Negative Effects of Patenting Seeds

Effects of Patenting on Seeds

India is an agricultural land and more than 65% of people are engaged in Agriculture. since the beginning of farming, farmers have sown seeds, harvested crops, saved best part of the harvest for seeds and exchanged seeds with neighbours. Every ritual in India involves seeds, the very symbol of life's renewal. The farmers saved money by avoiding the annual cost of buying new seeds. In 1996, when Monsanto introduced its first genetically-modified seeds and, although a legal precedent for seed patenting had already been established, it was then that it first entered into common practice.

Environmental Issues

Firstly The Monsanto establishes its market in developed countries only and after LPG Regime in 1996 it also entered in Indian market. The Scientists has expressed great trepidation over the widespread use of genetically-modified crops, and have noted the specific dangers that Monsanto's Roundup Ready brand of crops pose to the ecosystem. The use of these crops, engineered to resist specific pesticides, increase sales of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. These crops can transfer their tolerance trait to nearby weeds and plants, unintentionally creating wild genetic hybrids which can then go on to thrive alongside the desired crops. Over time, the selection pressure intensifies in local flora, and farmers must increase herbicide use to curb the growth of unwanted species. Through increases in use due both to market factors and the resultant increase in other plants' resistance, farmers have to expose the soil to heavier levels of glyphosate-based herbicides, permanently altering the natural balance of the ecosystem.

Depletion of Natural Resources

As of 2010, six biotech and chemical companies owned 77 percent of the world's patents on living organisms. These companies were DuPont, BASF, Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow. Only 9 percent of similar patents were in the public sector. These patents extend beyond the genetic material of the seeds themselves, and also claim potential ownership of the crops they produce, and even to the food and feed products produced after harvest. Civil groups have urged the United Nations biodiversity conference to recognize such patents as a threat to biodiversity, as they can potentially place control of most of the world's biomass into these six companies' hands. This would include control of food, feed, fibers, fuels and plastics created from patented plant material, and could potentially give the patent holders control over both the supply and use of raw materials which go beyond plants and trees, to microbes, waste from livestock, food processing and garbage.

Supply, Competition and Price Controls

Once patent holders own the majority of the planet's seeds and biomass, they can easily manipulate available supplies in order to drive up market prices, should they find it a profitable practice, and those without access to these artificially limited resources then suffer. In the case of Monsanto, roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S. in 2010 were patented by the company. Monsanto fell under allegations that the company was using its dominance to prevent new biotech firms from achieving notable distribution of their products, and this decline of competition also increased the ease with which the patent holder could increase their selling price, making food more difficult for consumers to afford.

Cross-Pollination and Contamination

Because crops are farmed in open fields, where insects and the wind carry pollen from one farm to another, cross-pollination is not just a potential concern. It's a reality. As the genetic stock from patented crops mixes into unmodified fields, the offspring produced contain some patented genetic material. This occurs without the consent, let alone the intentional involvement, of the farmer who grew unmodified crops. But, regardless of that farmer's wishes, he now possesses illegally obtained patented crops.

Legal Action Against Farmers

Some farmers have reported being sued over unintentional cross-pollination. Monsanto charged Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, for example in 1998 when his canola crop was found to be contaminated with Monsanto-engineered genetic material from nearby fields. He was ordered to pay $15 per acre, and a federal judge also ruled that all of his profits from that year owed to the biotech firm. As biotech companies gain the legal right to contaminate farmers' crops, then sue them for damages, small farmers and those who specialize in organic food production face costly legal battles which can hinder their living, if not bankrupt them altogether, and further diminish the diversity of food supplies and the freedom of consumers to avoid patronizing agribusiness companies whose motives and trustworthiness they find questionable.

Conclusion

These are some of the negative effects of Patented seeds i.e., Genetically Modified Crops. so its a kind appeal to all the Mankind around the world to stop using GM crops and protect Mother Nature and Food security for all Humans.

N.R.P.AYYANAR  M.A. M.L.,