TWN Info Service on Biosafety
9 January 2023
Third World Network
www.twn.my
Dear Friends and Colleagues
How biotech giants use patents and new GMOs to control the future of food
A recent report reveals how global biotech companies seek to increase their control over the future of farming by extensively patenting plants and developing a new generation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Such patents would restrict farmers’ access to seeds and impede breeders from developing plants needed for a sustainable future.
While patent rights for many of the biotech techniques are held by university research departments or researchers, the patent rights for their applications in plants are primarily held by the two biotech giants which together already control 40% of the global seed market: Corteva has applied for some 1430 patents on new GMOs, while Bayer/Monsanto has applications for 119 patents. Over time, this could mean that they could control which crops farmers are able to grow.
In some cases, the corporations are blurring the distinction between GMOs and conventional breeding techniques by patenting traits that can occur both naturally or as a result of genetic engineering – claiming all plants with those traits as their “invention”. Yet the same corporations argue that new GMOs should be excluded from the European Union’s GM legislation, because, they claim, they are the same as natural plants.
The reports calls for decision makers to safeguard food crops from being patented. It also demands that all GMOs, old and new, be properly regulated with premarket authorisation, labelling and safety checks to protect human health and the environment.
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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Item 1
HOW BIOTECH GIANTS USE PATENTS & NEW GMOS TO CONTROL FUTURE OF FOOD
Press Release by Friends of the Earth
https://friendsoftheearth.eu/press-release/how-biotech-giants-use-patents-new-gmos-to-control-future-of-food/
20 October 2022
Big global biotech corporations like Bayer and Corteva, which together already control 40% of the global seed market, are dangerously trying to reinforce their monopoly and threatening food security. A group of seed saving, environmental and consumer organisations reveals how these companies seek to increase their control over the future of farming by extensively patenting plants and developing a new generation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) [1].
Global biotech leaders Bayer and Corteva (formerly Pioneer Dupont) move to patent plant genetic information that can occur both naturally or as a result of genetic modification – claiming all plants with those genetic traits as their “invention”. Such patents on plants, which have been controversial for decades [2], would restrict farmers’ access to seeds and impede breeders from developing urgently needed plants adaptable to extreme weather conditions, as both would have to ask for consent and pay fees to the biotech companies.
Corteva has applied for some 1430 patents on new GMOs, while Bayer/Monsanto has applications for 119 patents. By claiming exclusive rights on their “inventions”, they directly contradict their lobbying claims that new GMOs are as safe as natural plants and that therefore the EU should exclude them from the safety checks and labelling requirements provided by the current GMO legislation.
Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said:
“The big biotech’s strategy is to apply for wide patents that would also cover plants which naturally present the same genetic characteristics as the GMOs they engineered. They will be lining their pockets from farmers and plant breeders, who in turn will have a restricted access to what they can grow and work with. The EU patenting legislation needs to be reinforced so that real innovation can happen in the interest of sustainable food production, not corporate gain.”
For instance, Corteva holds a patent for a process modifying the genome of a cell using the CRISPR technique [3] and claims the intellectual property rights to any cells, seeds and plants that include the same genetic information, whether in broccoli, maize, soy, rice, wheat, cotton, barley or sunflower.
The organisations publishing the briefing call for decision makers to safeguard food crops from being patented and stop the current abuse of the European patenting regulations. They also demand that all GMOs, old and new, be properly regulated with premarket authorisation, labelling and safety checks to protect human health and the environment.
Read the media briefing (3 pages):
https://friendsoftheearth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/G2_BIOTECH_GIANTS_EXPOSED_MEDIA_BRIEFING.pdf
Read the full report (9 pages):
https://friendsoftheearth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/G2_BIOTECH_GIANTS_EXPOSED.pdf
Notes
[1] The publishers of the report are Friends of the Earth Europe, Global 2000 / Friends of the Earth Austria, Arche Noah, Corporate Europe Observatory, IG Saatgut and Arbeitkammer Wien.
[2] Patents on plants have been controversial for decades and criticised on the basis that nature cannot be invented. Patents were designed to protect product innovations and provide intellectual property rights for new inventions, but patents on life differ from patents on machines as the licensing restrictions can also extend to the next generations, with one patent potentially covering hundreds of plant types. The extent of the monopoly rights granted by patents is in theory determined by the law, but in effect it is also influenced by the claims made by applicants in their patent application.
[3] CRISPR-Cas is the most widely used genome-editing tool in plant breeding, mainly in the research and development phase. The plans of the EU Commission to deregulate certain new GMO techniques include plants modified with CRISPR-Cas.
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Item 2
EXPOSED – HOW BIOTECH GIANTS USE PATENTS AND NEW GMOS TO CONTROL THE FUTURE OF FOOD
By GLOBAL 2000 – Friends of the Earth Austria, Friends of the Earth Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Arche Noah, IG Saatgut – Interessengemeinschaft für gentechnikfreie Saatgutarbeit and Arbeiterkammer Wien
https://friendsoftheearth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/G2_BIOTECH_GIANTS_EXPOSED_MEDIA_BRIEFING.pdf
October 2022
SUMMARY
The use of patents for new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) such as CRISPR/Cas has resulted in a small group of corporations controlling key aspects of the food system, with the biotech giant, Corteva Agriscience in pole position. Patents pose a threat to farmers and food producers, with patent applications already affecting dozens of plant varieties, giving corporations control over crops and seeds, limiting access to genetic diversity and threatening future food security.
In some cases, the big biotech corporations are blurring the distinction between GMOs and conventional breeding techniques by patenting traits that can occur both naturally or as a result of genetic engineering – claiming all plants with those traits as their “invention”. Yet the same corporations argue that new GMOs should be excluded from the European Union’s safety checks and labelling requirements for genetically modified food because, they claim, they are the same as natural plants.
This briefing warns that the patent rules are being abused and the consequences of exempting new GMOs from GM regulations could be dire for climate resilience and the future of our food.
INTRODUCING PATENTS ON NATURE
Almost 4000 European patents were granted for plant-related processes and products between 1999 and 2020. Patents control how the resulting plant varieties can be used, restricting the rights to the process used to create them, or the rights to specific traits in the product. While a single plant or animal variety cannot be patented under European rules, patents can be sought for an invention that can be applied to more than one variety, or for a specific genetic sequence or trait. Patents have also been granted for traits that occur naturally or result from conventional plant breeding techniques. Such traits should not be patentable according to the laws, but have been granted because of loopholes in the legislation (Directive 98/44).
Patents related to plants and animals have always been contentious, raising ethical questions about the appropriation of nature, as well as critical questions about food sovereignty, farmers rights and access to seeds. Patents were designed to protect product innovations and provide intellectual property rights for new inventions. But patents on life differ from patents on machines as the licensing restrictions can also extend to the next generations, with one patent potentially covering hundreds of plant varieties or other living organisms.
Patents on plants were introduced in Europe following extensive lobbying by biotech and pharmaceutical corporations to allow patents on biotechnological inventions. As a result, most of the European applications for patents on plants since the 1990s have been for techniques and applications related to genetic modification. Most of these patents are held by the giant biotech corporations, Corteva Agriscience (formerly Dow, Dupont and Pioneer) and Bayer (owner of Monsanto).
The dominance of these corporations, and the gradual accumulation of patent applications which already cover dozens of plant varieties, flags critical concerns about who owns our food. Patents increase the corporate control of seeds and restrict the rights of farmers, who could be forced to pay royalties or be sued for using crops grown from protected seeds (as has already happened in the United States). They also threaten to hinder innovation in plant technology – with access to the patented new techniques potentially blocked, or limited to those who have paid for a licence, where these are available. This restricted access would limit the diversity available, restricting opportunities to develop climate resilient crops, and would damage the viability of Europe’s plant breeding industry, which is largely made-up of small and medium sized companies.
At the same time, these companies are lobbying to deregulate these patented new GMOs in the European Union, arguing that they mimic processes found in nature. The European Commission is preparing to exclude new GMOs from labelling and safety checks arguing they are as safe as conventional plants. Yet the patent applications made by these corporations argue that these processes are innovative techniques. With the Commission now on the path to develop a proposal for deregulation, biotech companies are gearing up to make new applications for patents, with far reaching consequences.
1. Corporate control
While patent rights for many of the biotech techniques are held by university research departments or researchers, the patent rights for their applications in plants are primarily held by the two biotech giants, Corteva and Bayer. Despite claims that the CRISPR/Cas GM technology is available for all to use, Corteva and Bayer have licensing agreements which limit who can use the technology and how.
As a result, securing these licences is highly competitive, with companies able to potentially control key areas of crop development. Over time, this could mean that Corteva and Bayer could control which crops farmers are able to grow.
Licensing in the agricultural biotech sector is already big business, with the technology and trait licensing segment worth 193 million USD in 2020. Globally, Corteva has applied for some 1430 patents on new GMOs, while Bayer/Monsanto have applications for 119. Both corporations also have licence agreements with the institutes that developed the technologies, which hold the majority of the patents. Many agrifood sectors are now so “top heavy” they are controlled by just four to six dominant firms, enabling these companies to wield enormous influence over markets, agricultural research and policy-development. Corteva and Bayer control 40% of the global seed market.
2. Restricting farmers
Patents on seeds are a problem for farmers as they restrict what the farmer can grow, leading to more costly royalty fees than are currently paid for plant breeders rights. They also block the right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed or propagating material, recognised by the UN Declaration of Peasant Rights and People Living in Rural Areas. This threat to farmers is recognised by farming lobby group Copa-Cogeca, who officially opposes patents on crops.
Farmers may also face the risk of legal action for patent infringement, as seen in the United States where Monsanto, now merged with Bayer, filed 144 patent-infringement lawsuits against farmers between 1997 and 2010 for alleged failure to pay royalties on patented GM seeds. Farmers can be liable for patent infringements even where their crops have been accidentally contaminated with the patented genetic material. Given that some of these traits can also occur naturally or as a result of conventional breeding, farmers may not even be aware that the seeds they are using have a patented genetic trait.
3. Impacts on the food system
The use of patents to restrict and control which seeds are grown could have profound impacts on our food system, not only limiting the diversity of plants and seeds available, but also how the resulting crops are used for food. Patent rights often extend to the harvested product and the food processed, affecting bakers, brewers and other food manufacturers. Indeed, Carlsberg and Heineken have patented the barley used in the production of their beer, with the patent covering the plants, the harvest, the process for brewing, malt and wort and all drinks produced with the patented barley, restricting the rights of other companies to use them.
The increasing monopolisation of food production, controlled largely by giant corporations, is likely to result in increased costs for farmers, less variety and diversity in the plants available, leading to impacts on diets globally. Combined with the vulnerability of food systems to climate impacts, energy supply and other supply chain issues, the growth of patents will pose a threat to future food security and might increase food prices.
4. Hindering the transition to sustainable food systems
Plant breeding is essentially a succession of crossing and selection between plants of interest, with plant breeders working from existing varieties to refine characteristics. For example, some breeding techniques include exposing the plant to “challenges” such us UV light, to create new or adapted traits.
Biotech companies are taking out patents that cover genetic techniques, and the specific genetic traits developed through those processes. These traits are then protected by the patent in future generations – and cannot be used without a licence. This control over genetic material has far-reaching consequences for the future of our food.