*[Enwl-eng] Monsanto's Hunger Games

[ENWLine]

Dear Avaazers,

It’s like a real life Hunger Games -- our broccoli, onions, melons and more
are about to be patented to grow Monsanto and Co’s profits, making food more
expensive and strangling the farmers we rely on everyday. But we can
pressure Europe to draw a line in the sand and stop these terrible patents
for the world.

When natural species like broccoli get patented by corporations in Europe,
it sets a precedent across the world. But European countries can vote to
stop the patent office to from granting these patents, and if we get Germany
and the UK to convince their neighbours to stand with us now, we can stop
Monsanto in its tracks.

We have no time to lose -- over 1,000 patents are in the pipeline waiting to
be approved! Click below to sign the petition, forward this email to
everyone, share this campaign on Facebook and help build the biggest food
defense call ever:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_patents_b/?bYBHtab&v=23857

The European Patent Office is controlled by 38 country representatives who,
with one vote, can end dangerous patents on food that is bred using
conventional methods. Even the European Parliament has issued a statement
objecting to these kinds of destructive patents. For a few years, the patent
office backed off, but just in recent months they've released 11 new food
patents that violated the Parliament’s recommendation.

These patents change everything about how our food chain works: for
thousands of years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without
worrying about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But
now, companies like Monsanto launch expensive legal campaigns to buy patents
on conventional plants and force farmers to pay exorbitant royalty fees.

Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation, but in fact they
create a corporate monopoly of our food chain. The situation is dire
already -- Monsanto alone owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and
49% of cauliflower seed varieties registered in the EU. But a simple
regulatory change could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from
corporate control -- and it's up to us to make it happen:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_monsanto_patents_b/?bYBHtab&v=23857



The Avaaz community has never been afraid to stand up to corporate capture
of our institutions, from beating the Rupert Murdoch mafia, to ensuring that
telecoms keep their hands off our Internet, to pushing to put bankers behind
bars. Now it’s time to defend our food supply from this corporate takeover.

With hope and determination,

Jeremy, Michelle, Oli, Dalia, Pascal, Ricken, Diego and the whole Avaaz team


SOURCES:

Conventionally-bred plants or animals should be exempt from patents, say
MEPs (EU Parliament)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120509IPR44733/html/Conventionally-bred-plants-or-animals-should-be-exempt-from-patents-say-MEPs

President of the European Patent Office gives green light for patents on
plants and animals (No Patents on Seeds)
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/en/information/background/green-light-for-patents-on-plants-and-animals

Monsanto: All Your Seeds Belong to Us (Mother Jones)
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/02/scotus-hears-monsanto-soybean-case

Plant Patentability Questions Deepen In EPO Tomato Patent Case (IP Watch)
http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/13/plant-patentability-questions-deepen-in-epo-tomato-patent-case/

Tomato patent back before EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal (Europolitics)
http://europolitics.eis-vt-prod-web01.cyberadm.net/business-competitiveness/tomato-patent-back-before-epo-s-enlarged-board-of-appeal-art336003-7.htmlAvaaz.org
is a 20-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the
views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making.
("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in
every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6
continents and operates in 17 languages.

Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/highlights.php/?footer"> or follow us on facebook
here: http://www.facebook.com/Avaaz or twitter here:
http://twitter.com/Avaaz


To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us
via the form at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at
+1-888-922-8229 (US).



From: "Jeremy Waiser - Avaaz.org" <av...@avaaz.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2013 3:57 AM
Subject: Monsanto's Hunger Games



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