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Monsanto Vs. The World: Is it Too Late for Us to Win?
Monsanto is the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology company and producer of genetically modified (GM) seeds. Monsanto’s GM crop seeds are altered to resist the damaging effects of their bestselling agricultural herbicide, Roundup, which earns the company a cool $620 million per year and provides 40% of its operating profit.1
Initially, farmers all over the world believed GM seeds were a high-tech boon to modern agriculture — using Roundup, they could kill thousands of threatening weeds while doing no harm to valuable crops. Little did they know of the problems that would ensue, starting with the purchase of the seeds.
Before farmers are sold the Roundup-resistant seeds, they are required to sign a technology agreement that allows the company to conduct property investigations and define “what rights a farmer does and does not have in planting, harvesting, and selling genetically engineered seed.” 2
This may seem outrageous, but Monsanto has gotten away with it because their GM seeds are patented. And according to them, patent infringement also includes saving seeds from current healthy crops and replanting them in the future — a great way for Monsanto to force farmers to needlessly buy seed every year.
According to the Center for Food Safety (CFS),2 the signed technology agreement has led Monsanto to aggressively pursue thousands of farmers that it believes have breached the agreement or infringed upon its GM seed patent. The farmer must then pay an out of court settlement to Monsanto or go to court. CFS says that that Monsanto has collected $15,253,602 from lawsuits that have found in its favor.2
Even farmers who have not purchased Monsanto’s GM seeds nor signed any written agreement are in the line of fire. If pollen from a GM planted crop pollinates a non-GM field on another farm that results in viable plants, that farmer is liable under current laws for patent infringement — even if he did not want GM crops growing in his field.
So successful has Monsanto been in handsomely collecting from lawsuits and gaining control of the world’s food supply that they’re now ready to go after the really big fish. On April 14, 2009, the company filed a law suit against the German government for refusing to use its GM corn.3
