News | August '07 | Take a chemical and a patent
The story of the most widely commercialised GM plants starts and ends with a chemical and a patent.
The chemical is glyphosate, or 'Roundup' as it is known in the trade, and once upon a time it had its very own patent. The patent and, therefore, its chemical belonged to Monsanto. Roundup is an excellent broad-spectrum weedkiller which can wipe out every green thing in a field, but compared with most other effective herbicides is considerably less toxic to animals and less persistent. Monsanto, therefore, had a winner: the sole rights to something which would please farmers and appease environmentalists.
In the 1980s, so the story goes, Monsanto scientists carried out a routine survey of a site around waste-piles at a Roundup factory. They found, not surprisingly, that there were bacteria there which had evolved immunity to the toxin in their environment. The bacteria were surviving because they had a gene whose product neutralised glyphosate.
Faced with the inevitable expiry of the patent on roundup, and, with this a very lucrative proportion of its business, Monsanto found the perfect next-step. Coupled to the budding technology of genetic engineering, its glyphosate could continue to be a moneyspinner. The Company worked out a way to copy the gene and alter it so that it would hitch itself into a plant's genome, produce the magic substance, and make the plant able to neutralise any Roundup sprayed on it.
As the patent on Roundup came to an end, it was replaced by patents on 'Roundup Ready' GM seeds which could be sold with a contract tying them strictly to the chemical Monsanto was already set up to supply in vast quantities.
A little, routine, pressure on the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to minimise regulatory obstacles was followed by the systematic acquisition of seed companies either by takeover or by the provision of licenses to use the gene. The end result is that Monsanto has cornered a world market in Roundup Ready food crops of every kind and, even, grass and trees.
The chemical is the same but the patent is now attached to something infinitely variable: LIFE.
OUR COMMENT
Don't miss the lesson of this story. Even if the present GM crops were thoroughly tested for safety and proved harmless, you will only be safe until the patents run out. As this time approaches, they will be replaced by a new set of patented GM crops each with its own new set of unpredictable and possibly harmful qualities. And the level of safety-testing may well reduce with time, under pressure from the biotech industry who don't want to know about unexpected side-effects, nor, to foot the bill.
At the heart of this problem lies the patents on life: your food and health will be in danger until these are outlawed. Check out the Council for Responsible Genetics petition (below) at:
http://www.gene-watch.org/programs/patents/petition.html
The plants, animals and microorganisms comprising life on earth are part of the natural world into which we are all born. The conversion of these species, their molecules, or parts into corporate property through patent monopolies is counter to the interests of the peoples of this country and of the world. No individual, institution, or corporation should be able to claim ownership over species or varieties of living organisms. Nor should they be able to hold patents on organs, cells, genes or proteins, whether naturally occurring, genetically altered or otherwise modified.
As part of a world movement to protect our common living heritage, we call upon the Congress of the United States to enact legislation to exclude living organisms and their component parts from the patent system.
SOURCE: Tucson Weekly 21.05.07