270,000 organic farmers suing Monsanto

[JohnyCanuck]

More than 270,000 organic farmers are taking on corporate agriculture giant Monsanto in a lawsuit filed March 30. Led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the family farmers are fighting for the right to keep a portion of the world food supply organic—and preemptively protecting themselves from accusations of stealing genetically modified seeds that drift on to their pristine crop fields.

Consumers are powerful. For more than a decade, a cultural shift has seen shoppers renounce the faster-fatter-bigger-cheaper mindset of factory farms, exposéd in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc. From heirloom tomatoes to heritage chickens, we want our food slow, sustainable, and local—healthy for the earth, healthy for animals, and healthy for our bodies.

But with patented seeds infiltrating the environment so fully, organic itself is at risk. Monsanto’s widely used Genuity® Roundup Ready® canola seed has already turned heirloom canola oil into an extinct species. The suing farmers are seeking to prevent similar contamination of organic corn, soybeans, and a host of other crops. What’s more, they’re seeking to prevent Monsanto from accusing them of unlawfully using the very seeds they’re trying to avoid.

snip

It’s a wide net Monsanto has cast over the agricultural landscape. As Ravicher points out, “it’s actually in Monsanto’s financial interest to eliminate organic seed so that they can have a total monopoly over our food supply.” Imagine a world devoid of naturally vigorous traditional crops and controlled by a single business with a appetite for intellectual property. Did anyone else feel a cold wind pass through them? Now imagine a world where thousands of family farmers fight the good fight to continue giving consumers a choice in their food—and win.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Environment/Agriculture-Organic-Farmers-Lawsuit-Monsanto.aspx#ixzz1TJaslEOK

[marmar]

1. I dream of a Monsanto-free world.

nt

[KansDem]

2. I don't know...Monsanto's pretty big...

Might go the way of the discrimination suit brought against WalMart...?

[Arkansas Granny]

3. I don't expect this to go very far. Monsanto is too involved with government.

After researching Monsanto, it is easy to see how they yield so much power, former employees are literally scattered throughout the government and some have even become leaders within the FDA.

For example, Margaret Miller was a former supervisor for Monsanto and was actively involved in the GBH program. In fact, she was the very person who created the report that was sent to the FDA seeking approval to use GBH in the milk industry. Soon after she finished the report, she left her job at Monsanto and went to work for the FDA as the new Deputy Director of Human Food Safety. Ironically, her first assignment with the FDA was to approve her own report, effectively poisoning our milk supply. Imagine that! As you can see, oversight is virtually non existence, and in my opinion its not to be found what so ever in our current government.

Micheal Taylor was the legal advisor to the FDA who fought for the labeling guidelines that kept the non GBH dairy farmers from labeling their products GBH free. By passing this unconstitutional law, the FDA has effectively stopped consumers from making an educated choice in regards to their food. When it comes to food freedom there is none, the government has chosen to make that choice for us. After shilling for Monsanto, he was given as job as head of the Monsanto division in Washington DC.



http://theintelhub.com/2010/07/23/monsanto-and-the-fda/

[1monster]

4. Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death.

Every time Monsanto comes up as a topic, I see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Famine: Should Monsanto's genectically modified crops fail repeatedly due to disease that cannot be cured and the diversification of plant life that guards against extinction (think Ireland's potato famine) has been destroyed by the same genetic modification, starvation is likely.

Pestilence: Those who are unable to get adequate nutrition are far more susceptible to disease and when a population is starving, disease will spread rapidly.

War: When populations are facing starvation, they will war with other populations and within their own population, for whatever food is available.

Death: The result of famine, pestilence, and war.

Genetically diversified seeds and food are vitally necessary to any healthy population. Monsanto's genetically modified seeds seem to be unusually aggressive in taking over non-genetically modified seeds.

[Sanity Claws]

5. Great news

I never understood why the organic farmers never sued on a theory of nuisance. Monsanto's seeds are spreading everywhere, including where people don't want it.

[Desertrose]

6. This is great news....raises awareness if nothing else.

I hope it leads to more.

Good for the organic farmers and ultimately good for all of us!!!

[marions ghost]

7. they're fighting for their lives

...and ours.

[dmosh42]

8. I won't deal with any seed companies that deal with Monsanto...And

support labelling GMO foods.

[glinda]

9. kick and support but money is no replacement for remedies.

[Angry Dragon]

10. I had a dream where all GMO crop fields were burning

and no one worked to put them out

[arikara]

11. An enthusiastic K&R!

Monsanto needs to be gone from the face of the planet. If only one company in the world is psychopathic and evil, this is the one.

[Incitatus]

12. .

[LeftyMom]

13. GMOs shouldn't have been approved for wind pollinated crops in the first place. .

:shrug:

[Pooka Fey]

14. K&R