Farmers and Seed Licensing

[Mike Ellis]

Check this out:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0115-04.htm

A few excerpts from the article:

BROOKLIN, Canada - Agribusiness giant Monsanto has sued more than 100 U.S. farmers, and its "seed police" have investigated thousands of others, for what the company terms illegal use of its patented genetically engineered seeds, and activists charge is "corporate extortion".

Monsanto prohibits farmers from saving seed from varieties that have been genetically engineered (GE) to kill bugs and resist ill-effects from the herbicide glyphosate (sold under the brand name Roundup).

Kem Ralph of Covington, Tennessee is believed to be the first farmer to have gone to jail for saving and replanting Monsanto's Roundup Ready soy seed in 1998. Ralph spent four months behind bars and must also pay the company 1.8 million dollars in penalties.

And another:

Under U.S. patent law, a farmer commits an offense even if they unknowingly plant Monsanto's seeds without purchasing them from the company. Other countries have similar laws.

In the well-known case of Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, pollen from a neighbor's GE canola fields and seeds that blew off trucks on their way to a processing plant ended up contaminating his fields with Monsanto's genetics.

The trial court ruled that no matter how the GE plants got there, Schmeiser had infringed on Monsanto's legal rights when he harvested and sold his crop. After a six-year legal battle, Canada's Supreme Court ruled that while Schmeiser had technically infringed on Monsanto's patent, he did not have to pay any penalties.

Schmeiser, who spoke at last year's World Social Forum in India, says it cost 400,000 dollars to defend himself.
"Monsanto should held legally responsible for the contamination," he said.
Another North Dakota farmer, Tom Wiley, explains the situation this way: "Farmers are being sued for having GMOs on their property that they did not buy, do not want, will not use and cannot sell."

This is quite interesting, in that genetically engineered traits can be so easily spread into the natural population. If genetically engineered crops have some vulnerability we are not aware of yet, having the entire industry dependent upon one type of seed could bring horrific consequences in the even of a blight etc. With the natural variety achieved by farmers all over the USA using different seed sources and reusing the seed from their own crops, it is rare for a single disease to wipe out all of them. Losing that crop diversity could be a big mistake for humanity down the road.

It is also interesting that seed has been licensed in this manner, like shrink-wrapped software "single use only". Imagine if these rules had been in place in years gone by, there would no doubt be a heck of a lot fewer Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apple trees out there, not to mention the unique varieties of roses, peppers, tomatoes, etc that people have spread across the country by growing in their own gardens and propagating the species with the resulting seed - free of licensing.

No doubt this practice will be spread to animals as well, someday we will see "single use" licensing of the offspring of champion racehorses etc, if they can find a way to make the offspring all infertile the original owner will enjoy a monopoly on the bloodline and keep people beating a path to HIS door, instead of to the owners of the offspring.

Maybe it will even spread to humans in the future. "Yes Mr. Smith, we can gene-splice your wife's embryo to give your son 30% more fast-twitch muscle fiber, an additional 2" of height, and superior intelligence, but it is a single use license and he will not be able to pass these traits along to his own offspring without reaching terms with us first. Why? Uhh, because he will be sterile unless he comes back to us for another treatment at adulthood. What's that? Oh no, no sir, it will not interfere in the slightest with his ability to play football.... you'll have a potential star on your hands!"