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Patent granted on biscuits, dough and wheat (Thursday, June 26, 2003 -- CropChoice news) --From a news release.
Hamburg/Berlin, 23 June 2003 - Research by Greenpeace has revealed
that biscuits and dough produced from a specific variety of wheat, as
well as the plants themselves, are now patented. The patent granted
to
the Monsanto company in May (EP 445929) covers wheat used "to permit
the manufacture of crisp farinaceous edible products such as biscuits
and the like". To produce its "invention", Monsanto crossed a
traditional Indian variety of wheat with other plants, which are
conventionally bred, not genetically modified. Monsanto simply uses
the genes which already exist naturally in the plants.
"This case illustrates the scale already reached in the patenting of
life. Not only genetically modified organisms but plants and animals
bred using conventional techniques are now being patented if their
genes are found to be of economic interest", warns Christoph Then, a
patent expert. "Monsanto is targeting and stealing from Indian
farmers
who have cultured this specific variety of wheat for centuries. This
patent demonstrates the urgent need for a general legal ban on the
patenting of genes, live organisms and seeds."
By owning this kind of patent, in the future, Monsanto could
potentially take legal action not only against farmers but also
against bakeries, confectioners and supermarkets if they produce or
sell biscuits or cakes made from patented wheat. Over the coming
weeks, Greenpeace will prepare to file an objection to the patent.
The
European Patent Office in Munich grants patents on genes and live
organisms in line with a European directive which was adopted in
1998,
and which has proved highly controversial throughout the EU.
'Monsanto are engaged in the theft of a global commons and patent
lawyers are only too happy to take a big fat cut of the big fat
financial cake that Monsanto are stealing in return for conferring
some appearance of legality to this theft. Sharp lawyers can call it
what they like but we see it clearly as theft of public property and
it must be stopped.' said Greenpeace spokesperson (Mr) Lindsay
Keenan.
He continued, 'Monsanto are a company with an absolutely disgraceful
record of causing environmental and human health damage from its past
products including PCBs and other chemicals. It is still responsible
for damages in legal actions about many such matters. However instead
of accepting liability and cleaning up the damage it has already
caused here it comes again with its razor sharp lawyers exploiting
every legal loophole and badly written law to push unwanted GE seeds,
to sue farmers and now trying to steal the rights to existing plants
and even to the flours and biscuits made from them.'
The European Patent Office grants patents on gene sequences and life
forms based on European Patent Directive 98/44, which is under heavy
discussion in the EU. A European wide representative opinion poll
which was done for Greenpeace, shows how broad the opposition against
patents on life actually is: Only 3% of the 4559 people asked were of
the opinion that patents on life should be granted any further (full
details available).
*Information for editors:
*Dr. Christoph Then , Greenpeace Patent Expert : + 49 171-8780 832 | |
