It's been a tough week in Germany for proponents of genetically engineered farm products. First Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner announced a ban on cultivating a strain of genetically modified (GM) corn. Then on Wednesday, demonstrations were held in the Bavarian capital of Munich and the Hessian capital of Wiesbaden against a patent on a breed of pig.

Around 400 people demonstrated on Munich's central Marienplatz square before moving on to the nearby headquarters of the European Patent Office, driving a small herd of swine. Their placards featured slogans like "no patents on life" and "stop the patent on the poor pig." Bavaria's Environment Minister Markus Söder, who has positioned himself as a prominent critic of genetic engineering in recent years, addressed the crowd. "We don't believe in the future of GM foods," he said to great applause.

The pig patent, EP 1651777, is an attempt by the US-based company Newsham Choice Genetics to register a faster-growing meat pig within the European Union. The line of corn, Monsanto's MON810, has been protected by a patent for years, and produces a toxin that kills the potentially devastating corn borer moth. The corn seed has faced bans in a few European countries -- against the European Commission's will -- and the German decision to ban it just before farmers are due to plant their crops is an anti-Brussels gesture that should go down well in Aigner's home state of Bavaria.

Aigner's party, the CSU, is a Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats. It has reason to worry about winning seats in the European Parliament this June and in the German parliament in September's national election. But the reason Aigner gave for the ban is simple: Monsanto, the corporation that sells the corn seed, can't guarantee that it will have no adverse effect on the environment. Recent tests from Austria suggest MON810 could reduce fertility in mice.

The swine patent likewise stems from Monsanto research, although Newsham bought the patent and its related corporate group from Monsanto in 2007. The protesting farmers in this case worry about an encroachment of patents into their fields and stalls, where traditionally no one has been able to demand money from them for cross-breeding.

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