Say that you plant a crop. Say that Monsanto has sold your neighbor seed that is patented. Say that some of the pollination gets into your frop. Say that your crop is modified.
There has been an invasion of your property by your neighbor. Tough luck for you. Monsanto can sue you for patent infringement.
A judge has dismissed a case against Monsanto brought by Organic growers.
Plaintiff lead attorney Daniel Ravicher said, “While I have great respect for Judge Buchwald, her decision to deny farmers the right to seek legal protection from one of the world’s foremost patent bullies is gravely disappointing. Her belief that farmers are acting unreasonable when they stop growing certain crops to avoid being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement should their crops become contaminated maligns the intelligence and integrity of those farmers. Her failure to address the purpose of the Declaratory Judgment Act and her characterization of binding Supreme Court precedent that supports the farmers’ standing as ‘wholly inapposite’ constitute legal error. In sum, her opinion is flawed on both the facts and the law. Thankfully, the plaintiffs have the right to appeal to the Court of Appeals, which will review the matter without deference to her findings.”
Monsanto’s history of aggressive investigations and lawsuits brought against farmers in America have been a source of concern for organic and non-GMO farmers since Monsanto’s first lawsuit brought against a farmer in the mid-90′s. Since then, 144 farmers have had lawsuits brought against them by Monsanto for alleged violations of their patented seed technology. Monsanto has brought charges against more than 700 additional farmers who have settled out-of-court rather than face Monsanto’s belligerent litigious actions. Many of these farmers claim to not have had the intention to grow or save seeds that contain Monsanto’s patented genes. Seed drift and pollen drift from genetically engineered crops often contaminate neighboring fields. If Monsanto’s seed technology is found on a farmer’s land without contract they can be found liable for patent infringement.
“Family farmers need the protection of the court,” said Maine organic seed farmer Jim Gerritsen, President of lead plaintiff OSGATA. ”We reject as naïve and undefendable the judge’s assertion that Monsanto’s vague public relations ‘commitment’ should be ‘a source of comfort’ to plaintiffs. The truth is we are under threat and we do not believe Monsanto. The truth is that American farmers and the American people do not believe Monsanto. Family farmers deserve our day in court and this flawed ruling will not deter us from continuing to seek justice.”
The plaintiffs brought this suit against Monsanto to seek judicial protection from such lawsuits and challenge the validity of Monsanto’s patents on seeds.
There are genetic issues here.
“Seeds are the memory of life,” said Isaura Anduluz of plaintiff Cuatro Puertas and the Arid Crop Seed Cache in New Mexico. ”If planted and saved annually, cross pollination ensures the seeds continue to adapt. In the Southwest, selection over many, many generations has resulted in native drought tolerant corn. Now that a patented drought tolerant corn has been released how do we protect our seeds from contamination and our right to farm?”
Nonhybrid seeds allow farmers to replant from their own crop. Genetically modified seeds do not.
It is to Monsanto’s advantage as a seller to stamp out competition from nonhybrids.
This is a very sad development. Please, everyone, wake up and think of the consequences. Natural law will trump the legal shenanigans and the whole human race will be in jeopardy. Think about it.
If Monsanto wants to control their patented seed, then they should be forced to grow them under controlled (i.e. non-open) fields. If a wild bee cross-polinates an heirloom plant with one of Monsanto's hybrids, the only ones who should be sued is Monsanto for not keeping "their" pollen controlled.
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Best way to protect your crop from unwanted cross breeding would be to eliminate the offending crop. I would think that would be simple
Those electric lawn tractors are extremely quiet and most have batteries that can be exchanged with a recharged one rather quickly.
ZOOM zoom I likes fireworks just saying.
To many rights and freedoms are being eroded away.
What Monsanto does is wrong. The judges are wrong.
Now – how do we correct it?
This lawsuit and the decision rendered by the judge leaves me scratching my head and thinking of some pretty weird applications of her legal logic in areas other than seed patent infringement that would be laughable. One would think that it will be overturned on appeal.
Sounds like a certain judge is getting a new beach house courtesy of you-know-who. Investigate the money trail and start the appeal process…
This is serious stuff, folks. Monsanto is overturning millions of years of evolution with haphazard decisions that could ruin or taint our food supply forever. This company cares about nothing but profits. They have designed some of the most lethal and poisonous compounds known to man, and have unleashed them on the earth. It's up to the people to stop the insanity. Contact your Congressperson and demand that they stop Monsanto!
Every day our freedoms are being taken away. We are no longer America but a shadow of what once was. I feel sorry for my children and my grandchildren. Their world will be bleak, full of starvation and dictatorship. And most of the freedoms we lost in the name of safety.
Monsanto pseudonymous with Agri-bully. It's time to stop Corporate farming from destroying the family farm and all small farming operations. These seed producers want to destroy the farming of heirloom crops and replace it with a monoculture that goes against nature and sets crop production up for huge failures because of a lack of diversity.
Boycott Monsanto!
Buy Non-GMO!
1. Boycott Monsanto. Courtesy, http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Call-to-Boycot…
The following U.S. dealers stock Seminis/Monsanto seeds for the home gardener. DON'T BUY THESE BRANDS:
W Atlee Burpee, Dege Garden Center, E & R Seed Co., Earl May Seed, Garden Trends, Gardens Alive, Germania Seed Co., Johnnys Selected Seeds, J.W. Jung Seed Co., Lindenberg Seeds, Mountain Valley Seed, Nichols Garden Nursery, Park Seed, Rocky Mountain Seed Co., T & T Seeds, Ltd., Tomato Growers Supply, Willhite Seed Co.
When you buy seeds, make sure they are heirloom seeds, and not hybrid or genetically modified. Check out the companies, and if they purchase their seeds from Seminis, find another company because you are supporting Monsanto when you buy their products. Save the seeds from your heirloom crops and start your own seed bank, because very soon, clean seeds will be unavailable unless they come from you or your neighbor. It is up to us to do the research, ask the questions, then follow through by action.
2. Buy Non-GMO Products – Free Shopping Guides:
a) Free download, non-GMO shopping guides available, http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/
b) True Foods Now, http://truefoodnow.org/shoppers-guide/
Free download, http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/cf…
c) Free non-GMO shopping guide downloads, http://www.responsibletechnology.org/resources/do…
Monsanto bans GMO foods in their own cafeterias!
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/gm-food-…
More on Monsanto's twisted logic ,http://www.naturalnews.com/034745_Monsanto_GM_foods_safety_testing.html
In the Why aren't you running human clinical trials on GM crops? section of Monsanto's Food Safety page, the biotechnology giant explains its opinion that GMOs are "substantially equivalent" to natural organisms. According to Monsanto, since concentrations of proteins, carbohydrates, and other nutrient factors vary among natural crops, as well as among natural and GM crops, then these differences are automatically unimportant in light of GMO safety. Furthermore, Monsanto claims that its injection of foreign DNA into its GM crops is also automatically safe because, get this, DNA is present in natural crops as well. Never mind that the injected DNA is foreign and unnatural, and is used to alter the entire genetic structure of GM crops — according to Monsanto, its unnatural DNA is automatically non-toxic because every other plant also has DNA. Case closed.
Based on Monsanto's pseudoscientific nonsense, everything can be considered non-toxic and safe because it is all made of atoms, just like our bodies!