INDIA, February 02, 2004: Monsanto, the world’s largest genetically modified seed company, has been awarded patents on the wheat used for making chapati — the flat bread staple of northern India, reports this article. The patents give Monsanto, a US-based multinational company, exclusive ownership over Nap Hal, a strain of wheat whose gene sequence makes it particularly suited to producing crisp breads. Another patent, filed in Europe, gives Monsanto rights over the use of Nap Hal wheat to make chapatis, which consist of flour, water and salt. Environmentalists say Nap Hal’s qualities are the result of generations of farmers in India who spent years crossbreeding crops and collective, not corporate, efforts should be recognized. Monsanto inherited a patent application when it bought the cereals division of the Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever in 1998, and the patent has been granted to the new owner. Unilever acquired Nap Hal seeds from a publicly funded British plant gene bank. Its scientists identified the wheat’s combination of genes and patented them as an “invention.” Greenpeace is attempting to block Monsanto’s patent, accusing the company of “bio-piracy.” A spokesperson for Monsanto in India denied that the company had any plan to exploit the patent, saying that it was in fact pulling out of cereals in some markets.
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