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P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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Mexican Bean Biopiracy
January 24, 2000
A U.S.-based company is suing Mexican bean exporters, charging that
the Mexican beans they are selling in the U.S. infringe the
company's U.S. patent on a yellow-colored bean variety. The patented
bean, "Enola," originates from bean seeds the company's president
purchased in Mexico. These Mexican yellow beans have been grown in
Mexico for centuries, developed by generations of Mexican farmers
and more recently by Mexican plant breeders.
In 1994, Larry Proctor, the owner of a small seed company and
president of POD-NERS, L.L.C., bought a bag of commercial bean seeds
in Sonora, Mexico, and took them back to the United States. He
picked out the yellow-colored beans, planted them and allowed them
to self-pollinate. Proctor selected yellow seeds for several
generations until he got what he described as a "uniform and stable
population" of yellow bean seeds. Proctor applied for a U.S. patent
on November 15, 1996, barely two years after he purchased the beans
in Mexico.
In April 1999, Proctor won a U.S. patent on the Enola bean variety.
The patent claims exclusive monopoly on any dry bean having a seed
color of a particular shade of yellow. POD-NERS claims that it is
illegal for anyone to buy, sell, offer for sale, make, use for any
purpose including dry edible or propagation, or import yellow beans
of that description. On May 28, 1999, Proctor also won a U.S. Plant
Variety Protection Certificate on the Enola bean variety.
In late 1999, Proctor brought legal suit against two companies that
sell Mexican beans in the U.S., charging that they infringe his
patent monopoly. The companies buy yellow beans from Mexican farmers
and sell them in the United States. POD-NERS is demanding royalties
of six cents per pound on the yellow beans entering the U.S. from
Mexico.
Beans are the principal source of vegetable protein consumed by
Mexicans, and one of Mexico's basic food staples. Yellow "Azufrado"
beans are especially popular in the Northwest region of Mexico where
98% of surveyed Mexicans eat them. Mexico's National Research
Institute for Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock (INIFAP) recently
conducted a DNA analysis of POD-NERS' patented bean that indicated
the Enola variety is genetically identical to Mexico's "Azufrado"
bean.
Outraged by the appropriation of Mexican germplasm and legal
attempts to block Mexican bean exports to the U.S., the Mexican
government announced in early January that it will challenge the
U.S. patent on the Enola bean variety. "We will do everything
necessary, anything it takes, because the defense of our beans is a
matter of national interest," declared Jose Antonio Mendoza Zazueta,
Under-Secretary of Mexican Rural Development. The patent challenge
will cost at least US$200,000 in legal fees.
According to the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)
an NGO that has been closely following the case, the Enola bean
patent is technically and morally unacceptable. The Mexican
government is now forced to devote scarce financial resources to
challenge a patent that should never have been granted. RAFI says
that it is difficult to decide who is more at fault -- the patent
owner who claims that Mexican beans are infringing his U.S. monopoly
patent on seeds of Mexican origin or the U.S. patent examiners who
determined that Proctor was eligible to win an exclusive monopoly
patent.
Last year RAFI released a report, "Plant Breeders' Wrongs" which
documents 147 suspected cases of institutional biopiracy. The Enola
patent is only the most recent example of a long line of abuses.
Mexican beans, South Asian basmati, Bolivian quinoa, Amazonian
ayahuasca, Indian chickpeas -- all have been subject to intellectual
property claims that are predatory on the knowledge and genetic
resources of indigenous peoples and farming communities.
The Enola controversy starkly illustrates the danger of life
patenting and the power of exclusive monopoly patents to block
agricultural imports, to disrupt or destroy export markets for Third
World farmers, and to legally appropriate staple food crops or
sacred medicinal plants that represent the cultural heritage of
millennia.
Source: RAFI Geno-Types, "Mexican Bean Biopiracy," January 17, 2000;
available at http://www.rafi.org.
Contact: RAFI, 118 E. Main St., Rm. 211, Carrboro, NC 27510;
http://www.rafi.org.
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