Greenpeace led calls for a global ban on patents on conventional seeds and animals Monday at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The appeal was made by No Patents on Seeds, a new international coalition set up by Greenpeace, Italy's top farmers' association Coldiretti and some 30 other bodies.
The coalition says multinational companies are taking growing control of global agriculture by patenting conventional - not genetically modified - seeds, plants and livestock.
These companies are claiming intellectual property rights over breeding methods too, it says.
This hits farmers, who are deprived of their rights to save their harvested seeds, and breeders, who can no longer use the patented seeds and animals freely for further breeding.
Many farmers risk losing their livelihoods as a result, the campaign claims.
No Patents on Seeds says in many cases multinationals just analyse plant genomes, select the gene sequences of varieties that are resistant to certain conditions or pests, or have a high nutritional value, and claim them as 'inventions'.
The alliance argues there is no real invention here, the patents are just a ploy to gain large-scale control of plant genetic resources that should not belong to anyone.
"Big multinationals like Syngenta are even requesting patents on basic crops like rice," explained Tina Goethe of the Swissaid NGO, a member of the No Patents on Seeds alliance, at Monday's FAO conference on the issue.
"Our global coalition will continue to put pressure on multinationals like Syngenta to block these patents, which threaten food security at the global level".
Greenpeace says another big patent predator is US firm Monsanto.
It says Monsanto has filed about a dozen global patent applications on pigs and pig breeding-methods already in use, such as normal crossing and selecting and using artificial insemination.
"We have to stop the patenting of the genetic resources of conventional plants and animals, otherwise farmers and consumers will lose control of the agro-food sector from the land to the dinner table," said Coldiretti.
"We are not just seeking to defend food sovereignty, but also a model of sustainable agriculture that respects quality and bio-diversity".
No Patents on Seeds is lobbying hard ahead of a major conference on this issue, the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources, in Interlaken, Switzerland, in September.
No Patents on Seeds was originally set up as a petition to the European Patent Office (EPO) for it to stop allowing the scope of patentability to broaden.
The alliance says the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal will soon pass judgement in a test case on a patent a British company holds on a type of broccoli bred with conventional seeds and methods.
