Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life

What sort of world do we want to live in?Throughout our lives, and those of generations before us, scientific exploration has often challenged our moral, ethical and spiritual dimensions. As we enter the new millennium, the field of genetic engineering and the patenting of life presents challenges to us that will require serious examinations of our core beliefs about the very essence of life itself.

What value does life hold for us individually and as a society?

Should the very essence of our physical being, our genetic structure, be copied or cloned, bought and sold?

What limits, if any, should be placed on genetic engineering? And who should decide the limits?

These and many other questions need to be addressed now to help insure that genetic engineering and life patents are not allowed to serve as a money machine to allow quick profits to a few huge corporations developing the technology, often through government sponsored research.

The Growth of Life Patents

In legislatures and courtrooms all over the world, perhaps the biggest fight being waged in genetic engineering right now is over the right of companies to patent life -- and therefore claim ownership of genetically engineered organisms.

The vast majority of countries around the world are searching for legislative ways to set limits on the patenting of living organisms. Many are developing legislative tools with which the rights of farming and indigenous communities to their traditional know-how can be protected. However, in the U.S., a few huge multinational corporations have been successful in lobbying the government to allow patents on virtually any life form.

• In 1980, a U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that genetically engineered microorganisms were patentable.
• In 1985, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office declared that plants and seeds were patentable.
• In 1987, the Patent Commissioner stated that the license to patent includes animals.

These rulings, and several others, helped create a flood of patent applications from hundreds of small biotech firms that sprang up virtually overnight. Almost as rapidly, these small firms have been gobbled up by a few huge companies looking to capitalize on the intellectual property owned (patented) by these small ventures.

These multinational companies know that the real profit potential of genetically engineered organisms lies in the global marketplace and so they have been investing large amounts of resources into creating international patent laws similar to those in the U.S.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this explosion of genetic engineering is that it is occurring with virtually no level of public debate or regulation. Genetically engineered foods are being sold in the supermarket without long-term testing, and almost no understanding of the widespread effect such products might have on our precious ecosystem. They aren’t even labeled.

As a result, we are already seeing the potentially devastating, previously unknown effects of some of these technologies. For example:

The Bt gene

Background: The Bt gene is a naturally occurring bacterium that has been used for decades as a pesticide. The bacterium produces a protein that kills many insects when ingested. Bt can be a valuable tool for organic farming, when used selectively (e.g., applied only during the caterpillar phase of a target species).

In the last decade, hundreds of patents have been granted on Bt gene technologies. Many of these involve inserting the Bt gene directly into plants, creating "killer" plants that can kill insects year-round, and when they ingest any part of the plant.

The Promise: Biotech firms have promoted "Bt seeds" as a "natural" easy method of pest control for farmers. They claim that these "Bt crops" are more friendly to the environment than chemical insecticides and that, despite the premium price on the seed, farmers will profit from lower chemical costs.

The Reality: Insects evolve quickly. To try to slow down the evolution of insect resistance to Bt, the seed companies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have forged a voluntary policy urging farmers to plant as much as 40% of their fields in non-Bt crops. Compliance, however, when farmers already face severe economic hardships, is one problem with this approach. And in a few years, when there is a plague of new "super bugs," chemical use and chemical costs may go way up. Meanwhile, organic farmers will have lost their best method of insect control -- use of the actual Bt bacteria!

The Unforeseen Reality: A recent report in the journal Nature, by scientists at Cornell University, stated that pollen from genetically engineered "Bt corn" killed 44 percent of the Monarch butterflies who fed on milkweed leaves dusted with the pollen.

This confirms earlier field reports of Monarch butterfly deaths in the Midwest where nearly 25 percent of the corn crop contains the Bt gene and half of the Monarchs are produced each year.

If this trend continues it won’t be long before the entire population of Monarchs is gone.

Bt is similarly toxic to most or all other butterfly and moth species, amd most of all beetle species. What other living organisms might be affected by the Bt gene? Most of the corn grown in the U.S. is used for animal feed which in turn produce meat and milk for human consumption.

We cannot afford to let this continue.

The Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life was started for two reasons:

1. To help educate the public about what’s really happening in genetic engineering.
2. To provide a forum for concerned citizens to get involved in helping shape public policy in a most critical area of this new technology, the patenting of living organisms.

Since we began the campaign last year we have talked to thousands of people around the country about the real dangers of life patents and how they can get involved in helping to insure that genetic engineering is used to benefit all people, not just the pockets of a few.

Many of those contacted have joined the campaign by signing the campaign pledge (below) and providing financial support. Please consider becoming a part of this important effort by joining the campaign.

As a member of the Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life you will join with thousands of other concerned individuals in bringing this issue to the forefront of political and social discourse.

IATP Campaign Pledge

I. The plants, animals and microorganisms comprising life on earth are part of the natural world into which we are all born. The conversion of these species, their molecules or parts into corporate property through patent monopolies is counter to the interests of the peoples of this country and the world.

II. No Individual, institution, or corporation should be able to claim ownership over species or varieties of living organisms. Nor should they be able to hold patents on organs, cells, genes or proteins, whether naturally occurring, genetically altered or otherwise modified.

III. As part of a world movement to protect our common living heritage, we call upon the Congress of the United States to enact legislation to exclude living organisms and their component parts from the patent system.

If you agree, we need your help.

With your donation of $35 we will send you a copy of The Ownership of Life: When Patents and Values Clash. Co-produced by Kristin Dawkins, Director of the Trade and Agriculture Program here at IATP, this well-written and thoroughly documented 60-page handbook will give you a good overview of this issue in an easy-to-understand format, and help you to be able to discuss the issues with your friends and family.

I would like you to help launch this campaign by becoming a "Sponsor" of the Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life with a donation of $65. In addition to your copy of The Ownership of Life: When Patents and Values Clash, we will send you a free copy of the "Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology," written by Kristin Dawkins. I will also send you a quarterly campaign update so you will know first hand what is going on with this campaign.

If you can and would like to become a "Founding Member," please send a donation of $250 and we will send you a copy of Jeremy Rifkin’s "The Biotech Century," the most complete scholarly examination of the political and social issues implicated by the current biotechnology age.

And if you are able to become a "Founding Sponsor" with a donation of $500, we will place your name on our advisory committee for one year, and you will know that you are playing a leadership role in one of the most important issues of our lifetime. We will also send a copy of Jeremy’s book personally signed for you.

Whatever amount you can afford to send, please do so today. With your contribution, please indicate that you are joining the Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life. The economic forces behind the patenting of life are powerful and have no moral boundaries.

Now it’s time for the public to be heard on the issue of who owns the basic elements of life. Please join the Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life and send your donation today. It’s going to take all of us to build a national consensus.

Send your contribution to:

Campaign to Ban the Patenting of Life

IATP
2105 First Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404

Email Kate Hoff, Development Director, or call her at 612-870-3404 for more information.

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