[imc-st.louis] Monsanto To Patent Pigs

[Ben West]

Crop King Monsanto Seeks Pig-Breeding Patent Clout
By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Monsanto Company, already a world powerhouse
in biotech crops, is shaking up the swine industry with plans to
patent pig-breeding techniques and lay claim to the animals born as a
result.

Agricultural experts are scrambling to assess how these patents might
affect the market, while consumer activists warn that if the company
is granted pig-related patents, on top of its tight rein on key feed
and food crops, its control over agriculture could be unprecedented.

"We're afraid that Monsanto and other big companies are getting
control of the world's genetic resources," said Christoph Then, a
patent expert with Greenpeace in Germany.

The patent applications, filed with the World Intellectual Property
Organization, are broad in scope, and are expected to take several
years and numerous rewrites before approval.

"We applied for a patent ... for some specific reproductive processes
in swine," said Monsanto spokesman Chris Horner. "Any pigs that would
be produced using this reproductive technique would be covered by
these patents."

...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0810-04.htm

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Ben West
westbywest at gmail.com