Skeptics Ask Monsanto

MARY MANGAN, PHD@MEM_SOMERVILLE

Delivered at the Boston SkepticsSkeptics in the Pub (SiTP)June 22, 2015

Skeptics ask Questions Posted on discussion forums:

Reddit: http://redd.it/37lorb SGU: http://

sguforums.com/index.php/topic,44431.0.html Boston Skeptics Facebook, Meetup, etc

Themes

Biodiversity Patents/Legal/

Monopoly Tech Agreement with Farmers

Safety testing, transparencyNew crops, new tech

Academic Research License

Reputation

Biodiversity

Is all the corn out there one kind of corn? What’s different? Risk of susceptibility to a single pathogen? What do you do about that?

Patents and Legal Issues

Patents ELI5: “explain like I’m 5 years old” Patents on life; seed saving, open source seeds or other off-patented stuff

Patents claiming Nucleic Acid Sequences DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2568

http://bit.ly/BFpatent Top 25 assignees

Nucleic Acid Patent Holders, USNumber granted, total, US gene patents.

Top 25 holders.via doi: 10.1038/nbt.2568

DuPont/Pioneer Hi-BredGlaxoSmithKlineRocheIncytePfizerUniv of CaliforniaIsis PharmaceuticalsMerckNovaritsUS Dept Health & Human ServicesTakeda PharmaceuticalsMonsantoBristol-Myers SquibbSanofi-AventisAmgenHuman Genome SciencesBayerBASFUniv of WashingtonLife TechnologiesInstitut PasteurNovo Nordisk Johns Hopkins UniversityUniversity of TexasEli Lilly

Number of plant gene patents via doi: 10.1038/nbt.2568

DuPont/Pi-oneerMonsantoBASFUniv of CABayerUniv of WANovartisPfizerSanofi-AventisJohns HopkinsUS DHHSUniv

CAUS HHS

Technology Agreement

Tech agreement, seed saving Farmer shared his tech agreement: thefarmerslife.com/biotechnology/i-occupy-our-food-supply-everyday

Suing farmers, affecting neighbors, co-existence, off-patent seeds

Monopoly and Reputation

Academic Research License

Academic research agreements Is this posted somewhere? Stories in 2009 like this SciAM one

New crops, new technologies

Other types of tech Consumer traits Allergen removal

Safety Testing, Transparency

www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/food-safety-science.aspx

www.monsanto.com/products/pages/safety-technical-information.aspx

Shill Shirts?

Highest rated question at the r/skeptic thread

Other questions?