First, I would like to thank Matthew Dillon with the Organic Seed Alliance @Seed_Alliance for pulling me from under my rock and informing me about this very important case. Judge Sweet of the Southern District of New York invalidated seven patents linked to detecting genetic predisposition of breast and ovarian cancers of the Utah-based Myriad
Craig P. Raysor Blogs
Latest from Craig P. Raysor
Race to the finish line for Monsanto's GE Alfalfa
This past Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition of certiorari in order to hear the GE Alfalfa case, Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, that has been causing quite a stir in the biotech world. This is fortuitous for many involved in biotech crops as a similar decision came out recently
Canadian Inventor Sues State Research Universities
I like to toss “seed lawsuit” in the google search bar on occasion to see what’s going on in the world-at-large beyond the comfortable confines of my office here in suburban Memphis, TN. I came across a story that I have posted on the reciprocal situation in the past. This time a Canadian inventor company
Comment Period extended for High-oleic acid soybean
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has sent out notice that it is extending the comment period for Pioneer Hi-Bred International’s high-oleic acid soybean petition for nonregulated status. The original petition that was posted to go with the initial period was found to be the incorrect petition, so the comment period has been extended
Mexico Issues First GM Corn Permits
According to a Reuters article from last week, The Mexican Agriculture Ministry will issue two permits to grow experimental plots of GM corn in regions where there are no native corn varieties. This will put the “birthplace” of corn in the hotbed of controversy over GM foods, but many feel it will help with productivity.
Consumer Choice sends Monsanto's Roundup Ready Sugar Beets back to the Deregulation Drawing Board
The Northern District of California handed down a ruling in Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. C 08-00484 JSW (N.D. Cal September 21, 2009) that would requires the USDA to perform an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as opposed to an Environmental Assessment (EA) in their determination of whether to deregulate Genetically Modified Sugar Beets
Don't Gulp the Force Majeure De Jure – a cautionary tale
Recently I read an article on Farm.com by Stu Ellis that was sent out by a colleague regarding the effect of COOL and H1N1 on vertically integrated livestock agriculture. There has been large scale unprofitability in the pork market due to increased food inputs and a decrease in exports attached to the misperceptions of the
Has Consumer Fear Truly Halted Genetic Engineering?
A recent article out of the trade journal Nature Biotechnology, according to seedquest, states that the failure of certain genetically engineered traits to make it to market such as nutritional content, ripening control and processing attributes to reach consumers and processors was due to a failure in the European regulatory regime to allow these
Tobacco may Help Diabetic Patients in the Future
SemBioSys Genetics Inc., out of Canada, was granted U.S. patent number 7,547, 821 entitled”Methods for the Production of Insulin in Plants”. A similar patent was granted in Europe last year, and there are patent applications submitted in a multitude of countries worldwide according to the official company press release. The ever-increasing obesity problem that is
When can a Farmer Legally Save Seed?
This post was inspired by a news report on Seedquest and a portion of the movie Food, Inc. that focused on Maurice Parr a traveling seed cleaner in the Midwest that was accused of assisting in the unlawful resale of patented seeds. Many people are attempting to save seed in these economic times as a