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75-year old farmer takes on Monsanto, Bowman, Center for Food Safety, Debbie Barker-Save Our Seeds, GMO a Go Go?, Indiana Farmer's Supreme Court Challenge, is this just a cash round up for Monsanto, Monsanto, Monsanto investigates farmers for alleged seed patent infringement, Monsanto suing small farmers, Patent, patent infringement-but can you patent life?, Roundup, seed giants, soybean farmer takes on Monsanto, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of the United States, the world according to Monsanto
(Victor “Hugh” Bowman, the 75-year old farmer who just might be taking back his field.)
Not my field is what we said about the financial complexities.
“They” MUST know what they’re doing. And the mortgage meltdown happened.
Monsanto sues a farmer for using siloed-soybeans
with some of its GMO beans in the mix.
And the Supreme Court seems pro-Monsanto. Deja vu?
Patenting life forms is just ASSUMED to be de rigueur?
And the patents’ll be treated like any other patent?
Uh oh, maybe this is our field.
PATTY 2/24/13
The sticks will help our peas find their way. We sure hope we can find our way out of this patents-on-life issue before Mr. Monsanto’s GMO seeds blow in from next door and we have to pay for something we didn’t plant. Not that the farmer being sued did exactly that. He just used some soybeans that had been harvested and stored and had mixed in with some Monsanto-ed feed that this old farmer (he’s 75, not so old I guess) figured was licensed for “first use” since, hey life goes on, as they say; and surely Monsanto isn’t into being paid forever for something that by its very nature replicates itself? That’s life, after all.
How One 75-Year-Old Soybean Farmer Could Deal A Blow To Monsanto’s Empire Today
Patty, I’m going commit law here, which is always a risk, but I think Mr. B knew or guessed these were 2nd G Round-Up ready seeds, and I think he’d already agreed not to plant the seeds from the plants he’d grown from seeds he’d bought from Big M. So there’s a whiff of “unclean hands” here. As for seeds blowing into your field, you have no contract with Big M, but I advise you not sell the end-product of such a fortuitous event.
Dana,
As to the former: I suspect you’re right that the ancient farmer may have known that GMO feed/seed was mixed up with the rest of it all; but I don’t think it was clear, at all. We still have the issue of second use because shouldn’t the patent law be different for issues of patents on life forms? Since it’s the nature of a life form to replicate, how can you claim the descendants of such forever. As to the latter: I think this is ominous. Are you saying that Farmer’s Markets may have GMO police roving around to ferret out those zucchinis that are a result of GMO-pollen wafted in on the Westerlies? And how about that seed that follows this trajectory: GMO feed’s in silo; cows eat said feed, poop seed out and leave it in pasture–or farmers spread manure on snowy fields–like they’re doing now in Harwinton. The Snow Buntings come and eat the seed, poop it out elsewhere–mayhap in my raised beds where glorious soybeans grow; I harvest them and sell them at my farmer’s market. Big M and other who patent life forms: when does it end?
Keep reading this stuff, Dana. We love your replies; they push our thinking.
Patty