Topic awaiting preservation: Patenting Life?

Something not talked about a lot in the media is the practice of certain corporations patenting life. I have been digging into it a bit after seeing a new documentary entitled "The Corporation," (Highly recommended) and although it seems it has been going on for quite a long time, I'd never heard of it.

One troubling aspect is the patenting of seed. A lot of farmers in 3rd world countries have increasingly been told they are not permitted to collect seed for the next year's crops. This became a new law in Iraq in 2004, implemented by the Bush administration, and they are now making it a crime to save seed. Monsanto Corporation, of 'Agent Orange' and Bovine growth hormone (r-BGH) fame, is the culprit there.

To make it worse, Monsanto and other transnationals are now making genetically modified plants which never come to seed, making seed-saving an impossibility.

Is anyone else aware of such practices, and if so, what are your opinions? Should nature be patentable as an "human invention", which became a reality after a 1980 Supreme Court decision in case "Diamond v. Chakrabarty?" Is the future one of life monopolization by multinational corporations? If so, when life is owned, do you think it hurts the future freedom and well-being of the masses? Are we being set up into a corporate fascist state?

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

(Edited by Ramasax on 07-25-2005 03:03)

Capitalism is stupid.

Modifying oraganisms is REALLY REALLY STUPID and I wouldn't be surprised if this practice accidentally (or not) eradicates a lot of life on this planet. One example: http://www.safe2use.com/ca-ipm/01-02-05-report.htm .

From a legal standpoint it doesn't really bother me. I don't think the world would want me as an outlaw.

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Modifying oraganisms is REALLY REALLY STUPID and I wouldn't be surprised if this practice accidentally (or not) eradicates a lot of life on this planet.

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Or other various side-effects such as this: GM crops created superweed, say scientists

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

They must work at being that stupid.

I tend to follow along the lines that the scientist are not stupid, but the machines which employ them are entirely capable of a collective stupidity. Promotion, rush to market, large investment, greed, stress and pressure from above would al lead to "doctoring" initial test results just to please the powers that be.

Kind of like how the Bush administration would not accept anything less than condemning of the Hussein regime, but from a corporate point of view.

Anyone else have any thoughts. This seems like a very big issue to me which gets very little attention, and aside from the corporate monopolization/fascist world government aspect, it could lead to devastating effects on the earth's ecosystem.

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

(Edited by Ramasax on 07-26-2005 00:13)

Of course then sometimes someone like Norman Borlaug comes around, develops dwarf wheat and saves a billion lives

I guess it would be best we didn't modify organisms



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

(Edited by bitdamaged on 07-26-2005 03:57)

IIRC, I do not believe Borlaug's work involved any sort of direct genetic maniplation, but through natural crossings, which has been a common practice in agriculture for many many years.

We now have scientists putting human genes in rice and fun stuff like that.

Hmm, does that mean once these new GM products are rushed to market, we will all esentially be cannibals?

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

Yes I think that would (and is) leading into a corporate fascist state.
I think it is completely wrong. To continue with your crops example. THose farmers grew THEIR crops THEY did the work THEY should gert the benefits. Which means collecting their seeds. As far as patenting nature. It can't be done. Just try to sue a tree or weed on the copyright law. Not going to work.
And as far as altering organisms. Yeah thats dumb. Theres a few simple rules I live by.
If its moving kill before eating
If I can't pronounce it I don't eat it
If it changes colors don't eat it.
DONT F*&K WITH NATURE

"When people say 'clean as a whistle' they forget that a whistle is full of spit."

Soilent Green is People!


(And yeah - there is a *huge* difference between cross breeding and genetic modification.)

(Edited by DL-44 on 07-26-2005 16:16)

Mmmmmhhh....Solient Green.

I hate to be a spelling freak, but isn't it "Soylent" Green?

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

(Edited by Suho1004 on 07-27-2005 06:07)

Yep. Munching a box right now. *crunch crunch*

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

Er...yeah. so?

( )

You just made the top of the ingredients list Suho

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I hate to be spelling freak

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The hell you do

Without any genetic modification, without any miracle technology, we have more than enough food for every last person on this planet. The problem is in the distribution (usually because someone wants money for it).

As for scientists being smart and the machines behind them being the badness, I s'pose that is more true than not, but if you're smart you're aware of the consequences of your research and you never stop having a choice.

DL: You just know that when someone says "I hate to..." that they're really relishing every minute of it. Or maybe that's just me.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

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Without any genetic modification, without any miracle technology, we have more than enough food for every last person on this planet. The problem is in the distribution (usually because someone wants money for it).

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Tell that to the gloabal corporatocracy. I do agree that capitalism on this level is stupid, as I think you mentioned above. The free-market is gone, true culture is being devoured, and we are all at the whims of the corporations more everyday.

It all falls back to that Supreme Court decision derived from the 14th amendment back in the 1880s, in which corporations were given the status and rights of "person". That was the beginning of the end and I think it to be one of the key turning points in not only US History but in world history. There is now a great big monster on the loose, and where we go, nobody knows.

If we don't destroy the planet by meddling with nature, by giving rise to a super-virus or something else of an almost science-fiction nature which seemed far-fetched only a decade ago, humanity, the next few generations are in for some rough times.

Pessimistic attitude I know, but barring worldwide revolution and possibly billions of deaths as stumbling governments administer their dying blows, what's to stop the machine?

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

I've not read everything here so if this has been dealt with elsewhere... 'sorry'.. but as far as this goes...

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A lot of farmers in 3rd world countries have increasingly been told they are not permitted to collect seed for the next year's crops.

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This has been going on in Canada for quite some time... and man this is one big ugly mess. Monsanto recently won a lengthy court case it brought against a farmer who collected crop seed and planted it the following year. When you buy monsanto seed you sign a contract that allows company officials to search your property at any time just to make sure you are not stocking piling seed. The contract is just bloody insane there's no other way to put it.

We have a friend who farms a sizeable 3k acres and he looked into it and said no way in hell was he going to sign up.

On a side note... My wife, an avid gardener, works part-time at a nursery (conveniently located next door) and a few weeks back 2 women came in and were looking around and as my wife was talking to them one woman said she worked for monsanto in the PR department. Wrong thing to say. My wife just tore a strip off her... up one side...down the other. It was great. =) There was more to it... but I'm pressed for time.

Here's a new one: Crop king Monsanto seeks pig-breeding patent

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Monsanto Co., 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.

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Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

This is really the first I have ever heard of such a thing. But from what I read in these posts, it can only lead to worse. If it keeps up, there will come a time when you don't have a choice but to "sign the contract", or be prosecuted for growing anything at all illegally. Once again the few get rich and the many get poor(er)and oppressed.

*****
In the web that is my own, I begin again...

Ram, it seems that everytime you post something about government it brings to life a side that I have never seen, and don't really like. Thanks. You just keep ruining my views of government. Oh, well, not like they aren't going to end up killing us all in a few years anyway...

"For reason is a property of God's...moreover, there is nothing He does not wish to be investigated and understood by reason." ~Tertullian de paenitentia Carthaginian Historian 2nd century AD

It is important to note that Genetically Modified foods have been used in our major food products for a very long time now (decades...).

There are two frightening aspects to this -

1) it is a very non-publicized issue, and most people are not even aware of such things

2) it just keeps going further and further....

Make sure you read the ingredients list on your packaged foods....

I think they have already gone to far...Gid is a prime example, of what I mean

I have always been told that noone is a complete waste. You can always use them as a bad example.

Gid does highlight on a very key point. Way to many people do not have any idea about what is going on. And that is the point. Using marketting and religion in conjunction you can keep the vast majority of the population completely unaware of what is going on in the world. This in not a coincidence, it is a plan.

Dan @ Code Town