Global appeal against patents on conventional seeds and farm animals

TITLE: Global appeal against patents on conventional seeds and farm animals
AUTHORS: Greenpeace, Swissaid, Misereor, Berne Declaration and No Patents on Life! PUBLICATION: Press release, sign-on statement and new website DATE: 26 March 2007 URL: http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org

Press statement of 26 March 2007

GLOBAL APPEAL AGAINST PATENTS ON SEEDS AND FARM ANIMALS

Farmers' organisations and NGO's mobilise against the European Patent Office in Munich, Germany

Munich, 26.3.2007 -- A new international coalition of farmers' unions, development and environmental NGOs today is calling for a global prohibition of patents on seeds and farm animals. Farmers increasingly become dependent on multinational corporations, which own patents on seeds and animals. The European Patent Office (EPO) has already granted hundreds of patents on genetically modified and as well as conventional, normal plants. Now the EPO is preparing a general approval of patents on conventional breeding methods and normal plants and animals. In Munich, the seat of the EPO, Misereor, Swissaid, the Declaration of Berne, No Patents on Life! and Greenpeace as well as the farmers' unions from Italy (Coldiretti), Argentina (Federación Agraria Argentina) and India (Bharat Krishak Samaj) today launch the GLOBAL APPEAL and a joint website http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org against this fundamental decision by the EPO.

"Our animals and our seeds are the result of hundreds of years of breeding efforts by our farmers, and must not be patented," says Krishan Bir Chaudhary, Executive Chairman of the largest Indian farmers' organisation BKS -- Bharat Krishak Samaj, today in Munich. "The multinational companies expropriate farmers and want to bring everything, from the field to the consumer, under their own control."

The upcoming fundamental decission is a ruling by the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO which will decide on the validity of a patent on broccoli (EP 1069819 B1). The approval of this patent would mean that in future a mere genetic description of a plant or animal would be sufficient to receive a patent covering the plant or animal as well as methods for their production. The breeding of those plants and animals as well as their agricultural use could also be controlled by the patent holder. The decision of the EPO can be expected for this year. Would patents on conventional breeding methods of plants and animals be generally allowed, then legal challenges of individual patents would become ineffective.

"Validating the patent on the broccoli would mean a total and final sellout of living nature" says Christoph Then from Greenpeace. "Patent law is becoming an octopus crabbing the basis for our food production, plants and animals, to bring them under the control of a few multinational companies."

Next Wednesday representatives of the coalition will attend a public hearing of an appeal procedure at the EPO, concerning a patent on conventional sunflower seeds. On Thursday the alliance will also call upon an EU patent conference organised by the German Council Presidency in Berlin ( http://www.bmj.bund.de/patkon ) to protect European agriculture from further encroachments by patents.

Further farmers' organisations from Spain, Switzerland, Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico and Brazil have already joined the Global Appeal.

Further information: Dr. Christoph Then (Greenpeace), Tel. +49-171-8780832; Tina Goethe (Swissaid), Tel. +41-76-5165957; Mute Schimpf (Misereor), Tel. +49-172-1704891 and http://www.greenpeace.de , http://www.keinpatent.de , http://www.misereor.de , http://www.swissaid.ch and http://www.ebv.ch

THE GLOBAL APPEAL
A Global Appeal against patents on conventional seeds and farm animals

A joint Open Letter addressed to

Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office,
Government Representatives,
The Executive Boards of Agrobusiness Companies

Keep out patents on conventional seeds and animals

For several years, patents on genetically modified seeds and animals have been granted worldwide. The damaging impacts on farmers, who are deprived of their rights to save their seeds, and on breeders who can no longer use the patented seeds freely for further breeding, are well known.

In Canada and the US, for example, the multinational seed company Monsanto has sued many farmers for alleged patent infringements. The same company has also filed court cases against importers of Argentinean soy to Europe. Furthermore, the possibility of patenting seeds has fostered a highly concentrated market structure with only 10 multinational companies controlling about half of the international seed market. Many farmers organisations and NGOs around the world are fighting against these patents. Because genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are still not grown in most countries, or only used in a small number of crops, the negative impacts of these patents are not being felt everywhere.

However, there is an alarming new trend for patents not only to be claimed on GMOs (such as Roundup Ready soybeans), but also on conventional plants. For example, patent claims have been made for soy beans with a better oil quality covering parts of the plant genome when used in conventional breeding and technologies to improve conventional breeding (such as marker assisted breeding).

Some of the most threatening examples in this context are patent applications from Syngenta which claim huge parts of the rice genome and its use in breeding of any food crops that have similar genomic information to rice (such as maize and wheat).

The European Patent Office has also granted a patent on aphid resistant composite plants which are based on marker assisted breeding. Other recent patent applications by Monsanto on pigs are also related to normal breeding methods, indicating the increasing danger of agricultural genetic resources becoming monopolised by a few multinationals on a global scale.

Soon the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office will decide on another patent of this kind -- for a method of increasing a specific compound in Brassica species.

This decision will determine the patentability of conventional seeds in Europe.

Whereas patents on conventional plant varieties are normal practice in the US, many other countries, especially developing countries, do not grant patents on plants or animals. But as the recent history shows, the standards defined and used at the European, Japanese and US patent offices influence international regulations (the WTO agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, WIPO). Patent offices all over the world are pushed to adapt their regulations and practices either through the international regulations or by bilateral agreements. India, for example, has just passed a third patent amendment in order to adapt its law to the TRIPS regulations.

This frightening new trend in patent policy will affect many more farmers and breeders, than has been the case with GMO patents. Any remaining farmers rights and breeders' access to plant varieties and animal breeds for breeding purposes, will disappear everywhere. These patents will destroy a system of farmers' rights and breeders' privileges that has been shown to be crucial for the survival of farmers and breeders, for food sovereignty, and for the preservation of biodiversity in agriculture. The vast majority of farmers in developing countries are small-scale farmers, completely reliant on saving and exchanging their seeds.

In order to secure the continued existence of independent farming, breeding and livestock keeping and hence the food security of future generations, we, the undersigned farmers, researchers, breeders and civil society organisations from all over the world, restate our rejection of any patents on life, and urge policy makers and patent offices to act swiftly to stop any patents being granted on conventionally bred plants and animals and on gene sequences for use with conventional breeding technique, as well as on methods for the conventional breeding of plants and animals. We also urge companies not to apply for any patents of this kind.

If your organisation wants to sign this Global Appeal, click here: http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php?option=com_con tent&task=view&id=56&Itemid=39

Further information and background materials are available at the campaign website: http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org