Iraqi farmers forced to buy seeds from Monsanto

[monobrau]

http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=10464&TagID=2

As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations — including seeds the Iraqis themselves developed over hundreds of years. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo: Pay Monsanto, or starve.

[salinen]

1. Halliburton is to oil piracy

as Monsanto is to food piracy. Long live Long John Silver.

[donheld]

2. And we wonder why the world hates us

it seems pretty plain to me.

[raggedcompany]

3. kick

awful news

[the_outsider]

4. An article on what seed monopoly did to Indian farmers

http://www.countercurrents.org/glo-shiva050404.htm

[AuntiBush]

5. Nice Website

where did you find that site... it's pretty good. And it just another reminder of what we should be doing (if anything) overseas.. helping, not harming!

[the_outsider]

7. I think I got it when I googled Vandana Shiva some time back

She is an activist I respect.

[Wonk]

6. Not really LBN...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2691926

[cavanaghjam]

8. What's often overlooked

in the Frankenfoods atrocity is that the seeds from the modified crops are not viable, thus enslaving the farmer to the seed producers. The capitalist's dream - cornering the market in seed.

[Deja Q]

9. Patents are inherently evil. Worse, anyone know the story where Minnesota

contracted a Florida company to build some roads because they were cheaper? Well, Florida apparently doesn't have to deal with ice or snow, so the roads they made here fell apart unsurprisingly quickly.

Moral of the story? Upfront cost isn't everything and, more importantly, always hire locally because they know what they are doing AND give a fuck. Outsourcing is bad.

[Gman]

10. the only surprise here

is that anyone would be surprised.

[knowbody0]

11. are these the seeds that produce plants that do not seed?

[Ducks In A Row]

12. that's what I've heard. It's really sick.

[Tracer]

13. I don't see how this will be enforceable.

Iraqis are not stupid.

[GreatAuntK]

15. St. Louis, too.

Monsanto Sends
Seed-Saving Farmer To Prison
Organic Consumers Association
From Agribusiness Examiner #246
6-19-3 http://www.rense.com/general38/saver.htm

PETER SHINKLE, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH -- A farmer opposed to Monsanto Co.'s genetic seed licensing practices was sentenced pMay 7] in federal court at St. Louis to eight months in prison for lying about a truckload of cotton seed he hid for a friend.

Kem Ralph, 47, of Covington, Tenn., also admitted burning a truckload of seed, in defiance of a court order, to keep Monsanto from using it as evidence in a lawsuit against him.

The prison term for conspiracy to commit fraud is believed to be the first criminal prosecution linked to Monsanto's crackdown on farmers it claims are violating agreements on use of the genetically modified seeds.

Ralph pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on February 21 of lying in a sworn statement in the civil case.

At issue is seed-saving, the age-old agricultural practice of keeping seed from one crop to plant another. Monsanto's licensing agreement forbids it, a policy that has drawn bitter opposition from some farmers.

In court Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Richard Webber ordered Ralph to serve the prison time and to repay Monsanto $165,649 for about 41 tons of genetically engineered cotton and soybean seed he was found to have saved in violation of the agreement.

Monsanto says it has filed 73 civil lawsuits against farmers in the past five years over this issue.

Officials of the company, based in Creve Coeur, hoped that Ralph's case would send a stern message. Monsanto has distributed information about it and about the civil litigation as a warning.

[GreatAuntK]

16. Round Up

Monsanto makes money also on pesticide Roundup made especially to match their seeds.

[OneBlueSky]

14. this is as sick as the illegal weapons and the obliteration . . .

of cities . . . have these people no conscience? . . . no common sense? . . . must everything be about the goddamned almighty dollar? . . . and the further enrichment of multinationals at the expense of PEASANT FARMERS? . . . this is probably one of the most disgusting things I've ever read about US foreign policy . . . no wonder the world hates us indeed . . . hell, I'M beginning to hate us! . . .

FUCK THESE ASSHOLES! . . .

[VegasWolf]

17. If bushco thinks that they can make all of this work without a million

more soldiers in Iraq, they are more deluded than I
can imagine. There will be civil war in Iraq and after
its over bushco will be out in the cold. Negroponte
doesn't have enough assassins.

[Moderator]

18. Please note the original date on this story--Nov 11

not LBN