I'm not going to bother watching the whole video... I am going to make a comment because I am currently studying to pass the patent bar (the exam you take to become a patent agent or attorney and be able to file and work on patents with the US Patent and Trademark Office).
Whatever this is, it's probably bullshit. If they are patenting specific mutants that they they developed in their labs, thats one thing. Say you genetically engineer a pig to produce high amounts omega 3 fatty acids or something like that... something novel that never existed before, that wasn't public knowledge ("prior art") or sold. You could have a basis for a patent if you satisfy all the requirements. But obtaining a patent is a long and difficult process you have to demonstrate that you are the inventor and you have to distinguish your invention from the prior art with very specific language. Ultimately what the patent will allow you to do, is sue people who infringe upon your rights.
Also you can say you are filing a patent but unless you actually get the patent, it doesn't mean anything. As a competitor you have the right to look at the patent application and all of the correspondence between the applicant and patent office.
Also you can't just patent random things like pigs... again they have to be novel inventions or a novel process for doing something. They keyword is "novel" - must be new and never done before. Pigs have been around for a long time, no one is going to get a patent on all of the pigs in the world... a very specific strain, MAYBE. But not the animals we are currently eating today. So in conclusion, I'm not worried about showing up to the supermarket next year and not being able to buy any bacon... and you probably shouldn't either.
edit - it's just like anything else. If you spend time and money to come up with a new theraputic, you want to make money off of it. Without intellectual property rights, it becomes very difficult to make money because a completely free market would allow anyone to steal your idea and undercut your profit because they wouldn't have to incur all of the research and design costs you did to develop the product in the first place!
Therefore, you would have no incentive to make said theraputic in the first place - which hurts everyone. These companies are developing new strains of pigs, cows, grain, fruit, what have you because they feel that they can make a profit off of it. And when they do develop these new mutations and strains, they want to protect their intellectual property. Typically your patent lasts 18 years from the filing date. Since it can take a couple years to get a patent from the filing date it's more like 15 years of actual protection.
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