Bio-piracy
On February 3, 2014, 34 farmers’, breeders’, environmental and
development organizations from 27 European countries filed an opposition
to a patent from Syngenta, the Swiss agrochemical corporation, which
notably is one of the three foreign companies designated to plant their
Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) corn varieties in Vietnam.
Why this broad opposition to a particular patent? On May 8, 2013,
the European Patent Organization (EPO) had granted a patent (EP
2140023B1) to Syngenta for insect resistant pepper (capsicum) plants. In
fact, as it is stated in the press release of the coalition of
organizations that filed the opposition, “a wild pepper plant from
Jamaica was crossed with commercial pepper plants.” The coalition argues
that: “Since the wild plant is resistant to various pests, the patented
resistance already existed in nature. However, Syngenta claims the
ownership to insect-resistant pepper plants, their seeds, and their
fruits, although the patented plants are products of conventional
breeding. Such plants should definitely not be patentable under European
patent law.”
Developing countries (still) maintain a great bio-diversity, and
countries like Jamaica and Vietnam are especially privileged, and have
as such interest to safeguard their bio-diversity. Ethically, it is
highly questionable when multinational corporations make use of
indigenous knowledge and/or local varieties, apply conventional breeding
techniques, and in the end succeed in obtaining the patent for what
they claim to be ‘their invention’. This is what Dr. Vandana Shiva would
call “bio-piracy”.
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