with the same structure in any plants.

More about the patents on

www.evb.ch/index.cfm?folder_id=129

http://www.swissaid.ch/news/e/news.htm

 

 

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