Monsanto granted patent for chapati-flour grain

[Mudpuppie]

Monsanto, the world's largest genetically modified seed company, has been awarded patents on the wheat used for making chapati - the flat bread staple of northern India.

The patents give the US multinational exclusive ownership over Nap Hal, a strain of wheat whose gene sequence makes it particularly suited to producing crisp breads.

[...]

Campaigners in India say that there are concerns that people might end up paying royalties to Monsanto for making or selling chapatis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1135675,00.html

[chromedome]

Good grief.

Is there a less ethical company than Monsanto anywhere?

[Mudpuppie]

Doesn't it make you lose all faith in everything?

I was kind of surprised this didn't get much discussion. It turns my stomach. (The story, not the lack of discussion. Although that's kind of painful too.)

[mongo_jones]

didn't some texas company also patent basmati rice a couple of years ago? pharmaceutical companies were also trying to take out patents on the medicinal use of turmeric etc. that's the other face of globalism (the one we don't see in the ads) and what happens when commodity fetishism encounters knowledge that constitutes itself differently.

[chromedome]

I've been fuming for years about the Texan company getting their basmati patent...and retaining it, in the teeth of legal challenges from India. Now, as the article says, the Indian government has decided that it simply can't afford to pursue any more of these lawsuits...meaning it's open season. What next? A patent on ghee? How about cardamoms?

It makes me furious every time I see one of Monsanto's TV ads about how they're using GM technology to meet their goal of feeding the world's starving millions.

Rhetorical question. If the starving millions of, say, Africa stop saving their seed from year to year (as has been the case since the dawn of agriculture); and switch to a Monsanto product which produces higher yields but demands that they purchase seed annually...who's benefitting, here?

[Mudpuppie]

No to mention the fact that Monsanto owns rights to the terminator gene technology. Seed-saving may be a moot point if the courts ever let Monsanto use it.

[mongo_jones]

I've been fuming for years about the Texan company getting their basmati patent...and retaining it, in the teeth of legal challenges from India. Now, as the article says, the Indian government has decided that it simply can't afford to pursue any more of these lawsuits...meaning it's open season. What next? A patent on ghee? How about cardamoms?

It makes me furious every time I see one of Monsanto's TV ads about how they're using GM technology to meet their goal of feeding the world's starving millions.

Rhetorical question. If the starving millions of, say, Africa stop saving their seed from year to year (as has been the case since the dawn of agriculture); and switch to a Monsanto product which produces higher yields but demands that they purchase seed annually...who's benefitting, here?

all just a matter of time. how about that wto?

p.s: i'm saving my seed too, but more in order to preserve my precious, bodily fluids.

[mongo_jones]

No to mention the fact that Monsanto owns rights to the terminator gene technology. Seed-saving may be a moot point if the courts ever let Monsanto use it.

the terminator gene? a body-building seed from the future sent back to kill the leader of the slow food movement? then he marries a fringe member of a prominent political family and becomes the governor of california?

now, that's a movie i want to see.

[Mudpuppie]

In case you really don't know what it is, here's some info.

Ok, to be fair, I just found some sources that say that Monsanto has promised never to use the gene commercially.

But do we believe 'em? (There are so many ways around that promise....)

[mongo_jones]

In case you really don't know what it is, here's some info.

Ok, to be fair, I just found some sources that say that Monsanto has promised never to use the gene commercially.

But do we believe 'em? (There are so many ways around that promise....)

i really didn't know what it was, now i do--thanks.

that's some scary stuff. especially that it was developed by the dept. of agriculture. gives biological warfare a whole other meaning. and what does it mean they won't develop it "commercially"? if they aren't going to sell it what are they going to keep playing with it for? causing more disquiet in all this is the fact that monsanto is a perfect bond villain-organization name. they probably have a satellite in space ready to shoot this terminator gene into the seed supply of every potential customer nation.

[Cynthia G]

Ok, to be fair, I just found some sources that say that Monsanto has promised never to use the gene commercially.

But do we believe 'em? (There are so many ways around that promise....)

Oh gosh, yes, Mudpuppie. If Monsanto says they are only working for Good it must be true! They wouldn't....... lie to us, now would they?

(Me, cynical? Perhaps.....)

[Moopheus]

I've been fuming for years about the Texan company getting their basmati patent...and retaining it, in the teeth of legal challenges from India.

There was a partial win in the Texas Basmati case--RiceTec withdrew some of their claims, and the USPTO revised the patent to apply only to three specific strains developed by RiceTec, and not to Basmati generally. Weirdly, RiceTec is owned by Price Hans Adam II of Lichtenstein.

Edited February 7, 2004 by Moopheus (log)

[Moopheus]

This article and this one offer some more detail.

[Mudpuppie]

By the way, judging by the round thing I pulled out of my garden a few months back, I invented potatoes. My patent application is pending. All those bastards who have eating the things for thousands of years owe me big time!

[skchai]

Weirdly, RiceTec is owned by Price Hans Adam II of Lichtenstein.

This was probably the most bizarre food-patent case ever. RiceTec markets its Basmati under the brands Texmati, Jasmati, and Kasmati, so the Thai media and government got involved as well. The respective governments argued that the rices under patent were not in fact Basmatis. Even Uncle Ben somehow found its way into the mess, being force to issue a statement distancing itself from Hans-Adam and voicing its corporate respect for the great rices of India, Pakistan and Thailand after a rumor spread that they had entered into a marketing deal with RiceTec. Perhaps the only recourse now for Hans-Adam, the last semi-absolute monarch in Europe (who gained his fortune by making his country a haven for money-laundering), is to decree that his subjects must now start to eat biryani instead of knöpfli!

[tsquare]

I was kind of surprised this didn't get much discussion.

I waited to open this thread until today. I kind of knew what I what would find and just wasn't sure I wanted to get that upset, again. And to think there was a time I was innocent enough to like Monsanto. They had that cool ride at Disneyland. It's been a long, long, long time...

[docsconz]

The only Monsanto that I like is the Italian winery. http://www.clicquotinc.com/monsanto/. Hmmm, I didn't know they were bought by Cliquot.

This is the Stealth fighter of issues. It is amazing how it manages to fly so well under the radar.

[chromedome]

The whole intellectual property issue is taking some unpleasant turns, with extensions of copyrights being granted wholesale by US courts in particular. It's not far from the point at which any attempt to write prose or music (to pick just two) may lay one open to litigation.

Science fiction writer Spider Robinson wrote a wonderful short story several years ago exploring this, but I can't remember the title. Something about elephants and memory.

[ExtraMSG]

I think this is a lot of mountains out of mole hills.

As noted suspiciously:

A spokesperson for Monsanto in India denied that the company had any plan to exploit the patent, saying that it was in fact pulling out of cereals in some markets.

"This patent was Unilever's. We got it when we bought the company. Really this is all academic as we are exiting from the cereal business in the UK and Europe," said Ranjana Smetacek, Monsanto's public affairs director in India.

Can you imagine the revolt that would ensue if Monsanto started suing bakers in India? Look at the flack the record companies are getting for suing kids who are swapping music files.

It sounds like Greenpeace is way overstating the worries. It's like the claim above that RiceTec had patented basmati rice. As is later noted, no, they've just patented some strains that they've created. No big deal.

These companies are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't invent things that are truly good for society and instead invent things like viagra or bitter blockers, they're attacked for doing something useless. If they invent something truly good like medicines to fight AIDS or foods that can grow in harsh climates, they're attacked for trying to make money from them (even though they generally practically give them away to 3rd world countries).

You guys know that without a profit incentive there's not much invention at all, right?

[mongo_jones]

These companies are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't invent things that are truly good for society and instead invent things like viagra or bitter blockers, they're attacked for doing something useless. If they invent something truly good like medicines to fight AIDS or foods that can grow in harsh climates, they're attacked for trying to make money from them (even though they generally practically give them away to 3rd world countries).

just curious: where does taking out patents on traditional knowledge fall in this continuum?

[Mudpuppie]

These companies are damned if they do and damned if they don't.  If they don't invent things that are truly good for society and instead invent things like viagra or bitter blockers, they're attacked for doing something useless.  If they invent something truly good like medicines to fight AIDS or foods that can grow in harsh climates, they're attacked for trying to make money from them (even though they generally practically give them away to 3rd world countries).

just curious: where does taking out patents on traditional knowledge fall in this continuum?

Good (rhetorical) question, Mongo.

Another thing -- Monsanto isn't really driven by "profit incentive." I mean they are, but they're driven by so much more. Like monopolizing world markets. Maybe MSG is right about the damned-if-you-do thing, but I think Monsanto is the Microsoft of the ag world.

[trillium]

You guys know that without a profit incentive there's not much invention at all, right?

If we're talking about obscenely large sums of cash, one could argue that this is a fairly recent development in the long line of human invention....

regards,

trillium

[ExtraMSG]

But the cost of invention has never been so obscenely huge either. It takes a lot more resources to invent a strain of wheat that emits its own pesticide than it does to cross a Braeburn with a Granny Smith.

I don't want to get too far into the specifics of this particular patent dispute. None of us know the legal particulars well enough. I'm not in favor of patents on things that were developed naturally or culturally or broadly. My understanding is that US and EU laws don't allow patents on these things. If 3rd world countries are allowing patents on them, it's a mistake, imo.

But, I think there's little evidence that this particular issue is a problem. It wasn't even Monsanto that filed for the patent, it was just part of purchasing another company. Plus, apparently their patent is moot in the EU since they've pulled out of the cereal market there. And no one has been harmed by this patent. Has anyone been sued? Has anyone been stopped from selling bread? Finally, isn't this just a specific strain of a cereal that is better for texture than others? They could also go back to using the grain that was used for hundreds or thousands of years, right? Isn't that what most of you who would like to see GM products disappear are after anyway. They could go back to heirloom grains.

[Squeat Mungry]

For a fairly balanced and informative read on these topics ("agri-pirates", patent collecting, corporate agribusiness, GM foods, etc.) I'd recommend Peter Pringle's Food, Inc. He's done quite a bit of research and I'm learning a lot reading this book.

Squeat

[tryska]

so does this mean anytime i buy atta flour, monsanto get's a cut?

i'm all for "better living through chemistry" in certain instances, but this has a certain creep factor to me.