Monsanto pledges to let farmers use gene-spliced soybeans after patent expires

Contrary to the widely held belief that seed giant Monsanto would require companies to discontinue use of its Roundup Ready 1 soybeans after the patent expires in 2014, the company now says it will continue to allow use of the technology. The announcement "countered a widespread impression in the agriculture business that Monsanto planned to force farmers and seed companies to migrate to a successor product called Roundup Ready 2 Yield, which will remain under patent and is more expensive," Andrew Pollack of The New York Times reports.

The Roundup Ready 1 soybeans will become the first widely grown biotechnology crop to lose patent protection since gene splicing became a mainstay of crop science in the 1990s, Pollack reports. Since farmers and seed companies will no longer have to pay royalties to Monsanto on the gene after 2014, the soybeans could become agricultural biotechnology’s equivalent of a generic drug. We reported Wednesday that an Associated Press review of confidential Monsanto contracts revealed why the company's stranglehold on the seed market had become the subject of an antitrust investigation.

"This is a pretty big concession for Monsanto," Shawn Conley, a soybean specialist at the University of Wisconsin, told Pollack. Monsanto officials said they were confident that most farmers and seed companies would move to Roundup Ready 2, which the company thinks will have higher yields, and that other desirable traits would be added to those crops over time. (Read more)