Animal Breed Ownership Concentration

28 November 2007
Consumers are usually not told which breeds of chicken, cattle or swine have produced the eggs, milk and meat offered in the supermarkets or the butchery shops. They should get interested, since they are contributing to the development of a global genetic monoculture.

Local pig ownership in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea. Women look after their pigs lovingly

Fowl Play
Between 1989 and 2006, the number of companies supplying poultry genetics at a global scale was reduced from ten to two in layers and from eleven to four in broilers [meat chickens]. In turkey breeding, only three companies supply the world markets. Entrepreneurs all over the world wanting to produce eggs or poultry meat on a commercial scale buy genetic material, that is parent chicken for day-old chicks and hatching eggs, from this handful of globally operating producers. The Dutch company Hendrix [which does business in 100 countries] provides the genetics for the layer hens of 80% of the world’s commercially produced brown eggs. Almost 70% of white eggs are produced by layer hens originating from a German company, PHW.
Since 2005, PHW has also owned Aviagen, the world’s largest broiler and turkey breeder. Aviagen shares the global broiler genetics market with only three other companies. One of them, Cobb, belongs to Tyson, the world’s largest meat processor. The second, Hybro, is owned by Nutreco, a major animal feed producer, who also owns the second largest pig and turkey breeding companies.
Monsanto’s pigs
Monsanto in 2005 filed two applications for extensive patents on breeding swine with the world intellectual property organisation in Geneva. One patent, WO2995/015989 (EP1651030), is concerned with business ideas for combining breeding methods already commonly practised.
Pig Improvement Company
Genus, based in the UK, is the world’s largest animal genetic company. Its subsidiary, Pig Improvement Company which operates in thirty countries, including Australia [Grong Grong, NSW], has transformed itself from a breeding company to an international monopoly, with pig breeders becoming “inventors of pigs”. The company .. makes patent applications that cover genes … and whole animals.
Information from League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development, 2007