Monsanto loses claims for Roundup Ready genes

Source: Memphis Commercial Appeal

For the second time in five months, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected patents key to Monsanto's dominance in bioengineered seed, casting suspicion on its science and weakening the argument that helped the company prevail in dozens of lawsuits against farmers.

Tuesday, the Public Patent Foundation said that the U.S. patent office sided with it in its case against Monsanto, saying at least four patents should not have been granted because the gene technology was either not new or so obvious it wouldn't require patenting.

...

Monsanto dismissed the findings, saying rejection is a standard part of any patent re-examination process and that it plans to ask for a reconsideration.

"Our commercial products are covered by multiple patents that are not the subject of this re-examination," said Lee Quarles, spokesman. "This poses no threat to our business or our ability to deliver innovative technologies to farmers."

Opponents disagree, saying Monsanto has profited handsomely because the patents allow it to charge inflated prices for seed. They also say Monsanto has used its dominance to bully farmers into submission through a series of high-profile lawsuits that made examples of people who saved the patented seed for replanting.

Read more: http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/business/article/0,1426,MCA_440_5643245,00.html

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Yay. For now, at least.

and then claim all seeds everywhere belong to monsanto.

monsanto is doing this all over the world.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

Give that man a cigar, as Groucho would say.

Nice to see their evil ways thwarted.

I had a root around and found this :

The world's most widely grown genetically engineered crop contains some
unexpected DNA next to its inserted gene, casting some doubts on the
biotechnology industry's assertions that its technology is precise and
predictable.

The mysterious DNA was found in the Monsanto Company's Roundup Ready
soybeans by Belgian government and university scientists, who described
their findings in a paper published yesterday in the journal European Food
Research and Technology. Greenpeace called yesterday for countries to
re-evaluate the regulatory approvals of the soybeans, saying that Monsanto
did not know as much as it should about its product. The unknown DNA could
possibly affect the safety of the beans, the group said.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/mysterydna081601.cfm

and this :

Synopsis: In my lifetime, hand weeding of crops has been replaced by chemical herbicides, one of which is Roundup (Glyphosate) manufactured by the Monsanto corporation. Monsanto developed a Roundup Resistant (RR) gene which it has already incorporated into many different crops, and is apparently planning to introduce in wheat in 2003. Incorporating the same gene into different food crops makes a major part of the world's food supply vulnerable to a SINGLE disease. The historical precedent for this fear was the introduction of a single gene into 85% of the US corn crop. In 1970 a disease epidemic attacked all corn plants containing that specific pleiotropic gene. The epidemic panicked the US stock market and threatened the existence of a 1971 crop. WHEN the disease specific to the RR gene appears, world starvation is likely. At the present time, use of Roundup in the Drug War in Columbia directly threatens the lives of the indigenous population. For water quality and human health, the risk from Roundup may lie in impurities it contains.
http://www.unsafescience.com/starv.html

Don't sound too healthy to me.
x(

DNA itself isn't the problem. We eat tons of foreign DNA all the time. We eat cows and pigs, which are separated from us by about 50 million years. We eat chickens, which are separated from us by about 250 million years. We eat clams and squid, which is separated by about half a billion years. The animal/plant split was about 100 million years before that. Since nobody eats themselves and very few eat human, *all* of the food you eat is genetically quite different from you. Eating "bad DNA" isn't going to contaminate you.

You can eat bullfrogs. You can't eat (wild) poison arrow frogs. It's not the genetic difference that will kill you. It's the neurotoxin that the poison arrow frog stores in its body. Yes, these are effects of genes, but ultimately, it's the expression of the gene that's important. And just the fact that there is "unknown DNA" in an organism isn't all that alarming either. Genes aren't all active and aren't' all activated in the same way. Consider male and female humans. Genetically, the difference is an entire arm of one single chromosome. There is a condition known as Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, where a person does not react to androgens (male hormones like testosterone). Genetic males with this condition look female. Most don't even know they are genetically male until they hit puberty and don't get a period. They have short cervices and no uterus, but are otherwise perfectly normal females.

The bottom line is that if the food is safe chemically, it's essentially safe. The unknown DNA isn't going to suddenly turn the corn crops into shambling, flesh-eating corn monsters. I'd be far more worried about crop diversity and Monsanto's predatory business practices than I would about "Frankenfood".

it's the effect on other plant life.

thorn in their side ... which is a good thing.

The Round-Up Ready Soybeans really freak me out, because soy is in everything these days. I recall reading about how exposure to Round up has been linked to genetic issues. So if people everywhere are eating food containing this soy...

Edited for clarity

I wrote a couple of chain restaurants recently to find out about the ingredients of the entrees I've ordered ... this came from Chili's Restaurant:


June 6, 2007

Thank you for your inquiry and for your interest in Chili's.

... we understand your concern regarding the sources and origins of ingredients
for the entrée. Please rest assured that we purchase products in accordance with good
manufacturing practices and our suppliers/products also undergo a third party inspection
to ensure quality. The salmon for this entrée is from Chile and it is farm-raised.

Additionally, we do request information on GMO's from our suppliers for tracking
purposes, however we do not have a policy in place that prohibits the use of GMO's
within our food items. Therefore, we are unable to provide any specific GMO
information for Chili's menu items at this time. Also, Chili's prepares their fried food
menu items in soybean oil and almost all soybean production in the United States is
GMO-derived.

We again thank you for your interest in Chili's.

Sincerely,

Chili's
Guest Relations

almost all soybean production in the US is GMO-derived ... as if the 'third party inspection' (whoever that is) and 'good manufacturing practices' (whatever they are) wasn't bad enough to hear