Monsanto looks to patent pigs

[nosmokes]

Why do we allow this corporation to exist? They are corrupt in every damn thing they do.
--###--

original-infoshop

Monsanto looks to patent pigs

Tuesday, August 28 2007 @ 10:25 AM PDT
Contributed by: Anonymous

Biotech
In what critics call a dangerous power grab, the Monsanto Company is seeking wide-ranging control over swine reproduction methods in the form of patents which, if granted, would give the corporation economic rights over any offspring produced using those techniques.Documents obtained by Christoph Then, a Germany-based researcher for Greenpeace, show Monsanto's attempts to secure broad intellectual property protection for swine herds.


In what critics call a dangerous power grab, the Monsanto Company is seeking wide-ranging control over swine reproduction methods in the form of patents which, if granted, would give the corporation economic rights over any offspring produced using those techniques.Documents obtained by Christoph Then, a Germany-based researcher for Greenpeace, show Monsanto's attempts to secure broad intellectual property protection for swine herds.

Monsanto spokesperson Chris Horner said that the company merely wants protection for its selective breeding processes, including the means to identify specific genes in pigs and use of a specialized insemination device.

"We're not talking about individual pigs," he said. "We're talking about the process itself."

But the actual wording of the patent applications appears to rebut this claim.

Besides production methods, Monsanto' applications seek to claim rights to "pig offspring produced by a method ...," a "pig herd having an increased frequency of a specific... gene...," a "pig population produced by the method...," and a "swine herd produced by a method..." respectively. If accepted, these patents would appear to grant Monsanto intellectual property rights to particular farm animals and particular herds of livestock.

"Broader and broader patent claims seem to be a trend," said Charles Margulis, spokesperson for the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group specializing in food policy, "and this is another move forward in that trend."Many say this trend is disturbing as corporations move to exert power and ownership over the fundamental human need for food.

Monsanto is seeking to patent a package of protocols, including a device and several procedures aimed at increasing the effectiveness of artificial insemination.

But Then, who has been studying patents for a decade, said that there is really nothing new to the breeding processes of which Monsanto is seeking to claim exclusive ownership; rather, the patents attempt to privatize farming techniques already in existence for centuries.

"There's no invention in this," he said. "It's just normal pig breeding."
~snip~
.
.
.
complete article here

[kirby]

1. But Republicans are prior art n/t

[ozone_man]

4. lol!

One skilled in the art would surely know that. And Monsanto is skilled in that art.

[msongs]

2. should be ILLEGAL to patent living organisms - hey congress, stand up! nt

[TomInTib]

3. They are also working on a Universal Poultry Model.

The pig thing is a done deal, it just hasn't been "officially" announced.

I know people who are working on both projects.

[sleipnir]

6. How do people with any conscience work on a project like this?

But I answer my own question by quickly invoking Goodwin's Law and say "people loved to work for the Nazis as well."

In my book, Monsanto employees are only a step down from the scientists that worked to perfect the 3rd Reich's "Final Solution."

[TomInTib]

11. They are working with a major university in Texas.

It was originally presented as a "research project".

[lonestarnot]

7. What do you mean a done deal? How are they going to patent

nature? Even if it is artificial use of nature?

[TomInTib]

13. They are going to ram it thru.

It would have already transpired if the Bush Train hadn't jumped the track.

The Poultry Model was the driver behind the "bird flu" farce.

Remember, lonestarnot, it is never "the story" that counts. It is always "the story behind the story".

Layers upon layers of them.

[Ilsa]

8. I had a friend who used to work for Monsanto. She became a vegan

after looking at their shit. Hated them, too, for the way they do business. Fuckers.

[lonestarnot]

5. Damn I hate them!

Porking pigs now are they, and wanting the pig they porked unpoked unless they get the benefit of that too. Seeds, pigs, chickens, beef... wanting and getting are two different things in my world. I hope the same is true for their vile world.

[angrycarpenter]

9. ridiculous

that would be like if the guy who invented the claw hammer wants A percentage of my pay as well as some of the nails I pull with it.

[soothsayer]

10. death to monsatan!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. They're patenting a device and method for aritifical insemination.

Not pigs.

:shrug:

[Solon]

14. And the offspring of the pigs if they have the right genetic markers...

forgot about that part, didn't you?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. You're right, I forgot that part.

That's the part that makes them worse than Hitler.

[Solon]

16. No, that's the part that isn't an invention...

My problem has to do with that plus the "process of selective breeding" that they want to patent. As far as I can tell, in this article, they didn't create any new genes to insert into the pig that then is reproduced, but discovered some genes that are already present, and using a specific method of selective breeding to propagate those genes. The problem with that is that anyone who raises swine would, by chance alone, most likely will produce swine with those same genetic markers. In fact, they probably already have, especially if it leads to desirable traits in the pigs.

So not only could this be considered prior art, like the wheel, but even more than that, it could be considered a discovery, rather than an invention, and discoveries, as far as I'm aware of, can't be patented. Lightening, after all, can't be patented, but a method of producing it in a bottle can.