Ban on Monsanto genetically modified alfalfa upheld (roundup resistant)

[Shallah Kali]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070503/sc_nm/food_monsanto_dc

Citing the potential for genetic contamination, a U.S. judge on Thursday let stand a precedent-setting ban on the planting of a genetically modified alfalfa crop variety developed by Monsanto Co.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in a published order said his initial injunction against planting more of Monsanto's herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready alfalfa should stay in place until government studies on its environmental effects are concluded.

The ban is nationwide. An estimated 220,000 acres of Roundup Ready alfalfa have been planted.

"It's a turning point hopefully in the way biotech crops are regulated," said Will Rostov, a lawyer with The Center for Food Safety, a consumer advocacy group that sued the U.S.
Department of Agriculture over its oversight of the genetically engineered alfalfa.

[NotGivingUp]

1. That's good news. I hate Monsanto. nt

[fed-up]

2. and Monsanto's soy patent in Europe was REVOKED yesterday-link below-happy dance here-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=817462

Jcrowley (1000+ posts) Thu May-03-07 06:02 PM
Original message
Monsanto Patent Revoked In Europe!!!!!!!!!

This is a very big victory.
No patents on life!!!

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: May 3, 2007 3:35 PM
Subject: CONGRATS TO ETC, GREENPEACE, and Others - Monsanto Patent revoked in Europe!!!!!!!!!
To: [e-mail]


European Patent Office revokes Monsanto´s species patent on genetically
engineered soy beans

Munich, May 3, 2007. In a public hearing at the board of appeal at the
European Patent Office a basic patent (EP 0301749) of US company
Monsanto was revoked today. Reasons were that parts of the patent were
not really new and others details were not described in a way that the
invention could be really repeated by other experts.

The final decision was the outcome of appeals which were filed by
Canadian civil society organisation ETC Group and the European Company
of Syngenta. Further oppositions were filed orginally by the NGO "No
Patents on Life!" and four other companies when the patent was granted
in 1994. Even Monsanto filed an opposition, but then bought the company
Agracetus which originally owned the patent, withdrew its opposition
and started to defend the patent.

According to Hope Shand of ETC Group, „The decision comes pretty late,
13 years after the patent was granted. But the decision to revoke the
patent is wonderful news. The species wide soybean patent of Monsanto
is not allowed to stand."

In its orginal version as granted the patent covered all genetically
engineered plant species and especially soybeans and was seen as one of
the broadest species patent ever granted on plants and seeds. The
background of the so called invention was a >particle gun< method by
which plants get bombarded by metallic particles and so introducing
foreign genes into plant material. A similar version of the particle
gun (which does not allow a precise transfer of gene sequences) is
still being used today to produce not only in Monsanto´s plants.

Ruth Tippe from the organisation „No Patents on Life!" says: "This is
an important step against patents on seeds, because it shows that civil
society will keep on fighting and can finally succeed even against
powerful multinationals."

The outcome of the procedure will not only affect Monsanto but also the
European Patent Office: "It is now shown that the Patent Office is
granting patents which are covering broad sectors of agricultural
diversity without really invention behind. There are many others
patents which simply satisfy the greed of companies but do not give
benefits to society," says Christoph Then from Greenpeace.