GENETIC ARMAGEDDON: TERMINATOR AND PATENTS ON PIGS
301
modification can be targeted so that a transgene replaced the equivalent native gene or so that genes were "knocked out"-made ineffective by removal or disruption. A third technique was called "sperm mediated transfer." Genetically modified sperm was used as a vector for introducing foreign DNA into the egg. It had obvious attractions as artificial insemination of livestock and poultry was routine. These were the kinds of techniques being patented as fast as the GMO industry lawyers could file patent applications.!? 1980 US Supreme Court Ruling The Rockefeller Foundation's decades long nurturing of the field of molecular biology, its financing of the project for sequencing of genomes and the development of cloning, had led biotech giants such as Monsanto or Cargill to spend huge sums of money to genetically modify animals. The companies were focussed on one goal: patents and license rights to the results. This constituted a radical and highly controversial arena for the battle for patenting life. The door had first been opened wide to recognition of such patents by the US Supreme Court. In 1980, the United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, declared that "anything under the sun that is made by man" is patentable. The case concerned the patenting of genetically engineered bacteria that eat oil sludge. In 1987, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a pronouncement of the patentability, in principle, of nonhuman multi-cellular organisms that were not naturally occurring. It was followed by a landmark patent on the so-called "Harvard mouse" which was engineered to be susceptible to cancer. IS Monsanto was not alone in attempting to control entire animal genetic seed lines. In July 2006, Cargill Corporation of Minnesota, the world's largest agriculture trading company, and one of the dominating firms in beef, pork, turkey and broiler production and processing, applied for a patent, no. US 2007/0026493 AI, with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The application was titled, "Systems and Methods for Optimizing Animal Production using Genotype Information;' and the application stated its purpose was to "optimize animal production based on the animal genotype
