31/03/2011

60 plaintiffs, representing over 270,000 farmers and food group members, have sued agribusiness and chemical giant Monsanto, challenging the legality of the company’s patents for genetically modified seeds.

The groups who brought the lawsuit declared that the legal action is a pre-emptive effort to protect themselves against patent- infringement claims from Monsanto should biotech seeds, which the company claims are its intellectual property, contaminate the farmers’ crops. The action was filed Tuesday (29^th March) by the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a New York.-based non-profit legal organization, who is representing the 60 plaintiffs; mainly seed growers, farmers and food groups from the US and Canada. The lawsuit challenges the validity of 23 patents held by Monsanto.

The organisations behind the lawsuit argue that the 23 Monsanto patents are invalid as they are in fact variations of expired patents. The group also said the patents are invalid on the grounds that they do not perform a “useful” function, a prerequisite for patenting, because Monsanto’s seeds are “injurious to the well-being, good policy or sound morals of society.” PUBPAT submitted evidence as part of its opening filing which suggests that genetically modified seed has negative economic and health effects. It suggests that the benefits of genetically modified organisms touted by seed companies, increased production and decreased herbicide use, are fabrications.

Dan Ravicher, executive director of PUBPAT, commented on the legal action, “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

The plaintiffs used the plight of organic canola (oilseed rape) to illustrate the threat to their livelihoods; organic canola is extremely difficult to grow in Canada after contamination from modified varieties has rendered traditional crops virtually extinct. The farmers said they fear that sugar beet, soybeans, cotton and maize will suffer the same fate.

Monsanto says claimants are “wasting their time”

Trish Jordan, a spokesperson for Monsanto Canada, fiercely denied the accusations against the company. Speaking to Canadian Daily The Leader Post, Jordan said, "I would suggest that they [the plaintiffs] save their money because Monsanto has never sued any grower anywhere. We have publicly committed that we would never sue a grower for an inadvertent presence of any of our [GM] traits that happened to have ended up at some low level in their field. It's never happened and it never will happen.''

Monsanto, the largest seed company in the world, called the case “a publicity stunt” in a press release and denied claims that its lawyers target farmers for “the inadvertent presence of biotechnology traits in their fields.” However, an aggressive use of patents by Monsanto has been reported in the past, notably during the legal case of Monsanto Inc v. Schmeiser, which was the subject of the 1999 film David Vs Monsanto.

Peter Schmeiser, a Canadian canola grower, became an international symbol for individual farmers’ rights after a lengthy legal struggle against Monsanto over patent infringement after his fields were contaminated with Roundup Ready Canola in 1998.

Monsanto claimed its seeds are of benefit to the public and questioned the plaintiffs’ motives, citing the challenge to food security in the face of a rising world population as a reason to support genetic modification of seeds. However, writing in The Atlantic, Anna Lappé, author of ‘Diet for a Hot Planet’, revealed that, “Despite promises about wonder crops that would end Vitamin A deficiency or withstand drought, nearly all commercially available genetically modified foods are just one of two types, designed either to withstand a specific pesticide or to include a built-in pesticide... Three countries--the United States, Brazil, and Argentina--grow 77 percent of all genetically modified crops, nearly all destined for livestock, not the world's hungry.

Monsanto is also involved in an unrelated legal struggle with chemical giant DuPont Co. The company has accused Monsanto of attempts to monopolize the market for engineered seeds; the U.S. Justice Department is currently investigating alleged uncompetitive practices in the seed industry.