A European campaign organisation has called on the European Union to end the granting of patents to companies using conventional biological breeding methods. The organisation has called for an end to the patenting of living organisms under EU law, as it claims the process is driving agriculture in an unsustainable direction, to the detriment of farmers, consumers, animals and plants.

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No Patents on Seeds, an international coalition of groups, today published its report on patents to coincide with the European Patent Office’s planned review of its current practice. The group said current protections against patenting biological practices and the resultant organisms are so broad as to be ineffectual.

The coalition warned in its report that the number of patents on living organisms, many bred by conventional means, has increased rapidly in the last few years. It said patents are being filed for seeds and breeding material, processes for breeding, and on plants and animals created using these means.

No Patents on Seeds voiced concerns that the EU food chain risks monopolisation, wherein genetic material will be controlled by a few transnational companies. Similar situations involving patented genetically modified seeds have caused problems in the United States, where agribusiness giant Monsanto owns 72 per cent of corn and 94 per cent of soy seeds used by farmers.   

In 2011, an attempted ban on GM sugar beet and the ensuing legal dispute were further complicated when it emerged that, as 95 per cent of the US beet crop was GM, and therefore the property of agribusinesses, not enough conventional seed remained to plant an adequate amount of the crop, which supplies half of the United States’ sugar.

The coalition warned of the threats posed by major agrochemical players buying up seed companies and creating monopolies on breeds or varieties, as with world seed market leader Monsanto’s hold on the corn and soy market.

Concerns with EPO practice

In its report European Patent Office at Crossroads, No Patents on Seeds expresses fears that the EPO patent system is working counter to its intended purpose. It warns of the consequences of continuing to pass patents on organisms, including seeds, especially those using conventional breeding methods.

These include the stagnation of improvements through breeding. In the face of climate change and a growing population, world leaders have accepted that more food must be created using less land and resources. However, the fluid process of improvement will not be able to continue if certain breeds or aspects of breeding are the property of one company, who will guard them jealously or else charge for their use.

There are also fears that a monopoly on a certain product could lead to price rises and a narrowing of choice. The report’s authors said, “In times when nearly a billion people are starving, it is simply immoral to artificially increase prices of foods through patent monopolies. Companies such as Monsanto will be attempted to turn food resources into financial ventures, if patents on plants and animals are granted.”

The report looks at examples of patents that were granted despite a decision of the highest court of the EPO in 2010, suggesting  industry and examiners at the EPO are systematically using legal loopholes to grant patents on seeds, plants and even harvest and food products derived thereof.

Research by the coalition has revealed there are already around 1000 patent applications pending that are connected to the conventional breeding of plants. Around 100 new applications were filed in 2011 and more than a dozen patents were granted in this field. Another dozen patents were granted in connection with farm animal breeding claiming breeding material, sex selection, marker assisted selection, cloning or genetic engineering.

Christoph Then, one of the No Patents on Seeds coordinators, said, “These patents are blocking access to biological diversity, hampering innovation, reducing choice for farmers and introducing new dependencies for food producers and consumers. It is now time for institutions like the European Parliament and European Commission to gain legal leadership to stop the selling out the resources needed for daily living. They have to put the emergency brakes on now”.

Calls for change

Article 4 of the EU patent directive 98/44 is the main section relevant to patenting biological material and techniques. The coalition is calling for new paragraphs to be added to this article and other relevant sections that would exclude plants, animals, breeding processes and materials and their derivative products from eligibility for patenting.

They have been supported in this by German farming body, DBV, European farming union Copa-Cogeca and Spanish Farming Association COAG, which stated, “While Directive 98/44 formally prohibits patents on plant varieties, the Directive in fact extends the patent protection over a gene to any biological complex in which a gene (or a technique) expresses a role. What is needed is a clear legal prohibition on the patenting of all life and especially on plants and farm animals, in the reproduction processes, biological materials and foods derived.”

There is evidence that agriculturalists and some politicians are becoming aware of the growing threat to the sustainability of world food and farming. Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference in January, on the subject of ‘Who Holds the Power in Global Agriculture’, Australian Nuffield scholar and organic dairy farmer Terry Hehir called on farmers to organise collectively to stand up to transnational corporations and avoid becoming, as one tomato farmer had described himself, “Specialist irrigators, who strictly observe the planting and growing regime prescribed by the company.”  

Food policy expert and former hill farmer Tim Lang has also called on the government to adopt a food policy, which focuses on meaningful change towards sustainability and not on “naïve competition.” He decried the present agricultural-industrial complex and urged the coalition government to make good on its promise of a green economy and sustainable supply chain; “We need a food policy; you can’t just sit back and leave it to Tesco et al. The retailers and the food supply chain that they are gatekeepers for are locked into a totally unsustainable vision for food. We have to think long-term; what would a decarbonised, water reduced, socially just food system look like?”

Furthermore, National parliaments in Germany and the Netherlands have already adopted positions against further monopolisation of the seed market and opposed the patenting of conventional breeding techniques and products. Even food companies, including food giant Mars have publicly opposed such patenting.

According to the No Patents on Seeds coalition, there is a reasonable expectation that the European Commission and parliament will make further moves to exclude the “essentially biological” breeding of plants and animals, following the patent directive of 1998.

The European Patent Office at Crossroads report can be read here.

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