by Jonathan Benson
staff writer
July 24, 2013

from NaturalNews Website
 

 

 

 

 


The world's most evil corporation, Monsanto, has announced it will cease trying to introduce any new genetically-modified (GM) crops into Europe following years of widespread public opposition to the controversial and untested technology.

 

Instead, the multinational biotechnology behemoth will re-focus its efforts on controlling the conventional seed market in the European Union (EU), an outlandish move that proves the seed giant is still determined, in one way or another, to dominate global agriculture.

Monsanto's President and Managing Director for Europe, Jose Manuel Madero, recently told Reuters in a phone interview that his company will be withdrawing all existing approval requests for new GMOs in Europe within the next few months.

 

These include five pending approval requests for at least one new variety of GM corn (maize), as well as GM soybeans and GM sugar beets. As of this writing, there is only one GM crop, Monsanto's MON810 maize, currently approved for cultivation anywhere in Europe.

No matter how hard Monsanto and various others in the biotechnology industry have tried in years past to force GMOs on Europe, the result has almost always been the same: failure.

 

The people of Europe have repeatedly expressed loudly and clearly that they do not want to eat GMOs, and the European Commission (EC) has tended to align its approval process for GMOs with this public sentiment in mind.

 

Thus, GMOs continue to remain largely absent from the European market, with the exception of widely-used animal feed.

"(The requests) have been going nowhere fast for several years," says Brandon Mitchener, a Monsanto spokesman, about the company's failed efforts to force GMOs on Europe.

 

"There's no end in sight."


 


Monsanto

"If we can't force Europeans to accept GMOs, we will instead take over their conventional crops"


This is good news for Europeans, of course, who will finally have the opportunity to rest a little easier as far as the integrity of their food supply is concerned - this is with the exception of GM animal feed, of course, which is currently imported into the country from places like the U.S. and South America at a rate of more than 30 million metric tons yearly, according to Reuters.

But what Europeans will now have to worry about, sadly, is Monsanto's new pursuit of controlling their conventional crops.

 

As we have been reporting on recently, Monsanto has been taking advantage of a little-known loophole in European patent law that allows the company to literally draw patents on natural crops like broccoli and green beans.

You can read more about this here below.

"In the coming weeks, around a dozen new patents will be granted (to Monsanto), covering species such as broccoli, onions, melons, lettuce and cucumber," explains the food freedom watchdog coalition No Patents on Seeds! about Monsanto's new business approach.

 

"Monsanto and Syngenta already own more than 50 percent of seed varieties of tomato, paprika and cauliflower registered in the EU."

In other words, since it could not have its way with GMOs in Europe, Monsanto simply turned to the earth's natural bounty and gradually claimed it as its own - and the European Patent Office (EPO) continues to facilitate this takeover of the natural food supply in Europe, mostly because the European people remain in the dark about what is actually happening to their agricultural system.

You can help fight Monsanto's takeover of the European food supply by signing the No Patents on Seeds! online petition.
 


 


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 European Patent Office grants Monsanto patent on...

Natural Broccoli Seeds, Florets
by Ethan A. Huff
staff writer
July 01, 2013
from NaturalNews Website

 

 

Monsanto's efforts to usher genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) into the European Union (EU) have been largely stagnant in recent years, so the multinational corporation and others in the industry are taking a new and more evil approach to gain more market control.

 

According to a recent announcement put forth by the human rights advocacy group No Patents on Seeds!, the European Patent Office (EPO) is now granting biotechnology companies patents on all-natural crops such as broccoli, which was recently handed over as private property to Monsanto.

Exploiting an egregious loophole in European patent law, Monsanto and others have been feverishly filing for patents on all sorts of natural crops, presumably in response to widespread resistance by members of the European public to its GMO offerings.

 

Most recently, EPO granted Monsanto a patent on conventionally-bred broccoli, which includes not only broccoli seeds but also the "severed broccoli head" and the "plurality of broccoli plants... grown in a field of broccoli" - in other words, broccoli in all of its natural forms.

Though vehemently opposed by the European Parliament, EPO's decision to legitimize private ownership of nature - in this case broccoli - is apparently becoming the norm throughout Europe. Since the biotechnology industry has failed at replacing nature with its own "Frankencrops" throughout Europe, it has set its sights on seizing ownership of nature itself by claiming patents on it.

 

And unless the people step up to forcibly stop this, using whatever means necessary, then these crimes against humanity will only continue.

"We are calling for broad support of our opposition against the patent on 'severed broccoli'," said Christoph Then from the group No Patents on Seeds! recently.

No Patents on Seeds! has formed a petition in opposition to patents on natural crops that recently topped two million signatures, and the group is joined by a cohort of other environmental advocacy and health freedom groups throughout Europe in its efforts.

"We intend to send a clear signal that we will not let our food be monopolized."

You can access this petition here.

 

 

 

Monsanto also pushing for ownership of life in America as well


No Patents on Seeds! is joined by,

  • Bionext (Netherlands)

  • The Berne Declaration (Switzerland)

  • GeneWatch (UK)

  • Greenpeace (Germany)

  • Misereor (Germany)

  • Development Fund (Norway)

  • No Patents on Life (Germany)

  • Rete Semi Rurali (Italy)

  • Reseau Semences Paysannes (France)

  • Swissaid (Switzerland),

...in calling on European politicians to assume control over EPO for the purpose of amending the patent loophole.

"All the organizations involved are also making demands on European politicians," explains No Patents on Seeds!.

 

"They are urging them to take over control of the EPO in order to change the interpretation of the current patent law through the Administrative Council of the EPO, which is the assembly of the Member States."

The group Avaaz.org has also created its own petition to stop Monsanto from patenting natural organisms in Europe, which you can sign here.

Back in the U.S., Monsanto is busy pushing for similar patents on the elements of life. As reported by the Los Angeles Times (LAT), Monsanto will soon try to convince the Supreme Court to allow it to patent future generations of seeds that naturally reproduce from GM strains.

 

If the company gets its way, a new precedent will be set in the U.S. for corporations to assume patent control over natural life forms.

"The case is a remarkable reflection on recent fundamental changes in farming. In the 200-plus years since the founding of this country, and for millenniums before that, seeds have been part of the public domain - available for farmers to exchange, save, modify through plant breeding and replant," explains the NYT.

 

"But today this history of seeds is seemingly forgotten in light of a patent system that, since the mid-1980s, has allowed corporations to own products of life."


 


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