Monsanto patent fight ensnares Missouri farm town

[nosmokes]

So if the figures Monsanto gave in this article are accurate, that they spend $2million a day in R&D then just exactly how much money are they making off this *food crisis* that they themselves helped to engineer and manufacture?

original-kcstar

Monsanto patent fight ensnares Missouri farm town

By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
The Associated Press

PILOT GROVE, Mo. | Soybean farmer David Brumback calls himself a loyal customer of Monsanto Co. His product of choice: genetically engineered seeds resistant to pesticides and weed killers.

So when the biotech giant named Brumback and more than 100 other local farmers in a subpoena seeking five years of sales records, his first reaction was befuddlement. Then anger.

"With Monsanto, you're guilty until you're proven innocent," he said.

Across rural America, Monsanto is known for aggressive legal efforts to protect its patent. Farmers who save and replant the patented seeds in subsequent growing seasons quickly hear from the company's lawyers — and almost always lose, or settle out of court before trial.

Now Monsanto is raising the stakes against this so-called seed piracy with an unprecedented lawsuit against a farm co-op it accuses of aiding the illegal practice by cleaning seeds for use in future crops. That practice violates the contract between Monsanto and farmers which prohibits farmers from stockpiling seeds or selling second-generation seeds.

The St. Louis-based company says it's merely protecting an investment that exceeds $2 million a day in overall research and development costs.

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complete article here

[XOKCowboy]

1. Mama Nature can be the meanest b____ ever when you mess with her...

My dad (who was an agronomist) used to say that all the time. I've got a feeling that GE seeds and Monsanto's efforts to alter nature might just push Mama over the edge.

[exothermic]

3. Nature can't be altered, that's why it's called nature!

Or more accurately it can't be forced to a desired destination. Nature doesn't have any particular bias for or against genetically tweaked organisms...they will survive in whatever niche they exist in...or not. :-)

[XOKCowboy]

5. Something tells me that this is in the "or not" category

It scares me when chemical companies think they can change "nature".

[exothermic]

2. He made a contract with the devil. Unfortunate.

:grr:

[Muttocracy]

4. and when they have that kind of $$ they really need to go after small farmers?

Surprised they're going after folks in Missouri though.