Posted on 01/14/2005 4:10:10 AM PST by Ellesu
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Monsanto Co.'s "seed police" snared soy farmer Homan McFarling in 1999, and the company is demanding he pay it hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged technology piracy. McFarling's sin? He saved seed from one harvest and replanted it the following season, a revered and ancient agricultural practice.
"My daddy saved seed. I saved seed," said McFarling, 62, who still grows soy on the 5,000 acre family farm in Shannon, Miss. and is fighting the agribusiness giant in court.
Saving Monsanto's seeds, genetically engineered to kill bugs and resist weed sprays, violates provisions of the company's contracts with farmers.
Since 1997, Monsanto has filed similar lawsuits 90 times in 25 states against 147 farmers and 39 agriculture companies, according to a report issued Thursday by The Center for Food Safety, a biotechnology foe.
In a similar case a year ago, Tennessee farmer Kem Ralph was sued by Monsanto and sentenced to eight months in prison after he was caught lying about a truckload of cotton seed he hid for a friend.
Ralph's prison term is believed to be the first criminal prosecution linked to Monsanto's crackdown. Ralph has also been ordered to pay Monsanto more than $1.7 million.
The company itself says it annually investigates about 500 "tips" that farmers are illegally using its seeds and settles many of those cases before a lawsuit is filed.
In this way, Monsanto is attempting to protect its business from pirates in much the same way the entertainment industry does when it sues underground digital distributors exploiting music, movies and video games.
In the process, it has turned farmer on farmer and sent private investigators into small towns to ask prying questions of friends and business acquaintances.
Monsanto's licensing contracts and litigation tactics are coming under increased scrutiny as more of the planet's farmland comes under genetically engineered cultivation.
Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last year, an increase of 20 percent from 2003, according to a separate report released Wednesday.
Many of the farmers Monsanto has sued say, as McFarling claims, that they didn't read the company's technology agreement close enough. Others say they never received an agreement in the first place.
The company counters that it sues only the most egregious violations and is protecting the 300,000 law-abiding U.S. farmers who annually pay a premium for its technology. Soy farmers, for instance, pay a "technology fee" of about $6.50 an acre each year.
Some 85 percent of the nation's soy crop is genetically engineered to resist Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, a trait many farmers say makes it easier to weed their fields and ultimately cheaper to grow their crops.
"It's a very efficient and cost-effective way to raise soy beans and that's why the market has embraced it," said Ron Heck, who grows 900 acres of genetically engineered soy beans in Perry, Iowa.
Heck, who is also chairman of the American Soybean Association, said he doesn't mind buying new seed each year and appreciates Monsanto's crackdown on competitors who don't pay for their seed.
"You can save seed if you want to use the old technology," Heck said.
The company said the licensing agreement protects its more than 600 biotech-related patents and ensures a return on its research and development expenses, which amount to more than $400 million annually.
"We have to balance our obligations and our responsibilities to our customers, to our employees and to our shareholders," said Scott Baucum, Monsanto's chief intellectual property protector.
Still, Monsanto's investigative tactics are sewing seeds of fear and mistrust in some farming communities, company critics say.
Monsanto encourages farmers to call a company hot line with piracy tips, and private investigators in its employ act on leads with visits to the associates of suspect farmers.
Baucum acknowledged that the company walks a fine line when it sues farmers.
"It is very uncomfortable for us," Baucum said. "They are our customers and they are important to us."
The Center for Food Safety established its own hot line Thursday where farmers getting sued can receive aid. It also said it hopes to convene a meeting among defense lawyers to develop legal strategies to fight Monsanto.
The company said it has gone to trial five times and has never lost a legal fight against an accused pirate. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 allowed for the patenting of genetically engineered life forms and extended the same protections to altered plants in 2001. Earlier this year, a Washington D.C. federal appeals court specifically upheld Monsanto's license.
"It's sad. It's sickening. I'm disillusioned," said Rodney Nelson, a North Dakota farmer who settled a Monsanto suit in 2001 that he said was unfairly filed. "We have a heck of an uphill battle that I don't think can be won."
They are already suing people who have had their non-GM plants cross-pollinated by no fault of their own.
I am against GM food. I do not think it is wise to genetically alter anything. God made it that way for a reason.
Solution: Don't ever plant a Monsanto seed on your farm. Let them grow their seeds in their offices.
This is scary!
They knew the rules before they bought the seed. This farmer has no excuse for violating the terms of his agreement. I wouldn't use the seeds at all.
They knew the rules before they bought the seed
That's not necessarily so ... when is the last time you read the fine print on anything?
... they should have known the rules ...
Argentine crop futures are looking good.
God also gave us the ability to improve our world for a reason.
I remember reading this exact statement FIVE years ago.
Sell Monsanto stock. Are they saying that the crop grown from their seed belongs to them? Or just the seed? This is nuts.
If I owned Monsanto stock I'd want them to enforce signed contracts.
When you purchase the seed you are required to sign a contract saying you understand you cannot legally save seed for replanting.
McFarling can plead ignorance if he wants to, and drum up sorrowful feelings for himself by those who don't understand the process. But I'd be really surprised if Monsanto didn't show up in court with his signed statement pledging NOT to save seed for replanting.
Farmers all across America sign this pledge when they purchase seed. So McFarling thinks he's "Special" and the document doesn't apply to him, eventho he signed it?
I'm a farmer. I sign the contract when I buy their seed, and I resent the fact that some farmers ignore their signed pledge to gain an unfair financial advantage against those of us who abide by the law.
Do I like the law? No. I'd like to save seed for later planting. But I have a purchase contract that says I can't. Nobody forced me to sign the pledge. I did it willingly, because I wanted the advantages this seed provides.
Rules are Rules. It's plain and simple. McFarling broke the rules. He must be called on the carpet.
If he wanted to save seed for next year's planting he should have purchased seed without the "No Seed Saving for Replanting" strings.
I doubt that they didn't know the provisions of the agreement. Small print or not, people talk and everyone knows the rules about the product I would be willing to bet.
Interesting.....Ministry of Agriculture ping!
"it hopes to convene a meeting among defense lawyers to develop legal strategies to fight Monsanto."
Googled: Monsanto French, 126,000 hits
French Activists Destroy a Field of Monsanto Frankencorn
August 22, 2001 French activists destroy GM crops grown by US company
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:HZ-L8KgXzvEJ:www.purefood.org/monsanto/france082301.cfm+monsanto+french&hl=en
"In a similar case a year ago, Tennessee farmer Kem Ralph was sued by Monsanto and sentenced to eight months in prison after he was caught lying about a truckload of cotton seed he hid for a friend."
The way the story is worded it sounds like Monanto sued Mr. Ralph and the judge sentenced him eight in prison because he lied to Monsanto about his friends truck.
What I'm guessing happened (but don't know because the story is so poorly worded) is that Mr. Ralph lied to investigators or in court regarding hideing his friends truck. When the truth came out, he was charged with perjury and sentenced to 8 months in prison. Somewhere during this process Monsanto sued him for financial damages for the contract violation.
I don't know all the details of this case, but I must say that the agricultural industry is treading on some interesting ground here. This isn't like any other industry where patents are (relatively) easy to protect -- because the products in question have the ability to reproduce. It's sort of like buying a DVD player that generates a brand new DVD player every year.
Oh. good, that distinguishes it from genetically engineered material with recombinant DNA, etc.
I was about to turn myself in to the Matress Label Police, because I saved some Lakota Squash seeds once. (Love the stuff).
But I am just some little jerk who used to have a backyeard garden till the deer invaded.
Now, it's a moot issue....sigh.
This has been an issue since Monsanto first released their "Roundup-Ready" soybeans. Farmers long in the practice of setting aside seed from their current crop for the following season were getting slammed HARD in the very first year.
Now that Monsanto has run out of those folks to hit, they are now hitting those who have "hybrid" crops that were cross pollinated, thus carrying the same gene.
I can understand their initial fight - if all farmers saved seed from those crops, the market for Monsanto would dry up after only one or two seasons. But this case is a little beyond "fair use" in my opinion.
The same seed is sold in Brazil. The price is deeply discounted there and they don't have the same legal requirements as they do in the U. S. This gives South American farmers a big advantage over American farmers. It is much like Microsoft trying to enforce copy right laws in China.
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