Slashdot Mirror
Biotech Company To Patent Pigs
Anonymous Swine writes "Monsanto, a US based multinational biotech company, is causing a stir by its plan to patent pig-breeding techniques including the claim on animals born by the techniques. 'Agricultural experts are scrambling to assess how these patents might affect the market, while consumer activists warn that if the company is granted pig-related patents, on top of its tight rein on key feed and food crops, its control over agriculture could be unprecedented. "We're afraid that Monsanto and other big companies are getting control of the world's genetic resources," said Christoph Then, a patent expert with Greenpeace in Germany. The patent applications, filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization, are broad in scope, and are expected to take several years and numerous rewrites before approval.'"
"Do only evil."
So far they're on track.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" -- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
The problem with GMO crops, and more importantly, for anti-GMO people, is that they are simply better for the farmer. They can produce more for less work. Even when you take the licensing costs into account, it is more economical overall. Presumably, the anti-GMO people are against this push into new markets because it will do the same for pig farmers as it did for crop farmers. And that'll make it harder for anti-GMO people to continue their "organic" lifestyle.
After all, what could possibly go wrong?
God help you if one of their seeds blows onto your property and one of their pigs eat it.
"Best" is relative here. Having a single company control agricultural output in the way that Monsanto does, free markets or no, is a damned dangerous thing. This is about the core structural support of civilization. Fuck with the food supply, and bad things can happen.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Needs to be stopped, burned and sealed away.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Most of the anti-GMO crowd is pretty simple in their thinking. They'll rave about organic crops that rely heavily on tillage techniques which promote oxidation of soil organic matter, breakdown of soil structure, and other adverse effects, but condemn GMOs like Round-Up Ready crops that enable zero-tillage systems that preserve soil organic matter, moisture, and structure.
... because mono-cultures are SO much better than diversity ...
To the farmer they are, yes, because automating the tending of a crop that is all identical is much easier.
At least until this happens and then we have no more of whatever that crop was.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
The parent has best post I've read about GMO risks. The US focuses on the food risks, but the new risks are the ones to watch out for. Current regulation is about testing for GMO food safety. We have *lots* of regulations in place already about food safety. GMO foods are pretty safe to eat in the short term, I'm pretty certain. But the main risk of GMO foods is not the food safety, but regulations focus mainly on the product of a genetically modified organism, not on it's effects on the ecology.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/8688/regulation_of_gmos_in_europe_and_the_united_states.html
The risk of releasing a "programmed" organism out into the wild, where the genetic material cannot be withdrawn once it gets out, is a new risk, and regulation has just not yet caught up, especially in the US. The long term effect of a GMO on the ecology is not tested much before release... and with a GMO, you can't withdraw the experiment! Once it's out it's out. If a GMO plant kills all the honeybees, for instance, well, what can you do to put the genie back in the bottle? Destroy all the pollen?
All it takes is one company to skimp on testing in the short term and release a GM organism that in some way destroys the food ecology. Then we're toast. At least require some sort of enclosed biodome for testing or something.