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While I have little sympathy for the anti-genetic modification crowd concerning crop production, this http://www.isb.vt.edu/articles/jul0404.htm]legal case is giving me second thoughts.
Are gene-modified tomatoes, or asp-1 sweet potatoes, or golden rice a form of poison Frankenfood? Not to me, IF proper scientific and safety research is done. However, once these crops are patented, then it appears the agri-business can file lawsuits if these crops are growing on your land.
The controversial case seems to be if your neighbor's farm uses Round-Up resistant grain seeds and some blow onto your land and cross fertilize your seed. Likewise, if you plant a patented seed and later try to switch away, the farmer needs to make sure NONE of the patented seeds grow in subsequent years.
Otherwise, in future years, you can be sued for patent infringement. Frankly, that bothers me a little bit more than the Frankenfood scenarios and perhaps makes the European no-genetic-modification position a little more sensible.
Perhaps a no "patented life form" ban on imports.
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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The controversial case seems to be if your neighbor's farm uses Round-Up resistant grain seeds and some blow onto your land and cross fertilize your seed. Likewise, if you plant a patented seed and later try to switch away, the farmer needs to make sure NONE of the patented seeds grow in subsequent years.
It seems a problem in with regards to self-replicating 'intellectual property'. Some sort of laws need to be drafted to clear that up, and pronto, or there will be serious lawsuit shit when human germline engineering (coming sooner than you expect) comes around.
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Most people fear GM foods well because their dumb, they know nothing about Gentics mods. So their minds go crazy and think strainge thing will happen like in a movie. In my view they are fools, soon everything will be GM that is alive.
People will just have to learn to deal with it like all the other science stuff in our modern age. Like cell phones, or the internet.
I love plants!
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The controversial case seems to be if your neighbor's farm uses Round-Up resistant grain seeds and some blow onto your land and cross fertilize your seed. Likewise, if you plant a patented seed and later try to switch away, the farmer needs to make sure NONE of the patented seeds grow in subsequent years.
It seems a problem in with regards to self-replicating 'intellectual property'. Some sort of laws need to be drafted to clear that up, and pronto, or there will be serious lawsuit shit when human germline engineering (coming sooner than you expect) comes around.
Heh! I have wondered "what if" someone gen-modifies a human germ line, patents it, and then some married couple has a baby that produces that very same germ line through a lucky roll of the dice, without open theft of the intellectual property. Just DNA roulette.
Kinda like that movie about the fellow who's country ended while he was at JFK international airport terminal.
Maybe a good sci-fi movie in that in the Phillip Dick way of looking at things.
The Illegal Man?
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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Most people fear GM foods well because their dumb, they know nothing about Gentics mods. So their minds go crazy and think strainge thing will happen like in a movie. In my view they are fools, soon everything will be GM that is alive.
People will just have to learn to deal with it like all the other science stuff in our modern age. Like cell phones, or the internet.
You miss the point. I have very few if any medical or health worries.
But what if Monsanto or ConAgra come to own patents on ALL the viable seeds? Or maybe all the seeds resistant to a particular virus that wipes out the other crops?
Wow! Another sci-fi plot. Invent an evil corporation. None extant today are evil, correct? So we invent one for the movie.
They invent a virus that attacks corn and wheat. Then they create a gen-mod variant thats immune. Then the virus accidentally escapes into the world.
Anyone do that story yet?
Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]
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Heh! I have wondered "what if" someone gen-modifies a human germ line, patents it, and then some married couple has a baby that produces that very same germ line through a lucky roll of the dice, without open theft of the intellectual property. Just DNA roulette.
Actually, there is yet another case pending in which a family whose DNA was sequenced had a patent filed on one of their genes by the researchers.
Rather like having some stranger own a little piece of you...
US patent law forbids patenting a natural phenomenon. If you discover some neat new physical effect, or find something lying around (like a gene), you can't patent that just because you found it first - especially if you don't actually have a way to use the thing you discovered. However, if you find a new gene and think up a new and "nonobvious" use for it, like inserting it into the wheat genome to kill insects, you can patent that.
As for forcing farmers to destroy their crops if contaminated by GM foods, that's a justified interpretation of the law. Contaminated crops should be required to be destroyed for reasons of environmental protection and preserving economic viability of farmland. Farmers are forced to destroy contaminated crops all the time; contamination with GM genes should legally be no different than contamination with diesel oil or radioactive strontium. However, the farmer destroying the crops usually gets to sue the pants off of the persons responsible for introducing the contaminant.
IMHO, this isn't a patent issue. It's a pollution issue. This lawsuit was filed by the wrong party.
"We go big, or we don't go." - GCNRevenger
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