TWAS wants ban on ag life patenting

ACADEMIES CALL FOR BAN ON PATENTING AGRICULTURAL LIFE FORMS 1 July 1999

The Council of the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), which met in Budapest last Thursday (24 June) before the start of the [UNESCO/ICSU World Conference on Science], endorsed a call for a ban on the patenting of all "agricultural life forms".

"Agriculture in much of the developing world is the result of the collective experience gained from the sweat and toil of poor peasants over thousands of years," says TWAS vice-president Muhammad Akhtar, emeritus professor of biochemistry at the University of Southampton in England.

"Recombinant DNA technology is unlikely to alter more than a fraction of one per cent of the existing genomic make-up of edible plants," he says. "It is hence an affront to the sense of fairness that multinational corporations should be able to claim the ownership, through patenting, of living systems, for such a minuscule contribution."

Earlier in the week, a meeting of the scientific advisory body to the United Nations biodiversity convention in Montreal had given a lukewarm response to a more farmer-friendly alternative to 'Terminator' seeds, the controversial technology in which seeds are genetically modified to become sterile after one season's planting (see Nature 399, 721; 1999 & helix.nature.com/wcs).

The alternative is known as T-Gurt --Trait-specific Genetic Use Restriction Technology. T-Gurt seeds are modified to produce specific traits, such as tolerance to drought. The trait is activated after the seed is sprayed with a proprietary chemical. The seed will still germinate without the chemical, but will not have the modified characteristics.

EHSAN MASOOD Nature 400, 8 (1999) © Macmillan Publishers Ltd.