Monsanto is pretty much right on the bottom of muck pile as a way of really expressing just how I feel about them. I have never been a very big fan of them anyway and you may recall my questioning of their Round Up product back some number of months ago in a blog. Over the summer I learned of something else and it explained a couple of things to me and made me pretty much as ticked off as I can be.

Used to be in the old days (which were really not all that long ago) if a farmer wanted to buy seed for say his soybean or corn crop he had a fairly good selection of seeds from which to choose. There were advantages usually to buying the latest hybrid seeds, usually in the areas of disease resistance and improved yields. However, in tradition going back ever further then that, was the farmers that had a fully open pollinated seed. They save seeds from the best specimens of their crops year over year save that huge upfront expense of having purchase them. It does require a bit more effort, but can in the long run be a make or break point for a small farmer.

Today, Monsanto has pretty much changed all of that. They have introduced a genetically modified seed for those two crops and perhaps others. This genetic modification makes the plant that is produced by this seed Round Up resistant. Basically that means the herbicide, which I think is basically a poison, can be applied in mass to the crop and all to keep the weed growth under control. This does lead to higher yields in almost all conditions as the water and nutrients the crop needs is not competing with anything else.

It has led to Monsanto quickly being the leader seed provider these days. Further, as the seed is covered by several patents, it is not allowed to be used with purchase of those seeds. Clearly a monopolistic approach entails, especially as you see the seed then tying in to Round Up by default. Further, there have been several studies by independent labs that question the harmful effects of minimum exposure of Round Up to humans, mice, wildlife, streams and even the soil. In Europe they have been sued and found guilty of false claims and advertising and the Round Up product is labeled as extremely dangerous to the environment (or something close that phrasing).

All of that is enough to be concerned about and in some way or another I knew. The thing I did not know until this summer was this. If I am a farmer collecting and saving my own seeds for next years crop, if at any point the Monsanto seed DNA should show up in my seed I can be sued under patent protection laws. In all cases known to date, they are eventually settled out of court by the effectual running the poor farmer out of money trying to defend himself. It would by my thinking that the patent holder would have to make an effort to keep the seed contained to have something enforced. If the delivery method is nature – then sorry – the patent belongs to a higher being the Monsanto.

Of course while on this subject I am also thinking Jefferson was right, we should have had no corporations in the United States and further I will agree with Shakespeare and that we should start with the lawyers.

** – Not sure who gets the credit on the image, but I would like to tip my hat to you so let me know!