He who gets the most patents wins. Biotech monster firms are trying to patent everything from pigs (yes, I wrote about that already), seeds, traditional therapies which have been in use for thousands of years, body parts, and now rice. Rice.

Strange but true. The Swiss biotech corporation Syngenta has dreams of owning every rice paddy from California to Vietnam. Every little rice shoot will bear their name, and they will collect payment on every seed used to grow the little critters. Considering how much rice is consumed in Asia and elsewhere–well, the fortune to be earned is beyond comprehension.

Syngenta has filed patent applications on much of the genetic material found in thousands of varieties of rice, the staple crop of more than half of the world’s population. Syngenta is also attempting to patent the use of rice in plant and animal feed. “With these patents Syngenta is claiming the work of breeders and farmers from the past centuries as the company’s own invention. The attempt to monopolize thousands of gene sequences from most important crop plants in one rush is nothing less than a theft of common goods,” says Tina Goethe from Swissaid.

Cool. Don’t you just love these people? according to Syngenta patent experts, they are trying to claim as their own all gene sequences that could be of commercial interest. Cute. And by claiming this genetic information as their own, they may well achieve their aim of monopolizing all similar gene sequences in any other useful plants, enabling Syngenta and other companies to determine prices and access to all kinds of seeds.

In other words, control of the world’s food supply. Every time you take a bite, you drop a dollar or two into the gaping pockets of companies like Syngenta and Monsanto.

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