Patented foods or the privatization of lettuce

2024-04-25 11:08:04

Can a conventional food, a creation of the naturesuch as a lettuce?

In the European Union the laws on patents of plant and animal varieties and conventional reproduction methods are very clear: They are forbidden. You cannot patent, privatize life, nature.

But the truth is that in the last decade an increasing number of patents have been granted on conventionally obtained plants, such as broccoli, tomatoes, melon, spinach, lettuce, corn, wheat and barley. Friends of Bio Eco Actual what there are thousands of European plant patents.

And they give the example of the lettuce, which is one of the plant species affected by many patent applications on conventional reproduction. The PINTO database (Patent Information and Transparency Online) of Euroseedsfor example, lists seven patents on lettuce, affecting 236 varieties!

Specifically, the patent EP2966992 on lettuce of traditional cultivation that resists hot climate conditions and was granted to the Dutch company Rich Swan in 2018. The “invention” lies in the fact that its seeds are capable of germinating at temperatures above 22 degrees.

This is a trait also known from wild lettuce species and is important in the context of climate crisis actual.

Well, according to the text of the patent, the seeds of that lettuce, the plants and all their offspring that show the desired traits are covered by the aforementioned legal protection.

Of course, only that company can produce that lettuce, and that could block access to the biological diversity needed to grow other lettuce. improved varieties (what has been done all our lives naturally thanks to collective knowledge).

Plant or animal patents can only be granted if a trait is inserted directly into the genome by genetic engineering.

This gives rise to what is popularly known as transgenic foods which are those that have been genetically modified in a laboratory to improve their characteristics.

In other words, the genes of a plant or animal are manipulated to produce desired characteristics, such as greater disease resistancegreater productivity, or better flavor… and they are in supermarkets even though it is difficult to distinguish them.

However, many food companies want patents granted on plants and animals, even if they are not obtained through genetic engineering. Also granted to plants that inherit random genetic changes (mutations).

The entire spectrum of biological diversity must remain available for future conventional breeding, which is also done in the Ecological cultivation. While the patents on plants and animals are not completely prohibitedshould be strictly limited to genetic engineering methods.

In the end, if we continue like this in the near future we will depend more and more on a handful of seed companies for the adaptation to climate change and our future food safety. And only the most profitable vegetables will be grown.

Of course, all this does not affect the field of agriculture and livestock. certified as ecologicalwhere there are no patented foods nor are transgenic foods sold.

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