Jolly "Gene Giants" Build Harmful Monopoly over Climate-Proof Crops
by Teresa Herrmann
Super crops that can weather environmental extremes brought on by climate changes may be able to cure short-term food shortages.But can they really create an entirely healthy, sustainable system for future food supplies? It's too early to make that call. Better data is needed. Too bad the world may never get it.How come?

Because there's a handful of biotech multinationals that are racing to build a corporate monopoly over the market for climate-resistant crops. And that would kill bias-free, independent research.So concludes this recent report (pdf) by the Ottawa-based ETC Group. It found that three companies -- Germany’s BASF, Switzerland’s Syngenta and the St. Louis-based Monsanto -- are engaged in a vast and worrisome patent grab for power.

The three "Gene Giants" -- as ETC calls them -- have filed applications to control two-thirds of all the climate-ready genes at patent offices across the world.

ETC Research Director Hope Shand explains why that spells bad news for the world:

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