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October 2008: Patents on Cows and Tomatoes

Greenpeace - BDM - AbL - Misereor

PRESS RELEASE

(Munich, 23 October 2008). - Farmers' organisations and environmental and development aid organisations have today together been demonstrating against patents on the breeding of animals, plants and food. Several hundred people, accompanied by cows and tractors, marched to the European Patent Office, where a petition signed by 40,000 people was handed over. The demonstration was prompted by a decision the Office is about to make on the breeding of perfectly normal plants and animals, which would set a precedent. The organisers - Misereor, Greenpeace, the No Patents on Life initiative, German Dairy Farmers Federation and Small Farmers Association - are jointly demanding a stop to such patents.

"Monopolies on patents on seeds and farm animals are a danger to the world's food," Misereor's chief executive director, Josef Sayer, says in criticism. "This is not about protecting inventions, it's about the greed of international corporations. The European Patent Office is carrying out a sell-out of creation contrary to the principles of the laws involved."

The Office has already granted dozens of patents to the breeding of normal, non-genetically-modified plants and animals. These include patents on cows with enhanced milk yields, broccoli and tomatoes. "Patents on cows, pigs, lettuce and tomatoes are nothing but theft," says the German Dairy Farmers Federation chairman, Romuald Schaber. "But you can't grant patents on normal breeding that was invented thousands of years ago. Farmers and consumers will have to pay for this development, while minister Seehofer and chancellor Merkel just quietly look on."

According to a report made for the Greenpeace environmental organisation corporations like Monsanto have been systematically registering patents on the entire chain of production from seeds to the processing of harvests, regardless of whether foodstuffs, feed or biomass to produce energy from are to be made. Here breeding processes are claimed in which genetic engineering is used or not used in equal measure. "These applications show what the corporations are concerned about," says Christoph Then on behalf of Greenpeace. "If resources become scarce prices rise, be it tortillas in Mexico or fuel made with corn oil that are needed. This is like stock market speculation on hunger in developing countries and higher prices for consumers in the industrialised countries."

The protest in Munich is one action being taken by a global coalition opposing patents on seeds and farm animals. Over 50 farmers' organisations and over 100 non-governmental organisations have already joined forces in the international No Patents on Seeds coalition, which was founded in 2007.