Monsanto Wants To Patent The Pig

By James Donahue

The Monsanto Corporation, the evil empire that helped produce Agent Orange and has since cornered the market on world seed crops through genetic modification technology, has now entered the meat and medical industry. Corporate engineers have applied for a patent on the pig.

A recently published report states that Monsanto has applied for patents on methods of breeding, the actual breeding of pigs and the offspring that result. The patent applications, made in some 150 countries, appear general in terminology and may not involve genetic altered types of the animal. The implications are that any genetic modifications of the pigs produced by Monsanto would be the sole property of Monsanto. But the patent applications may be even broader than this.

Is it possible that a corporation can actually own patents on common farm animals?

During the time scientists from around the world were involved in the Human Genome Project and discovering the blueprint of the human DNA, no one expected big medical corporations to patent the discoveries as fast as they were being made. While the research has opened the door to amazing new medical breakthroughs, someone already owns the patent to every possible one of them. This consequently closes the door to using the discoveries for improving the health and wellbeing of anyone other than the very wealthy.

How can one corporation own the genetic make-up of the human body? In today’s strangely insane and materialistic world, it is happening right before our eyes.

Some pig growers worry that if the patents are granted, Monsanto will legally prevent hog farmers from breeding pigs with characteristics described in the patents, or force these farmers to pay Monsanto for the right to do so.

“It’s a first step toward the same kind of corporate control of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively pursuing with various grain and vegetable lines,” one observer wrote.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that pigs are being used in genetic research laboratories for growing and repairing the human body. The pig is found to be perfect animals for such medical technology because their bodies closely resemble the structural make-up of the human body. Heart valves, bladder tissue and other parts from pigs have been successfully used as temporary fixes in humans. Also a powdered extracellular matrix from pigs has been found to be a trigger for healing damaged body parts. It is already being used to treat ulcers by closing holes in stomach tissue and treating injured soldiers in the battlefield.

Is Monsanto out to gain control of this phase of medical technology as well? Indeed, Monsanto and Biotech, a large corporation involved in research in the biology of using living things in engineering, technology, medicine and other applications, are part of the same business conglomerate.

Since getting into the production of genetically modified seeds, Monsanto has aggressively taken over the crop and grain farming operations of not only the United States but Canada and many other countries around the world. With the use of a bank of lawyers, the company has successfully forced farmers whose crops have cross-pollinated with nearby Monsanto GMO seeded crops, to pay stiff fines for producing patented Monsanto crops without first buying the right to growing them.

The Monsanto seeds, which are laced with pesticides and insecticides and may not be safe for human consumption, and are an environmental threat, also are designed to be sterile. Thus farmers that use these seeds cannot harvest more seeds for a second-year crop. They are forced to go back to Monsanto to buy new seed each season.

It appears that Monsanto is out to control all of the food grown on farms throughout the world.

We join the growing chorus of agriculturalists and writers calling for a global ban on patents on seeds, farm animals and human DNA.