Controversial patent

Published : Aug 01, 2003 00:00 IST

THE United States-based multinational corporation Monsanto has been granted a patent (EP 445929) by the European patent office in Munich for "inventing" a wheat variety, Galahad 7, by crossing a traditional Indian variety (Nap Hal) with other plants (such as Galahad) that are naturally occurring and conventionally bred.

Apart from the plant itself, the patent has been given for biscuits, flour and dough produced from the wheat. According to Monsanto, the dough from its new wheat has sufficient inelasticity and will be ideal for making bakery products. But, according to experts, the patent would prevent further breeding of high-quality wheat varieties using the primitive Indian land race.

With this patent, Monsanto can take legal action not only against farmers and scientists trying to breed wheat varieties with similar genetic traits, but also bakeries, confectionaries and supermarkets if they produce or sell products made from the patented wheat.

According to a press release from the international non-governmental organisation Greenpeace, Monsanto's patent amounts to piracy of the Indian variety that has been developed in the country for over centuries. This case illustrates the pitfalls of allowing the patenting of life forms. Not only genetically modified organisms but plants bred using conventional techniques are now being patented. This patent demonstrates the urgent need to look afresh at the patenting of genes, live organisms and seeds. Greenpeace intends to file an objection to this patent.

But Monsanto has stated in its patent application that samples of Nap Hal are freely available from public germplasm collections. "For example, it is available under Accession No 1362 from the AFRC Institute of Plant Science Research, Norwich, U.K., because Nap Hal is a plant race, which is genetically mixed and it is therefore necessary to purify the sample to homogeneity by selection," it said.

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