ETC Group Opposes "Climate Ready" Gene Patent "Grab"

    By Donald Zuhn --

Last week, both The Washington Post and Nature News reported on the efforts of biotech companies to secure patents directed to gene-altered crops that are designed to withstand the effects of global warming.  The impetus behind both articles was a 30-page report entitled "Patenting the 'Climate Genes' . . . and Capturing the Climate Agenda," which was released by the Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC) Group, an activist organization based in Ottawa, Ontario, on May 13th.  (Patent Docs readers are no doubt familiar with the ETC Group, as we have reported on a few of the Group's other initiatives; see links below.)

According to the ETC Group, biotech and agrochemical companies such as BASF, Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, and Dupon have been "stockpiling hundreds of monopoly patents on genes in plants," and that the companies intend to market genetically engineered crops containing such genes (i.e., "climate ready" plants) as being able to withstand environmental stresses such as drought, heat, cold, floods, and saline soils.  The ETC Group contends that the above companies have thus far filed 532 patent applications worldwide (in 55 patent families) on such genes, and warns that "[i]n the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviours."  The Group argues, however, that "patented techno-fix seeds will not provide the adaptation strategies that small farmers need to cope with climate change," and that the so-called "Gene Giants" are merely engaging in "climate change profiteering."

To prevent such "profiteering," the ETC Group is pushing for a worldwide suspension of patent grants for climate-related genes and traits.  The Group hopes that such action might be taken at either the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity on May 19-30 or the United Nations-FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy on June 3-5, and that following the implementation of such a suspension, world governments would initiate an investigation into the social and environmental impact of patents directed to climate ready genes and plants.  The ETC Group is also urging "inter-governmental bodies to identify and eliminate policies such as restrictive seed laws, intellectual property regimes, contracts and trade agreements that are barriers to farmer plant breeding, seed-saving and exchange."

Not surprisingly, the companies accused by the ETC Group of engaging in "climate change profiteering" see their role in a much different light.  According to The Washington Post article, the biotech companies seeking gene patents contend that climate ready plants will be critical to solving the problem of world hunger and that absent patent protection, such plants will not be developed.  In addition, a spokesperson for Monsanto noted in the Post report that Monsanto and BASF were participating in a project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to develop drought-resistant corn that would be made available to African farmers royalty-free.

One of the ETC Group's criticisms regarding the 532 filed applications is that these applications contain claims that are far too broad, encompassing numerous plants and a litany of environmental stresses.  However, because the vast majority of these applications have yet to issue as patents, the actual claim scope that the applicants will be able to secure remains unclear.  ETC Group executive director Pat Mooney concedes this point in the Nature News article, admitting that "the companies are casting the net as wide as they possibly can, and then they will sort it out afterwards."

Dr. Alan Bennett (at left), a plant geneticist at the University of California, Davis and the head of the the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA), a non-profit initiative supporting agricultural innovation for both humanitarian and small-scale commercial purposes, put the debate between the ETC Group and the agricultural-biotech industry  into some perspective in the Nature News report.  Calling the introduction of the global warming angle nothing more than a public relations stunt, Dr. Bennett observed that the agricultural-biotech industry was merely engaging in business as usual; namely, focusing on the search for hardy crops that survive in harsher environments (i.e., poor soils, less water, fewer fertilizers), and the genes responsible for conferring such traits.

For additional information regarding other related topics, please see:

• "Playing the Bioterror Card in the Synthetic Biology Debate," December 19, 2007
• "The Synthetic Biology Sky is Not Falling," December 16, 2007
• "Patent Life (Really)," June 11, 2007

Comments

[Brian Lynch]

Perhaps I missed it, but in scanning through the report I couldn't help but notice that the authors conveniently forgot to mention that patents typically expire 20 years from filing. The ETC's predictions of climate change are set to occur long after these patents become public domain:

**Farmers in dryland areas of sub-Saharan
Africa will experience revenue losses of 25%
per acre by 2060.

**Latin America and Africa and will see a
10% decline in maize productivity by 2055.

[Kevin E. Noonan]

Dear Brian:

It isn't there because it doesn't fit the agenda, and because "patents are bad" is the only rationale behind ETC. If they understood inconvenient truths like term limits, it would make the "problem" a lot less immediate, and reduce the impact of what they are trying to do. For parallels, look at the Coalition for Patent Fairness, who may be worse because they do understand patents.

Thanks for the comment.

[Dan Feigelson]

The "patents are bad" crew just won't quit. Apparently they would prefer that Monsanto, BASF et al. not do the research, so that the genes won't be identified and, more importantly, ways to put them to use in practical applications won't be developed until much later - like after a crisis is really upon us. Thanks for posting this.