Brazil according to Monsanto: an eternal déjà vu in the mould of Marie-Monique Robin's documentary

Abstract

The text gathers recent Brazilian examples of conflict between Monsanto and soybean growers, taking as its reference the documentary The World According to Monsanto, by Marie-Monique Robin. It examines the ruling of the 5th Civil Chamber of the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul that reversed the first-instance judgment and allowed the continued collection of royalties on RR1 technology, whose patents expired on 31 August 2010, and sets that outcome against article 78 of Law 9,279/96 and the fall of the subject matter into the public domain. It then addresses the second-generation technology, Intacta RR2 PRO, the agreement offered to employers' federations and suspended by the specialised court of Cuiabá on 11 October 2013, and the clauses of general release and of royalties on saved seed, set against article 10 of the Plant Variety Protection Act. It notes the concentration of the transgenic seed market, describes the successive charges borne by the farmer, and concludes that patent applications PI0610088-2 and 0610654-4, still pending examination at INPI, support neither exclusivity nor collection.