Communiqué
May/June 2008
Issue # 99
Issue: The world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations
are stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in plants that the
companies will market as crops genetically engineered to withstand environmental
stresses such as drought, heat, cold, floods, saline soils, and more. BASF,
Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dupont and biotech partners have filed 532 patent
documents (a total of 55 patent families) on so-called “climate ready” genes at
patent offices around the world. In the face of climate chaos and a deepening
world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand
themselves as climate saviours. The focus on so-called climate-ready genes is a
golden opportunity to push genetically engineered crops as a silver bullet
solution to climate change. But patented techno-fix seeds will not provide the
adaptation strategies that small farmers need to cope with climate change. These
proprietary technologies will ultimately concentrate corporate power, drive up
costs, inhibit independent research, and further undermine the rights of farmers
to save and exchange seeds.
The Gene Giants are staking sweeping patent claims on genes related to
environmental stresses – not just those in a single engineered plant species –
but also to a substantially similar genetic sequence in virtually all engineered
food crops. Beyond the U.S. and Europe, patent offices in major food producing
countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico and South
Africa are also swamped with patent filings. Monsanto (the world’s largest seed
company) and BASF (the world’s largest chemical firm) have forged a colossal
$1.5 billion partnership to engineer stress tolerance in plants. Together, the
two companies account for 27 of the 55 patent families (49%) of those identified
by ETC Group.
Impact: Farming communities in the global South – those who
have contributed least to global greenhouse emissions – are among the most
threatened by climate chaos created by the world’s richest countries. The South
is already being trampled by the North’s super-size carbon footprint. Will
farming communities now be stampeded by climate change profiteering? The patent
grab on so-called climate-ready traits is sucking up money and resources that
could be spent on affordable, farmer-based strategies for climate change
survival and adaptation. After decades of seed industry mergers and
acquisitions, accompanied by a steady decline in public sector plant breeding,
the top 10 seed companies control 57% of the global seed market. As climate
crisis deepens, there is a danger that governments will require farmers to adopt
prescribed biotech traits that are deemed essential adaptation measures. Will
governments be pressured to give biotech companies carte blanche to use genetic
engineering – and sidestep biosafety rules – as the last resort for tackling
extreme climate?
Policy: Governments meeting at the U.N. Convention on
Biological Diversity in Bonn (May 19-30) and at the joint United Nations-FAO
High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate
Change and Bioenergy (3-5 June 2008) must recommend that governments suspend the
granting of all patents on climate change-related genes and traits. There must
be a full investigation, including the social and environmental impacts of these
new, un-tested varieties. Given the global state of emergency, ETC Group urges
inter-governmental bodies to identify and eliminate policies such as restrictive
seed laws, intellectual property regimes, contracts and trade agreements that
are barriers to farmer plant breeding, seed-saving and exchange. Restrictions on
access to germplasm are the last thing that farmers need in their struggle to
adapt to rapidly changing climatic conditions. Farmer-led strategies for climate
change survival and adaptation must be recognized, strengthened and protected.
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=687
