| | 06/March/23
| | Plant breeders' associations and seed companies claim to oppose patents on new GMOs – but there's a catch The German Plant Breeders' Association, BDP, has moved to officially oppose patents on certain new GMOs that, it argues, could occur naturally. The BDP says, "The patentability of biological material, which also occurs or could arise in nature, must not be possible, regardless of how it is produced." The BDP also wants to allow seed breeders to be able to use patented material for breeding purposes: "The possibility of using patented material for breeding purposes, as provided for, for example, in German and French patent law, must be introduced throughout Europe." The Dutch and Austrian plant breeders' associations take similar positions to the BDP. The BDP includes among its members major GMO patent owners such as Corteva, Bayer, BASF, Syngenta, Limagrain, and KWS. So what's going on? Why would companies whose business model depends on patenting GMOs claim to oppose patents on certain new GMOs? GMWatch explains what we know and what's still to find out. GMWatch Stop Designer Babies protests irresponsible summit plans to legalise human genetic modification The anti-eugenics activist group, Stop Designer Babies (SDB), protested today outside the ‘International Summit’ on human genetic modification (HGM) at the Francis Crick Institute in London. SDB and its international partners are pledged to defend international Human Rights treaties and legislation in 70 countries banning HGM, which were created because of the ongoing experience of eugenics. Today, SDB released research that demonstrates the links between the venue, the summit chair and the Eugenics Society, links which are doubly disturbing given that HGM was always a holy grail of eugenicists. The research, published today on SDB’s website, details the eugenic views of Francis Crick, after whom the Summit venue is named, which should have prevented the Medical Research Council from naming the Institute after him. What is equally disturbing is that the summit chair, Robin Lovell-Badge, who made himself central to scientists’ efforts to legalise HGM, gave the Eugenics Society Galton Lecture in 2017. GMWatch How Big Agribusiness ghostwrote the EU Commission's proposal on new GMOs As Europe’s environment ministers prepare to discuss the upcoming legislation on the deregulation of the new generation of genetically modified organisms (new GMOs, so-called "new genomic techniques" or NGTs), a new investigation by Friends of the Earth Europe reveals the extent of the European Commission’s proposal’s capture by the seed industry. An analysis of the European Commission’s consultation for the public and governments, a central step of the new legislation, shows that it closely follows agribusiness’s deregulation agenda and especially borrows claims made by Euroseeds, the European seed companies’ lobby group. GMWatch We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible by readers’ donations. Please support our work with a one-off or regular donation. Thank you! __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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