today.reuters.com...
Crop king Monsanto seeks pig-breeding patent clout
Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:05 AM ET
Printer Friendly | Email Article | Reprints | RSS

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Monsanto Co. (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research), already a world powerhouse in biotech crops, is shaking up the swine industry with plans to patent pig-breeding techniques and lay claim to the animals born as a result.

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.

"We applied for a patent ... for some specific reproductive processes in swine," said Monsanto spokesman Chris Horner. "Any pigs that would be produced using this reproductive technique would be covered by these patents."

www.missourinet.com...
Study Finds Monsanto Weed Killer Dangerous to Critters
by Brent Martin

A new study indicates that St. Louis-based Monsanto's best-selling weed killer is doing more than killing weeds. A University of Pittsburgh ecologist says his experiments indicate Roundup is much deadlier to amphibians than previously thought. In those experiments, Roundup killed nearly all the tadpoles in simulated shallow ponds. In a separate dry experiment, Roundup killed nearly 80-percent of the young frogs and toads after one day. Monsanto points out its directions advise that Roundup shouldn't be used near bodies of water. Scientists, though, note that many amphibians live in shallow puddles and they worry that wetlands within fields and forests are accidently being sprayed.

www.mercurynews.com...
Herbicide-resistant weed becoming a pest in California
JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press

PARLIER, Calif. - Horseweed was once merely a nuisance to farmers - hard to pull out, quick to sprout back after cutting, and capable of towering over tractors.

Now, it's becoming a full-blown nightmare worthy of an agricultural horror flick: scientists in California have found clusters of the weed that are resistant to scores of herbicides, leaving farmers to fight an increasingly formidable and costly foe.

Pete Christensen said he watched his costs soar as the most popular herbicide became increasingly powerless to stop the weeds from choking the grapes on his 75-acre vineyard near Selma.

About five years ago he started noticing that Roundup wasn't withering the weed as usual. Three years later, he had tripled the concentration of the herbicide, and had doubled the applications, but the weeds were growing thicker than ever, rising over his vines and competing with them for water, nutrients and sunshine.

High court rejects effort by Monsanto

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


JACKSON - The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that the Monsanto Co. cannot subpoena documents from three out-of-state companies to bolster its fight with cotton seed marketer Delta and Pine Land Co. over a failed merger.

In 1998, St. Louis-based Monsanto agreed to buy D&PL for $1.9 billion but later called off the proposed merger and was acquired by Pharmacia & Upjohn. Monsanto has said it backed out of the deal with D&PL because of what it called the Justice Department's unwillingness to approve the transaction "on commercially reasonable terms."

Scott, Miss.-based D&PL sued Monsanto in 2000, claiming Monsanto didn't make a reasonable effort to get antitrust clearance. D&PL is seeking millions of dollars in damages.

www.foodnavigator.com...GM legal loophole exposed

08/08/2005 - GM crops could be grown in the UK without farmers having to notify the authorities, according to a British newspaper.

The Guardian claims that it has discovered a legal loophole that allows individuals to legally grow their own GM maize.
Farmers can apply to biotech companies for a sample pack of GM maize, provided they send back the test results and do not breach patents by selling the seed to a third party.

In effect, this would allow Monsanto maize to be grown in the UK without the need to notify the department of environment, food and rural affairs (Defra).

There remains a great deal of public opposition to genetically modified foods in Europe, a fact that has made food ingredients companies highly concerned about any possible contamination.

www.greenpeace.org...
'It's official. Monsanto Corporation is out to own the world's food supply, the dangers of genetic engineering and reduced biodiversity notwithstanding, as they pig-headedly set about hog-tying farmers with their monopoly plans.

www.truthabouttrade.org...
BZL growers reject Monsanto deal
Sao Paulo - Soy seed producers in southern Brazil rejected Monsanto's proposal to charge an 0.88 real per kilo royalty for its genetically modified seeds, in the first season that GMO soy sales will be legal in the country.

Earlier this month, Monsanto struck a deal with Brazil's national Association of Seed Producers (Abrasem) on royalty payments for using its GMO Roundup Ready soy seeds. "Monsanto's proposal is unrealistic. It promotes illegal behavior by the producers and hurts legitimate seed producers," said Narciso Barison Neto, the president of the Seed Producers Association of Rio Grande do Sul State (Apassul).

Rio Grande do Sul seed producers voted on Wednesday to reject Monsanto's GMO soy royalty.

A new law that Congress approved in March legalized for the first time the sale of Monsanto's Roundup Ready GMO soy seeds, although local growers, particularly in the south, have long ignored the ban and bought them on the black market.

Over almost a decade, illegal GMO soy planting in Rio Grande do Sul has grown to account for more than 90 percent of total soy production in Brazil's No.3 soy state.

Monsanto has struck a deal with cooperatives to extract a 2 percent royalty on RR soy at the point of sale by the producer for this year's harvest which finished in May.

Until this year GMO seed sales were illegal and it was impossible to charge the royalty on the front end.

A chemical that South American frogs excrete from their skin could protect potatoes and other crops from a range of diseases, according to biotechnologists in Canada.

Researchers at the University of Victoria inserted a modified frog gene into potato plants to make them produce the chemical.

Source
Crops That Shut Down Pests' Genes
Monsanto is developing genetically modified plants that use RNA interference to kill the insects that eat them.
Researchers have created plants that kill insects by disrupting their gene expression. The crops, which initiate a gene-silencing response called RNA interference, are a step beyond existing genetically modified crops that produce toxic proteins. Because the new crops target particular genes in particular insects, some researchers suggest that they will be safer and less likely to have unintended effects than other genetically modified plants.