A Wise Use of the Patent System?
Whatever differences may exist between the Enola and the mayacoba, when it comes to getting them to the marketplace, they seem to be treated pretty much the same. A bean trader in Denver says every time he gets a bag of Enolas from Larry Proctor, he slaps a mayacoba label on it so consumers know what they're getting. Warehouses in L.A. and Chicago say as far as they're concerned, the beans are interchangeable. Most seem to agree that this niche Latino market in the U.S., dominated now by Proctor's Enola beans, was created with the initiative of Rebecca Gilliland, the would-be bean trader in Nogales.
Gilliland says, "Even my own customers say, 'What happened, Becky? You're the pioneer. And left behind on this thing.' "
She says after Proctor demanded that U.S. customs agents begin inspecting her yellow bean shipments at the border, and with Proctor's lawsuit and demands of up to six cents a pound for a licensing fee, her Mexican growers had had enough.
In Mexico, not even a trickle of beans heads north to the border. Anticipating NAFTA, the bean co-op in the Rio Fuerte Valley made a big investment in the sorters and stoners that made for an export quality yellow bean. Equipment that now lies idle, except when curious visitors pass.
Bean breeders all over the United States wonder: If you can patent a yellow bean, why not a black bean? Or a red bean, or a navy bean? Is this the proper way, they ask, to use the patent system? Another U.S. patent has been granted to a popping bean, whose origin lies in Peru. And to a variety of American basmati rice, with genetic heritage in the Indian subcontinent. And there are patents for corn and soybean, genetically engineered to resist herbicides, and rice infused with Vitamin A. And for pesticides based on the genetic properties of the Neem tree in India.
Claiming Genetic Wealth
Back in Colombia, CIAT director Joachim Voss says, "The problem arises in an increasingly competitive global climate that corporations and individuals seek any means available to gain competitive advantage."
In the current climate, public seed banks like CIAT are now demanding that reseachers in the United States and elsewhere sign agreements not to use the seed for commercial purposes, lest this public knowledge get locked up by private interests. Now Dr. Voss's colleagues at CIAT find themselves urging third-world countries to lay claim to their genetic heritage before someone else claims it. Dr. Voss also suggests protecting a name, like France did for Champagne or the Scots did for Scotch whiskey, but India has not done for basmati. As crop varieties come increasingly under the patent system, he says, farmers in the third world will now have to get their minds around an utterly foreign concept.
"I've worked with farmers in Asia, Africa, Latin America," says Voss. "Universally those farmers freely exchange varieties between themselves as a form of reciprocal seed exchange. And they're delighted when someone else recognizes the value of the varieties that they are using. For them the idea that you might put proprietary claim on a variety is coming from the moon, if I can use that expression. It's just totally outside the realm of their social values."
Yet others say the response should not be for everyone to just lock up their genetic heritage.
John Barton specializes in patent law and biotechnology at the Stanford Law School. He says, "When you have a patent on something like the yellow bean, or out of the basmati rice case, typically the developing countries respond angrily, because they view their property as being stolen. And I think this is a very understandable reaction."
"At the same time," he says, "I am quite concerned if the result of that action is to keep the world, including those countries, from getting access to those genetic resources that are in those countries."
Barton argues that there's too much of potential benefit to humanity at stake. In the past, increases in crop yields have come from public research. Now, some believe that the promise for another Green Revolution lies in private hands. Barton says that means the large corporations will need incentives for the wise use of the patent system to keep it open for real enhancements.
"All you have to do is look ahead just a little bit," Barton says. "The population growth curve is probably for the next generation going to be faster than the agricultural productivity growth curve has been. We're going to have to find new ways to improve agricultural productivity. And if we do this simply by using more land, we're going to destroy more forests and biodiversity than we're doing now. So the most environmentally sound thing is to find ways to grow more food on less land."
In the third world, there's much concern that the emerging global patent system is best suited to reward those with deep pockets, searching the world for genetic wealth. But Barton and many others are convinced: A good patent system can protect legitimate innovation in the service of humanity.
So the problems really do add up to more than a hill of beans in this crazy world. More, by the way, than the two little piles in my hands—mayacobas from Mexico in one hand, and in the other, Larry Proctor's Enolas, sent via a third party in Colorado. With these samples you can tell a slight difference—the mayacobas are little bigger, a little more yellow.
