Option
The two biotech companies Corteva and Bayer have accumulated hundreds of patent applications on plants in recent years. Corteva has filed 1.430 patents — more than any other corporation — on plants that use new methods Genetic Engineering were used. A joint international research by GLOBAL 2000, Friends of the Earth Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), ARCHE NOAH, IG Saatgut - interest group for GMO-free seed work and Vienna Chamber of Labor examines this flood of patents against the background of the currently discussed deregulation of EU genetic engineering law with imminent Exceptions for New Genetic Engineering (NGT). "The growing number of patent applications to increase the profits of these NGT methods reveals the double play of the corporations," say the authors of the report published today. "Chemical and seed companies want simplified access to the EU market for their NGT plants and NGT seeds and thus gain even greater control over farmers, plant breeding and our food system."
Corteva and Bayer control patent business in agriculture
Biotech companies such as Corteva and Bayer praise new genetic engineering processes as 'natural' processes that cannot be detected and should therefore be exempt from European Union safety controls and labeling regulations for genetically modified foods. At the same time, they are preparing further NGT patent applications to secure their technical innovations and thereby widen loopholes in patent law.
Agricultural biotechnology licensing is a lucrative, growing business. Corteva (formerly Dow, DuPont and Pioneer) and Bayer (owner of Monsanto) already control 40 percent of the global industrial seed market. Corteva has filed around 1.430 patents on NGT plants worldwide, Bayer/Monsanto 119. Both companies have also concluded far-reaching license agreements with the research institutes that developed the technologies. Corteva not only dominates the patent landscape for NGT plants, but is also the first company with an NGT plant in the EU approval process. With this patented More, which is resistant to a specific herbicide, the NGT method CRISPR/Cas was used in the process in addition to old genetic engineering.
Patent on Plants and Properties
Patents can be applied for in the EU for products and/or processes. Biotech corporations, for example, apply for patents that allow them to claim the respective genetic engineering processes and the specific genetic characteristics developed by these processes. For example, Corteva holds patent EP 2893023 for a method of altering the genome of a cell (also using NGT application) and claims intellectual property rights to all cells, seeds and plants containing the same “invention”, be it in broccoli, corn, soybean, rice, wheat, cotton, barley or sunflower (“product-by-process claims”). With genetic engineering, it is almost impossible to know exactly what has been patented, as applications are often deliberately broad in order to obtain broader 'protection'. Seed companies are deliberately blurring the differences between conventional breeding, random mutagenesis and old and new genetic engineering. Since information about what is contained in the patents is scarcely available, it is difficult to find out which plants or traits are patented. Breeders, farmers or producers face considerable legal uncertainty about what they can do with the plants they work with every day, what royalties would have to be paid for and what could possibly lead to a lawsuit. Monsanto, now merged with Bayer, brought 1997 patent infringement lawsuits against farmers in the United States between 2011 and 144.
Demands for diverse, climate-friendly agriculture
Concentration in the seed market driven by patents will lead to less diversity. However, the climate crisis is forcing us to switch to climate-resilient cultivation systems, which require not less, but more diversity. Patents give global corporations control over crops and seeds, limit access to genetic diversity and threaten food security.
“More and more patents on plants are an abuse of patent rights and jeopardize access to basic resources in agriculture and food production. We demand that loopholes in European patent law in the field of biotechnology and plant breeding be closed as a matter of urgency and that clear regulations be made that exclude conventional breeding from patentability Katherine Dolan from NOAH'S ARK. Plant breeders need access to genetic material to develop climate-friendly crops. The peasant right to seeds must be ensured.
“New genetic engineering in agriculture must continue to be regulated in accordance with the precautionary principle. NGT crops need to be properly regulated, with a Labeling and security controls to protect human health and the environment to ensure transparency and traceability throughout the supply chain for consumers and farmers." Brigitte Reisenberger, GLOBAL 2000 genetic engineering spokeswoman.
Photo / Video: GLOBAL 2000 / Christopher Glanzl.
