Posted on 03/07/2009 10:39:24 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Some say that if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, the simply shouldn’t buy Monsanto’s GMO seeds. But it isn’t quite that simple. Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples, and then sues, saying they own the crop.
Meanwhile, Monsanto is taking many other steps to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of normal seeds:
1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.
2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible.
3. Monsanto is pushing laws that ensure that farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops.
4. There are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA rules that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.”
Monsanto has sued more than 1500 farmers whose fields had simply been contaminated by GM crops.
Sources:
Surviving the Middle Class Crash February 5, 2009
It’s a stealth attempt to control the food supply by restricting access to the seeds.
If they own the patents for the hybred seeds and influence, or pay off, legislators to pass laws that restrict or forbid planting of heirloom variety seeds, then Monsanto and other agricorporations can control food production.
Think using food as a political weapon ! It is being done today in Africa.
_____________________
BINGO!!!
Where can I find this information? If a farmer has planted his field with purchased seed, all he/she need do is present the receipt for the seed that they planted. I know of no farmer that has been intimidated into buying Monsanto products due to legal threats. Around these parts, the seed companies beg for business ... not try to intimidate their way in the door.
Read Joel Salatin - of Polyface Farms, in Swoope, Virginia. He ain't no lefty, but, he isn't some RINO. He pulls no punches with both political parties, when they infringe on food freedom.
When the ATF and state Ag departments start doing SWAT-like violent raids on peaceful farms based on spurious alleged infringements or even entrapment, even the Inside-the-Beltway libs get riled -- because their clean, healthy food supply is endangered. (Look up the Ohio family, and the Pennsylvania farmer who were raided -- eerily Soviet-like). Libs up in Montgomery County, MD, were holding legal fund fundraisers for the PA farmer -- they knew it was over-the-line and tyrannical, and cut them off from supplies of reliable, quality food. These weren't conservatives putting their money where their mouths were, for this farmer, but libs!
This is serious stuff. Now, I can't say I forgive these jerks for putting Obama in power, but they at least understand the importance of food.
Lefties and righties or whatever CAN agree that freedom is a good thing -- the food issue hits close to home. You can live without the cheap Chinese goods, and even without European cars, but you can't live without food, when I last checked.
Take a look down your grocery store aisle. Look at the ingredients. Tell me how much of it is healthy, reasonable and fit for consumption.
Yes, I've done some homework, and I've watched the "lefty" documentaries on food, water, corporations, walmart, etc. No, I don't buy everything folks are selling (e.g., Greenpeace, PETA, etc.), and I see their biases, but pay attention to what's going on, whether deliberate or accidental, and see how much "food freedom" you have, and how quickly it can be taken away.
I would encourage you to do some homework!
Aren't big paintbrushes exciting? "Banning GM seeds," "Evil Corporations." Black versus white, up versus down, who's side are you on, anyway? What fun.
Back in the real conservative world, however, behavior counts. And when people use a corporation to do evil, it becomes... an evil corporation. Like one that legally forces hybrid seed use, and legally attacks heirloom seed re-use (you ARE aware that GM hybrid seeds CAN'T be "re-used," because they are HYBRID? Then WHY did you try to get away with saying "farmers don't reuse the seeds anyway"? Talk about dishonesty!).
And when genetic modification (a concept as vast as the number of potential genome mixtures themselves) are used in species crossings found worrisome by significant percentages of scientists in relevant fields, are then legalized without even validating test protocols (let alone actually testing them as would be required for the creation of a drug, which GM seed patents try to emulate) then "GM seeds," under such conditions, SHOULD be banned until they are shown to be harmless. Just like patented drugs.
After all, the GM argument is nothing less than that billions of people should be banned from having any legal remedy against having to eat the stuff, and be REQUIRED to feed their families and children with it. Here in America, we call that an "important issue."
These are well established issues in this country, Aussiebabe. Maybe Australia should treat them with just a little bit more sophistication then the half-witted baiting and mocking that you are displaying on behalf of your country.
Unless, of course, that's exactly what you intended to do all along.
Corn is wind pollinated. Anyone who does saves their own seed from year to year, whose nieghbors plant Monsanto seed, will eventually wind up with a great deal of Monsanto DNA in their seed. Then they will be sued for attempting to, as you say hijack technology someone else has paid for, without paying a user fee.
This is just like copywrite on music. Yes, producers should be protected. But as the law now stands, if you shoot a video of a birthday party at a retaurant, with occasionally audible background music, an out of tune rendition of Happy Birthday to You, and in a few shots art work hanging on the retaurant walls can be glimpsed in the background, then email it to a few friends, you are subject to millions of dollars in liability for copywrite violations.
Bet you won't bother to go listen to any of the Derry Brownfield shows about this so you won't know why exactly I dislike Monsanto.
Guess you have no problem with a monopoly. True farmers don't have to buy their seeds - of course when their neighbors use it and the winds blow and contaminate their fields it doesn't really matter.
Like I said this isn't just about gmo foods - it was for the source used for this article - but I also said to find other sources about this subject.
BTW - I don't have any strong feelings about gmo foods either way - just have a problem with the thug tactics of Monsanto and others.
Why would conservatives be against this? Monsanto is using the government against farmers.
>>>Why is it so harmful to protect seed patent” and let others just take it for free.
As I understand it, think of this scenario (played out in Monsanto lawsuits):
Farmer plants some crop, say corn. Farmer next door plants Monsanto GM corn. Next year, Monsanto field auditor comes by and finds (illegally entering your property) that some of your corn carries their patented genetic markers. Monsanto sues you. You are then forced to buy their corn or else pay up big fines.
That’s what I understand is the issue.
No ones stealing their patents, the nature of the probem causes them to be shared. It’s up the victimized farmers to police their fields.
If true, and I think this was exactly the case in a lawsuit in Canada (might have been with wheat), then Monsanto must lose the ability to patent genetics that can’t be controlled.
God should be sued for creating the wind that carried the markers. I don’t think he’s shown up yet in any court case.
And if you doubt that, look at how long I've been here and a sampling of my posts.
What I do resent is a complete discounting of information based solely upon its source.
If it's wrong, it should be simple to refute.
You aren't one of those people who believes that anything that doesn't come from the New York Times or the lips of Katie Couric is suspect, are you?
Garden ping time.
And if you go to the source of their article:
Dr. Mercola @ mercola.com
He advocates forsaking traditional methods and coming to his clinic.
Dr. Mercola’s Natural Health Center
The existing medical establishment is responsible for killing and permanently injuring millions of Americans, but the surging numbers of visitors to Mercola.com since I began the site in 1997 - we are now routinely among the top 10 health sites on the Internet - convinces me that you, too, are fed up with their deception. You want practical health solutions without the hype, and that’s what I offer.
Thanks for the ping...I recall hearing about some companies attempting to do this several years ago.
I don’t remember this being an element of that story (though it’s been a few decades), but I remember some other recent (last year or two) novella in which actions like this were central. Probably was in one of Dozois’ annual anthologies.
I have done a lot of research and the stuff you are putting out is just junk science promoted by lefties and Greenpeace, plus PETA is a big supporter, as you mention.
Exactly, and this whole premise that “thousands” of farmers have been sued is just dumb.
Gardening PING.........
I was discussing something along the lines with someone earlier today, and this is definitely something any gardener/farmer of any stripe needs to keep an eye on.
I’m not real familiar with the 2 pieces of legislation that Smokin’ Joe links in his post #5 on this thread, but I have started reading. I long ago learned not to blow off out of hand anything posted by either Smokin’ Joe or Calpernia, and both are extremely well informed on this particular topic.
I have to believe you are a member of Greenpeace.
It’s all too funny! What does a Monsanto look like, and can I shoot it if I find one in my garden?
How does genetically altered/sterile seed contaminate my field?
How does the Monsanto identify stolen seed if they refuse to label it?
If the seed contains human DNA, and I eat enough of it, will I turn into a liberal...?
Real life is so boring.....
Well is it supported by Greenpeace and Peta.
Great post, the lack of knowledge of science on this thread is stunning.
That's your entire rebuttal?
To attack the source?
You do realize that that is the exact same way the Global Warming Cheerleaders act, don't you?
Prove to me that anything there is a lie.
If it is a lie, it shouldn't be that hards.
Whether the author is opposed to GM foods or not, the article does suggest the good point that others here have raised, that the control of the world’s food supply is in the hands of these folks who own the heirloom seeds.
I can’t eat a lot of veggies because of food allergies, but my family can and I’m going to be buying what I can that I can save seeds from.
I buy seeds from Territorial Seed Co and they sell many varieties which are labeled OP for Open Pollinated. I called them and asked and they told me that the OP varieties will breed true as long as they are not contaminated by another one nearby and that you can save the seeds from them.
I’m carefully planning my plantings of veggies so that I don’t get cross pollination within my garden. I like sugar peas and regular peas so I’m planting the varieties so that they reach maturity at different times.
http://www.territorialseed.com/
See post 72.
Thanks for the link....
Didn’t you read about the heirloom varieties? They’re trying to control those as well.
For that matter, what’s your job at Monsanto that you’re such a PR guy for them?
Just fyi - According to their website Heirloom seeds (link at the post) is no longer accepting orders for this year (due to high amount of orders already placed).
I have ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and have been very pleased with their product and service.
ping-a-ling
There seem to be quite a few around here, my friend who do not understand our desire to continue with our heirloom seeds.
I have no problem with hybrids, I plant many of them, along with my heirlooms. My problem is with the hybrid seed manufacturers having a problem with my use of heirlooms and using their power (thru $$$$) to dictate what I can and cannot plant in my garden.
This whole thing has been a orchestrated campaign for the past 10 years, led mainly by Greenpeace, but including other "green" group like Friends (Fiends) of Earth to ban GM food. It is also promoted by the organic crowd (and this is, in itself, becoming big business with companies like Whole Foods). PETA jumped on the bandwagon because they really want to ban all meat and go to organic crops.
If you do a little Google search you can find 1000’s of articles like you posted going back 10 years claiming how evil Monsanto is —it is the number 1 hated company by the anti-GM and organic groupies.
It is hopeless trying to convince people with science and also about real farming techniques (we have farms in our family), because the people who believe this stuff belong to a religious movement (or, are trying to make money by promoting organic crops) and it is faith based, just like the Global Warming crowd. In fact, you will find a high percentage of Global Warming people are also part of the anti-GM, organic crop religious zealot movement.
Monsanto is a biotech company. Among other things, they make seeds which produce plants that make their own insecticides, and are herbicide resistant. Buy the seeds from them, then grow the plants and spray their herbicides, and you don’t need to treat for bugs, or weed.
Some farmers keep seeds from the previous year and use them to grow a second crop. This deprives Monsanto of revenue from their patented seeds, so they sue.
The problem is sometimes pollen from a farmer who uses their seeds flies into a field of a farmer who doesn’t. All of the seeds that second farmer was relying on for next years crop now have Monsanto’s genes. The next year Monsanto sneaks on his property, steals a plant, tests it, and sues him for “stealing” their seeds. Even though he never bought Monsanto, and the contamination has nothing to do with anything he did, they have the money, so there is nothing he can do.
Basically, they are trying to make most farmers have to use their seeds by eliminating competition from natural seed sellers, so any farmer who doesn’t buy from them will likely end up with a contaminated crop from a neighbor and be subject to suit.
Hi there Aussiebabe. I visited your fair land many years ago, in a different life. Fremantle and Perth
About this seed business, Suppose you have been a good customer of the seed supplier, who just happens to have a monopoly on those seeds, and you go there to purchase seeds for your thousands of acres you are going to plant.
The seed supplier greets you with a big smile and informs you that there has been a change in his sales policy. Effective immediately, before you are allowed to buy seeds, you must sign a contract that entitles the seed supplier to take one third of your harvest in addition to you paying the initial cost of the seeds.
There are no other seed suppliers, What are you going to do now ?
Don’t tell me it can’t happen. A former employee of mine wanted to start a business, in a third world country near you. He had contracts and only needed a loan to purchase equipment. The money man said “looks like a good deal, I’ll loan you the money, but first I want twenty five percent of your company.” It didn’t happen.!
Let me know how you make out with your seed supplier.
WOW! Order those seeds from where you can get them folks!
Monsanto's Aggressive Pursuit of Farmers. Watch the video - very interesting.
As I said before - don't like the source? find others.
And stop accusing people of being " leftist Greenpeace" movement supporters just because they have reasons to be against something. After all "sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
Heirloom varieties belong to nobody.
I can see the hybrids having patents because of the work involved in developing them, but the heirlooms were around long before seed companies and they should not have ANY say in who owns them, grows them, saves them, or sells them. There are should be no patents allowed on on heirloom varieties.
I am so sick of idiots like you.
You must be reading a different thread here than I am.
Folks here are talking about tactics used by a company that, without doubt, is looking to buy up/out more and more small family farms and using their massive financial power to buy legislative power.
The discussion here is not coming from supporters of Greenpeace, PETA, or any other any GM food group. It’s coming from people who wish to be left alone in their gardens or on their farms, to choose the type of seed they utilize to grow what they grow.
I grow up to 50 different types of peppers and tomatoes, and I’ll be damned if some corporate geek tells me I can’t because one of them happens to be a hybrid from his company and might possibly cross pollinate one of my heirlooms.
I happen to know a little about farming, as my family owns a number of farms, and a lot more, about biotech. Most of the comments show that people do not have a great understanding of either.
The thing that irks me the most about this issue, is that it just like Global Warming, once the religious movement takes over, it is impossible to convince anyone with real science, if they have their vested faith-based views that something like GM crops are evil or Monsanto is evil. What saddens me is that some "conservatives" have fallen for this hoax. Of course, there are some Freepers that believe in Global Warming too, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
Trolls like her. (presuming the *babe* is reliable)
I am not against heirloom varieties as my family has passed down a number of flowers that we keep growing.
And to everybody.
I agree with you on that and about the hybrids. There is one hybrid type of pepper that I buy every year and have never bothered trying to save the seeds to see if I could reproduce them --- but I might this year :)
You’ll probably just wind up with a very attractive plant...
Do a search on my comments —give me a break about the “troll”. Obviously people just don’t understand the science.
Do you have some more info about any restrictions they are putting on heirloom seeds? I have not had any problem purchasing heirloom seeds at this point, and just wondering what specifically has been done to restrict their sale/usage. I could not find that info in the linked article, but I’ve been known to miss a thing or two. It would certainly be a frightening thing if any one company controlled the food supply.
I began saving seed from my own little garden last year. It’s fun and I think of it as an insurance policy, in case there comes a time seeds are not so readily available. Territorial Seed looks to have a nice selection.
I’m a big fan of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds:
Sandhill Preservation is a family farm. They tell you up front you may not get your seeds quickly and their ordering process is a little tricky, but they are very reasonably priced:
http://www.sandhillpreservation.com/
Hybrids do not come back to their true “hybrid” state, as a rule, anyway. That is one reason farmers do not save them.
then for crying out loud why are you arguing with those of us fighting to keep the heirloom varieties going?
That is the entire point of this thread --- the corporate farming industry is doing it's damnedest, and spending buckets of money in the process, to do away with it.
No kidding? I would never have known (/sarc)
Yeah. Trolls like her. Exactly. Thanks.
Except you’re missing the whole point of the discussion. It’s isn’t about the virtues or GM crops and whether the concerns about genetic manipulation are valid or not.
It’s about control of the food supply and the thug and intimidation tactics that Monsanto is purported to engage in against those who do not have the financial resources to defend themselves against lawsuits by companies with a bottomless reserve of money.
Why you keep bring religion in the discussion is another issue. Twice now you disparaged the *religious movement* as anti-science when you have no basis for that. It shows the narrow, bigoted mentality of a typical liberal for you to attack anyone with religious beliefs in an effort to discredit the points they are trying to make.
The FReepers who have posted against the attempts to control the food supply and object to the thuggish tactics of Monsanto have not expressed any religious preferences or opinions as of yet, and here you are, assuming that because they disagree with you, they are part of a *religious movement*. Just what does religion have to do with anything that anyone has brought up here? What *religious movement* in particular are you thinking of when you accuse people like that?
Science and law are too different things entirely.
As soon as "science" is used to infringe freedom, you have a fight on your hands, sister.
Deal with it.
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