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Cities could play a key role in conserving pollinators, new research shows. According to a study published in the journal “Nature Ecology and Evolution”, residential and community gardens in urban areas are pollinator ‘hotspots’. “Urbanization is increasing globally, and it is thus crucial to promote management strategies that support key ecosystem services provided by urban biodiversity, such as pollination,” the researchers write. “Furthermore, given the threats to pollinators present in farmland, urban areas provide an increasingly important opportunity for pollinator conservation.” The research, carried out by scientists at the Universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Reading in collaboration with Cardiff University and the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, assessed all major urban land uses for pollinators, including cemeteries, gardens and man-made surfaces. While there have been a few small-scale studies on pollinators in some urban land uses, this is the first study which considered cities in their entirety, they said. “We present a large-scale, well-replicated study of floral resources and pollinators in 360 sites incorporating all major land uses in four British cities.”

The study found that residential gardens and allotments (community gardens) are particularly good for pollinators. The researcher write that lavender, borage, dandelions, thistles, brambles and buttercups are important plant species for pollinators in urban areas which they use as food sources. Gardens are pollinator hotspots due to their extensive area, and allotments due to their high pollinator diversity and leverage on city-scale plant-pollinator community robustness. Robustness is a measure of how a community responds to species loss, the University of Bristol explained in a press release. Robust communities can survive the disappearance of some species but species loss in fragile communities leads to a domino effect of other extinctions. “By understanding the impact of each urban land use on pollinators, whether it is gardens, allotments, road verges or parks, we can make cities better places for pollinators,” said Dr Katherine Baldock, lead researcher from the University of Bristol.

The authors designed a new measure of management success based on community robustness that considers the stability of whole communities of pollinators, and not just individual species. They recommend that public greenspaces should be managed in a way they benefit pollinators. “Parks, road verges and other public greenspaces make up around a third of cities but have fewer pollinator visits and resources for pollinators than other land uses,” they said. Their research showed that increasing the numbers of flowers, for example by mowing less often, can help urban pollinators. The scientists also call for a better garden management. Gardens make up a quarter to a third of the area of UK cities and better garden management in new developments and existing gardens is likely to benefit pollinator conservation. Furthermore, city planners and local councils should also increase the number of community gardens in towns and cities. “Allotments have a high floral abundance and diversity as they host many weeds, in addition to flowers grown for cutting, and flowering fruit and vegetables. Allotments are also recognized as beneficial for human health and wellbeing,” they wrote in the journal. “Thus, expanding areas cultivated for urban food growing confers multiple benefits and should be incorporated into city-level planning strategies for pollinators,” they concluded (ab)

Supermarkets in the Czech Republic must donate unsold products to food banks. On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal against a new amendment to the national Food Act, aimed at reducing food waste. The amendment stipulates that all supermarkets in the Czech Republic with a retail area of more than 400 square metres must provide unsold but still edible food to charities which then distribute them to the needy. The law refers to products that do not meet certain retail standards, for example with respect to packaging or labelling, but are otherwise safe for consumption. A group of 25 members of the country’s upper house had lodged an appeal, arguing that the amendment was unconstitutional because it represented a kind of tax on food and was in breach of ownership rights. The group around Senator Valenta also protested against fines that can be imposed on supermarket chains for non-compliance with the law. The Constitutional Court rejected the appeal. The judges argued that the law was part of international efforts to combat food squandering, reduce waste levels and help the socially disadvantaged.

The Czech Federation of Foodbanks, which represents 15 organizations, welcomed the decision. “I regard it as a victory for reason over bureaucracy,” Veronika Láchová, director of the federation, told the Czech radio station “Radio Praha”. “Our statistics suggest that every quarter we save supermarket chains up to hundreds of thousands of crowns that they would otherwise spend on destroying food. We worked with them previously and they were aware of that even before this law came in. If they destroyed that food instead of donating it, that would be to disparage not just the value of human work but the value of what we do – and the value of those foods,” she added. Former Minister of Agriculture Marian Jurečka, who introduced the amendment in 2016, said on Twitter that the law now helps more than 100,000 people in the Czech Republic, Radio Praha reported. (ab)

In Europa and Central Asia, significant progress has been made in reducing undernourishment over the past two decades. However, new evidence shows a stagnation of this trend, particularly in Central Asia. According to a report released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on December 11th, almost 14.3 million adults, and some 4.7 million children in Europe and Central Asia suffered from severe food insecurity in the three-year period from 2015 to 2017. “While the prevalence of severe food insecurity in Europe and Central Asia at around 2 percent is far lower than the world average of 9.2 percent, it is still cause for concern especially in those countries with persisting hunger and malnutrition,” said FAO senior policy officer Ariella Glinni, the main author of the report. Central Asia is the subregion with the highest prevalence of undernourishment at 6.2% in 2017, up from 5.8% in 2015. Undernourishment remains an issue of concern especially in Georgia (7.4%), Uzbekistan (7.4%), Kyrgyzstan (6.5%), Serbia (5.6%), Turkmenistan (5.5%) and Albania (5.5%).

According to report, there are subregional differences, with a higher share of women in the Caucasus or Central Asia being affected by severe food insecurity than men. “This signals more fundamental gender inequalities in societies, reflected in access to food as well as food utilization,” Glinni said. “To ensure that all people, regardless of gender, have adequate food and nutrition, we need to promote coherent measures that can be taken at all levels and in different policy areas.” She added that there is also a need to better understand the situation of different population groups and to address the underlying issues such as poverty, economic and social inequalities, conflicts and other factors. Significant differences in nutrition levels were also observed between urban and rural areas. “In some countries in Central Asia, stunting among the poorest groups in rural areas was nearly twice as high as in cities,” said the report. “This underlines the importance of addressing the underlying conditions in poor rural areas of poverty, long-term insufficient nutrient intake, poor diets, and frequent infections.”

The authors point out that malnutrition in one or more of its three main forms – undernutrition, overweight and obesity, and micronutrient deficiencies – is present to varying degrees in all countries of the region. Often all three forms coexist, creating what is called the “triple burden of malnutrition.” The growing levels of overweight and obesity in the region are cause for serious concern. Across the Europe Central Asia region, 24.6% of the total population were obese during the period from 2000 to 2016 period, a figure representing 200 million obese people. In Turkey, 32.3% of the population were obese in 2016, followed by Belarus (26.6%), the Ukraine (26.1%) and the Russian Federation (25.7%). The report blames a transition in diets with increased intake of fat, sugar, meat, dairy, and processed foods, often accompanied by a more sedentary lifestyle. (ab)

The United Nations have finally adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. On December 17, a large majority of 121 countries, amongst them most Asian, African and Latin American member states, voted in favor of Resolution no. A/C.3/73/L.30 at the 73th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Only eight countries rejected the resolution (Australia, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States), while 54 countries abstained from the vote, including Germany. The formal adoption represents the culmination of a historic process that was initiated 17 years ago by the international peasant movement La Via Campesina, supported by numerous civil society organizations. The declaration recognizes the rights and special needs of peasants and other people working in rural areas, including the rights to land, seeds, and biodiversity. “The approval of this new instrument signals a breakpoint,” the human rights organization FIAN International said in a statement. “The Signatory States have shown their concern over the particular conditions of discrimination suffered by peasant farmers, landless, rural workers, indigenous peoples, livestock herders, and small-scale fishers and their communities in all rural areas of the world.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, also welcomed the adoption of the declaration. “Globally, peasants feed the world but their own enjoyment of their human rights is challenged, including their own right to food,” she said in a press release. “I hope this Declaration will serve to enhance States’ commitment at all levels to uphold and protect the rights and dignity of peasants and other people working in rural areas. They play a critical role in preserving our culture, environment, livelihood and traditions, and must not be left behind as we implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” she added. La Via Campesina stressed that the focus will now be on implementation. ”This declaration is an important tool which should guarantee and realize the rights of the peasants and other working people in rural areas. We urge all states to implement the declaration in a conscientiousness and transparent manner, guaranteeing peasants and rural communities the access to and control over land, peasant’s seeds, water and other natural resources,” said Elizabeth Mpofu, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina and a farmer from Zimbabwe. “As peasants we need the protection and the respect for our values and our role in society to achieve food sovereignty.” (ab)

The burden of malnutrition across the world remains unacceptably high, and progress unacceptably slow. However, although the world is off track, the chance to end malnutrition has never been greater. These are the messages of the “2018 Global Nutrition Report” released in Bangkok on 29 November. The comprehensive report on nutrition, written by an expert group, reviews existing processes, highlights progress in combating malnutrition, identifies challenges and proposes ways to solve them. According to the report, stunting declined from 32.6% of all the world’s children under 5 years of age in 2000 to 22.2% in 2017. In numbers, this is a decline from 198.4 million to 150.8 million children. Stunting among children in Africa has decreased in percentage terms from 38.3% to 30.3% over the same period. However, due to population growth, the actual number of stunted children has risen. There has been a slight decrease in underweight women since 2000, from 11.6% to 9.7% in 2016. Yet, while there has been progress, it has been slow and patchy.

On the other hand, overweight and obesity among adults are at record levels with 38.9% of adults overweight or obese, stretching from Africa to North America, and increasing among adolescents. Women have a higher prevalence of obesity than men, at 15.1% compared with 11.1%. Worldwide, 38.3 million children under five years are overweight. Beyond health, slow progress on malnutrition is also impacting the social and economic development of countries. It is estimated that malnutrition in all its forms could cost society up to US$3.5 trillion per year, with overweight and obesity alone costing US$500 billion per year. “The figures call for immediate action. Malnutrition is responsible for more ill-health than any other cause,” said Corinna Hawkes, co-chair of the report and Director of the Centre for Food Policy. “The health consequences of overweight and obesity contribute to an estimated four million deaths, while undernutrition explains around 45% of deaths among children under five.”

The assessment shows that just under 50% of countries are on course to meet at least one of nine global nutrition targets. However, no country is on track to meet all of the nine targets that are being covered in the report and just five countries are on track to meet four. Not a single country is on course to meet the adult obesity target. “The uncomfortable question is not so much ‘why are things so bad?’ but ‘why are things not better when we know so much more than before?’” said Hawkes. The report highlights that solutions already exist but the bad news is that effective ideas are not being adopted at scale. For example, studies show that sugar-sweetened beverage taxes are working effectively to reduce consumption of unhealthy drinks. In Mexico, an evaluation of the sugar-sweetened beverage tax found that sales of targeted beverages fell by 9.7% across the population two years after the policy was implemented. The greatest decline in purchases (17%) was seen among households of lower socioeconomic position. Similar studies in Chile and the US (Berkeley and Philadelphia) have also demonstrated the desired policy effect. “While malnutrition is holding back human development everywhere, costing billions of dollars a year, we are now in a position to fight it,” said Jessica Fanzo, co-chair of the report. “From policies such as sugar taxes, to new data that enables us to understand what people are eating and how we can best target interventions, the global community now has the recipes that work.”

The authors call for better political commitment to end malnutrition in all its forms. They mention new nutrition policies developed in China as an example. The country is facing the second-largest undernourished population, with overweight and obesity levels rising at alarming rates and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes on the up. To address this, China developed two plans with the potential to transform malnutrition. The National Nutrition Plan (2017–2030), released last year, includes a range of malnutrition targets including stunting, obesity, anaemia, breastfeeding and folic acid deficiency among vulnerable people. Among the measures of the plan are nutrition monitoring, new dietary reference intakes, screening programmes, a campaign to promote healthy lifestyles, recommended limits for sugars, fats and salt in packaged foods, nutrition labelling in cafes and restaurants, standards on fortified foods, and education on healthy diets. It recommends a balanced diet combining cereals, meat, vegetables, fruit, milk and soy. (ab)

Climate change is affecting the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, and human health and welfare across the U.S. and its territories, warns a federal report released on November 23. The second volume of the “Fourth National Climate Assessment” (NCA4), published by the United States Global Change Research Program, was compiled by more than 300 experts, including individuals from federal, state, and local governments, indigenous communities, national laboratories, universities, and the private sector. The report concludes that “the evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats to Americans’ physical, social, and economic well-being are rising.” According to the authors, these impacts are projected to intensify, but how much they intensify will depend on actions taken to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the risks from climate change now and in the coming decades.

With respect to agriculture and food, the report says that rising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, wildfire on rangelands and heavy downpours are expected to increasingly challenge the quality and quantity of U.S. crop yields, livestock health, price stability and rural livelihoods. The first key message of chapter 10 on agriculture and rural communities is that agricultural productivity will decrease. “Food and forage production will decline in regions experiencing increased frequency and duration of drought. Shifting precipitation patterns, when associated with high temperatures, will intensify wildfires that reduce forage on rangelands, accelerate the depletion of water supplies for irrigation, and expand the distribution and incidence of pests and diseases for crops and livestock,” says the report. The authors also warn against the degradation of soil and water resources. “The degradation of critical soil and water resources will expand as extreme precipitation events increase across our agricultural landscape. Sustainable crop production is threatened by excessive runoff, leaching, and flooding, which results in soil erosion, degraded water quality in lakes and streams, and damage to rural community infrastructure.” The experts stress that management practices to restore soil structure and the hydrologic function of landscapes are essential for improving resilience to these challenges.

The third key message is that high temperature extremes will pose enormous challenges to human and livestock health. “Extreme heat conditions contribute to heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and heart attacks in humans. Heat stress in livestock will result in large economic losses for producers. The authors also warn that residents in rural communities often have limited capacity to respond to climate change impacts, due to poverty and limitations in community resources. According to chapter 21 of the assessment, climate change is expected to have wide-ranging impacts on the Midwest. “The Midwest is a major producer of a wide range of food and animal feed for national consumption and international trade. Increases in warm-season absolute humidity and precipitation have eroded soils, created favorable conditions for pests and pathogens, and degraded the quality of stored grain.” The scientists found rising temperatures and more frequent, intense rains are likely to reduce agricultural production in the Midwest to levels seen in the 1980s by 2050. Commodity crops like corn could see reduced yields of 5 to over 25% across the Midwest.

“How many wake-up calls do we need?” said Carol Werner, Executive Director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). “Every new National Climate Assessment has built on the previous one, confirming that climate change is already happening, and that we need to act,” she added. “Time is running out.” The Trump administration released the report on Black Friday, when Americans traditionally go shopping and spend time with their families, a date that critics said was chosen to bury the report. President Trump told reporters on Monday: “I’ve seen it. I’ve read some of it. I don’t believe it.” He said it makes no sense for the United States to take drastic steps to combat climate change when other countries, such as China and Japan, do not address climate change. “Right now we’re at the cleanest we’ve ever been. It’s very important to me,” Trump added. “But if we’re clean but every other place on earth is dirty, that’s not so good,” he continued. (ab)

The UN has passed a resolution adopting a declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. On 19 November, a large majority of 119 countries in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly voted in favor of Resolution no. A/C.3/73/L.30, amongst them most Asian, African and Latin American member states. Seven countries rejected the resolution (Australia, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK and the US), while 49 countries abstained from the vote, mostly European countries including Germany and Spain. However, this did not prevent Portugal, Luxemburg and Switzerland from supporting the document. The declaration recognizes the rights and special needs of peasants and other people working in rural areas, including fisher folks, nomads, agricultural workers and indigenous peoples, as well as older persons, women, youth and children, and takes into account the need to address the multiple forms of discrimination and threats suffered by peasants worldwide.

The process for a declaration of peasant rights has been a long journey. In 2012, an open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIWG) was created after many years of advocacy work by La Via Campesina, the world’s largest peasant movement, supported by many other organizations across the globe. Bolivia, the chair of the process, welcomed the result of this week’s vote, stressing the importance of the declaration in realizing more resilient, sustainable and inclusive societies: “We believe this is a major step towards public policies that recognize not only the rights and needs of peasants but also their contributions to the well-being and quality of life of the societies they nurture through their daily work. We are sure that this instrument will play a central role in human rights as well as in the eradication of hunger and poverty, in line with Agenda 2030 for sustainable development and the Decade of Family Farming, without leaving anyone behind.”

La Via Campesina representatives also expressed their satisfaction: „The adoption of the declaration (…) is a strategic victory, not only for peasants but for the peoples of the world as a whole,” said Diego Monton from La Via Campesina (CLOC). “We will continue on this long path of struggle and unity, for rights and social justice, convinced that full democracy is only possible through Agrarian Reform, the social function of land and the full enjoyment of the rights of peasants”, he added. “For 17 years we have been patiently campaigning for an international instrument that can protect our rights as peasants and to guard our food systems from being dismantled to favour a few,” said Elizabeth Mpofu, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina. “It is a proud moment for millions of peasants worldwide, who never give up when faced with adversity.” After this week’s vote, the declaration needs to be formally ratified by the UN General Assembly in December. (ab)

Money from pension funds has fueled a massive investment in farmland over the past decade, with negative consequences for rural communities. This is the message of a new report by international non-profit organization GRAIN. It analyzed public documentation and relevant journals and identified 76 public and corporate pension funds with investments in farmland, managed either in-house or by external fund managers. It estimates that these pension funds have allocated a combined $15 billion to farmland investments over the past ten years. The results compare with those of industry sources, such as a study published in 2016 by financial analyst company Preqin which identified 100 unlisted agriculture/farmland-focused funds that had closed since 2006, raising approximately US$ 22 billion. “Pension funds have quietly taken over large swaths of farmland in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Eastern Europe, New Zealand, and the United States, and are considering investments in other countries,” GRAIN warns. “This unprecedented take-over of farmland by financial companies has major implications for rural communities and food systems, and must be challenged.”

According to the organization, the pace of the global farmland grab has slowed over the past seven years. Community resistance, bad press and investor incompetence have all played a role in reducing the scope and number of large-scale farmland deals in most parts of the world. “But the phenomenon has not gone away, and, unfortunately, within the financial sector, farmland has become an ‘alternative’ option for managers looking for diversification and new income streams,” says the report. “Pension funds, more than any other financial actor, are responsible for making this happen. Without cash injections from pension fund managers, most of the farmland funds in operation today would not have survived or come into existence.” GRAIN’s data shows that most of the money going into farmland is coming from North American and European pension funds, with the pension funds from the United States outpacing those of any other country. The “Dallas Police and Fire Pension System” invested around 162 million dollars in the in the acquisition of farms of row crops and apples and nuts across the US, or the “Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois” invested 79 million dollars in Black River Agriculture Fund 2, a $587 million own-and-operate farmland fund created by Cargill, which is so far known to have acquired a sugar mill operation in Brazil and several farms in Australia.

The report reveals that pension funds have confined their farmland acquisitions to North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and parts of South America where there are functioning land markets and sufficient infrastructure for commodity exports. “Pension funds, both foreign and domestic, have quietly taken over huge swaths of farmland in the US, Australia and other industrial countries, without much pushback, even though the implications for rural communities are significant. We estimate that the amount of money pensions funds are currently putting into US farmland is enough to buy roughly 1 in 10 of the farms expected to come on the market in the US over the next five years.” GRAIN says pension funds are more averse to investing in Africa and other places where lands are less privatized, the infrastructure is less developed and they are more liable to accusations of land grabbing. In those parts of the world, most large-scale land deals are being carried out by agribusiness companies. But some pension funds are also prepared to take a risk. Brazil, for example, is a major target for pension fund farmland acquisitions, yet it ranks highest in the world for land conflicts.

GRAIN’s list also includes high pension fund investments by TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association). TIAA has built a mini-empire of farms around the world, with cash supplied by numerous pension funds from different countries and sectors, from civil servants to doctors. Most of TIAA's farmland investments are overseen by its asset investment management arm Nuveen and operated through various subsidiaries. Nuveen stated in 2017 that TIAA's farmland portfolio covers 600,000 ha, of which 43% is in Brazil, 40% in Australia, 15% in the US and the remainder in Poland and Chile. Nearly all of these farms produce grains, oilseeds and sugarcane. According to GRAIN, TIAA’s public response to clear evidence that it was contributing to environmental destruction and land grabs in Brazil was to deny it, and then add a few extra pages to its responsible farmland investment report.

GRAIN says more needs to be done to expose the impacts pension fund investment in farmland is having in the US and other industrial countries. Not only because of how it affects rural communities in these countries, but also because, if these investments are not challenged, pension funds will be emboldened to make riskier farmland purchases overseas. “The stage is set for a massive transfer of land from small farmers to financial corporations – in the near total absence of public debate and regulation,” warns GRAIN. It says urgent action is needed in the face of today’s unprecedented take-over of farmland by corporate actors and financial speculators. “Leaving it to these companies to police themselves with voluntary guidelines is a recipe for disaster,” the report concludes. (ab)

The world is projected to produce a record 335 million tons of meat in 2018, according to the latest Food Outlook published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This is an increase of 1.5% compared to 330 million tons of meat (in carcass weight equivalent) in 2017 and the fastest growth since 2014. The FAO experts expect a strong recovery of the meat sector in China, after three years of contraction, and increases in the United States and the EU. “Meat production forecasts were raised for the EU and Australia, where dry and warm weather propelled feed costs, fostering an increase in animal slaughter,” says the report. Over the past 50 years, global meat production has almost quadrupled from 84 million tons in 1965. World meat exports in 2018 are forecast to hit a new record of 33.6 million tons, up 2.6% from 2017. FAO said export growth this year is foreseen to originate in the United States, Australia, Argentina, Thailand and the EU, while imports are projected to rise in China, Japan, Mexico and the Republic of Korea. Global meat consumption is also on the rise. On average, every person on Earth currently consumes 43.7 kilograms of meat per year, up from 25 kilograms in 1965.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) criticized in a statement released on Thursday that worldwide demand for meat continues to rise even though meat production is known to be a major contributor to climate change and environmental destruction. “Hectares of rainforest in South America are cleared for cattle, to make our favorite classic burgers and steaks. One average quarter pounder beef burger drains around 1,695 liters of water, depending on where it is made, from precious resources,” the statement says. Animal feed made from soy – one of the largest export commodities from South America – is leading to widespread deforestation and displacement of farmers and indigenous peoples around the globe. James Lomax, Sustainable Food Systems and Agriculture Programme Management Officer at UN Environment, points out that small organic husbandry operations have a very different environmental footprint compared with industrial type livestock production. “But at the core of the environmental issue is the way meat is produced, and crucially, consumed. We must explore ways to strike an ecological balance. Reducing intensively farmed meat consumption is good for people and the planet. That means eating a sustainably reared or alternative burger or steak now and then, rather than an intensively-farmed mass-produced version three times a week,” he added. But there are also vegan and plant-based meat alternatives for those who can’t live without burgers. Research by the University of Michigan shows that Americans eat around three burgers a week. If just one of these was swapped for a plant-based alternative burger for one year, it would be like taking the greenhouse gases from 12 million cars off the road for a year. (ab)

The European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked a controversial patent on conventionally bred broccoli. This is a great success for “No Patents on Seeds!”, a broad coalition of civil society organizations, which had filed an opposition to the patent. In 2013, Seminis, a company owned by Monsanto, which has meanwhile been bought up by Bayer, was granted patent EP1597965 on a broccoli with a longer stalk than other varieties, making it easier to mechanically harvest the crop. The patent covered the plants, the seeds and the harvested “severed broccoli heads” as an invention. It additionally covered a “plurality of broccoli plants grown in a field of broccoli.” In 2014, the coalition against patents on seeds filed an opposition because according to European patent law, unlike genetically engineered crops, plants and animals “obtained from essentially biological processes” are not patentable. However, EPO had a different interpretation. Its Enlarged Board of Appeal ruled in 2015 on the precedent cases of broccoli and tomato, that even though essentially biological processes for the production of plants are not patentable, the resulting plant can be patented. Despite fierce public protest, it continued to grant patents on conventionally bred plants.

In 2017, due to the pressure from the EU and civil society, EPO adopted new rules in order to exclude from patentability plants and animals derived from conventional breeding using methods like crossing and selection. In its decision revoking the broccoli patent, EPO’s Opposition Division “arrived at the conclusion that in the present case the claimed broccoli plants can only be obtained by an essentially biological process comprising crossing and selection steps”. It is the first time that the new rules have resulted in the revocation of a patent. “This is an important success for the broad coalition of civil society organizations against patents on plants and animals. Without our activities, the EPO rules would not have been changed and the patent would still be valid,” said Christoph Then for ‘No Patents on Seeds!’. “The giant corporations, such as Bayer, Syngenta and BASF, have failed in their attempt to completely monopolize conventional breeding through using patents,” he added.

However, there are still huge legal loopholes as recently shown in the case of conventionally bred barley. In 2016, the breweries Carlsberg and Heineken were granted three patents on barley plants, their usage in brewing as well as the beer produced by these methods. The patents in question are based on random mutations in the genome of the barley. Kernels were brought into contact with chemicals and in reaction showed an increase in their genetic variability. Then, specific mutations, already known to be useful, were selected by standard procedures. Last month, the EPO rejected oppositions filed by ‘No Patents on Seeds!’ and only restricted the patent instead of revoking it entirely. The coalition, which also includes the Foundation on Future Farming, warned that this could threaten free plant breeding in the future since such patented mutations could be hidden in each plant variety. “European politicians now have to take action and close these loopholes. We have to prevent the vested interests of the patent industry from endangering the future of our daily food,” said Then. (ab)