http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6768757.html

AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed biz role revealed

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD AP Agribusiness Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
Dec. 13, 2009, 11:54PM

ST. LOUIS ‹ Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business
practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing
competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its
dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered
crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

With Monsanto's patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of
all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company
also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms
to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of
several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed
industry participants, agriculture and legal experts.

Declining competition in the seed business could lead to price hikes
that ripple out to every family's dinner table. That's because the corn
flakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you
ate for dinner likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto's
patented genes.

Monsanto's methods are spelled out in a series of confidential
commercial licensing agreements obtained by the AP. The contracts, as
long as 30 pages, include basic terms for the selling of engineered
crops resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, along with shorter
supplementary agreements that address new Monsanto traits or other
contract amendments.

.. . .

Since GMOs don't produce larger or healthier crops, the above is a
reminder of why we should be growing heirloom crops (open pollinated).
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

"Wildbilly" wrote in message
...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/6768757.html

AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed biz role revealed

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD AP Agribusiness Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
Dec. 13, 2009, 11:54PM

ST. LOUIS Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business
practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing
competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its
dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered
crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

With Monsanto's patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of
all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company
also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms
to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of
several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed
industry participants, agriculture and legal experts.

Declining competition in the seed business could lead to price hikes
that ripple out to every family's dinner table. That's because the corn
flakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you
ate for dinner likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto's
patented genes.

Monsanto's methods are spelled out in a series of confidential
commercial licensing agreements obtained by the AP. The contracts, as
long as 30 pages, include basic terms for the selling of engineered
crops resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, along with shorter
supplementary agreements that address new Monsanto traits or other
contract amendments.

. . .

Since GMOs don't produce larger or healthier crops, the above is a
reminder of why we should be growing heirloom crops (open pollinated).

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn downwind of
the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You should be able to sue
Monsanto for damages.
Just my $.02 worth,
Steve


--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why
the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

"Steve Peek" wrote:

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn downwind of
the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You should be able to sue
Monsanto for damages.

You've got it backwards. You'll get sued for having Monsanto's patented
genes in your crop.
I'm not making this up.
Google "Percy Schmeiser."


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

Gary Woods wrote:
"Steve Peek" wrote:

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn
downwind of the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You
should be able to sue Monsanto for damages.

You've got it backwards. You'll get sued for having Monsanto's
patented genes in your crop.
I'm not making this up.
Google "Percy Schmeiser."


You are correct that the law is like that. Steve is correct that it ought
not to be.

David

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

Gary Woods wrote:
"Steve Peek" wrote:

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn
downwind of the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You
should be able to sue Monsanto for damages.

You've got it backwards. You'll get sued for having Monsanto's
patented genes in your crop.
I'm not making this up.
Google "Percy Schmeiser."


You are correct that the law is like that. Steve is correct that it ought
not to be.

David

Planting non-Monsanto, non-GMO but open-pollinated crops will make you a
revolutionary, struggling against the tyranny of Monsanto. Save seeds.
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

Wildbilly wrote:


Planting non-Monsanto, non-GMO but open-pollinated crops will make you a
revolutionary,

Pssst!

seedsavers.org

Double-sekrit meeting next July.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

"Wildbilly" wrote in message
news:wldbilly-3712C3.07522914122009@c-61-68-
Since GMOs don't produce larger or healthier crops, the above is a
reminder of why we should be growing heirloom crops (open pollinated).

I had toyed with heirlooms for a few years, but since finding this NG and
all the info you guys have presented, I am no longer buying ANY seeds from
anything other than organic companies that provide open-pollinated varieties
and promote sustainability. I'd rather pay a dollar more for each seed
packet than contribute to Monsanto's plan. Thanks to everyone here who has
provided the info to open my eyes over the past year.
--S.

sometime in the recent past Suzanne D. posted this:

"Wildbilly" wrote in message
news:wldbilly-3712C3.07522914122009@c-61-68-
Since GMOs don't produce larger or healthier crops, the above is a
reminder of why we should be growing heirloom crops (open pollinated).

I had toyed with heirlooms for a few years, but since finding this NG
and all the info you guys have presented, I am no longer buying ANY
seeds from anything other than organic companies that provide
open-pollinated varieties and promote sustainability. I'd rather pay a
dollar more for each seed packet than contribute to Monsanto's plan.
Thanks to everyone here who has provided the info to open my eyes over
the past year.
--S.
Another reason to try saving your own is when your supplier for one reason
or another can't get seed in a given year. I use Fedco in Maine and it's
been 3 seasons they've been trying to Lutz Green Leaf beets back in stock.

I think I'm getting a bucket of silica gel and try freezing some of next
year's excess seed from suppliers & my garden. Good luck.

--
Wilson 44.69, -67.3

"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Steve Peek" wrote:

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn downwind
of
the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You should be able to
sue
Monsanto for damages.

You've got it backwards. You'll get sued for having Monsanto's patented
genes in your crop.
I'm not making this up.
Google "Percy Schmeiser."


Just curious to know if you have ever read the Court decisions ?

gunner wrote:
"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Steve Peek" wrote:

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn
downwind of
the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You should be
able to sue
Monsanto for damages.

You've got it backwards. You'll get sued for having Monsanto's
patented genes in your crop.
I'm not making this up.
Google "Percy Schmeiser."


Just curious to know if you have ever read the Court decisions ?

Not in the original but my understanding is that Schmeiser was found to have
infringed Monsanto's patent by knowingly growing GM plants without paying
monsanto's license. Is that right?

David

"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

Not in the original but my understanding is that Schmeiser was found to have
infringed Monsanto's patent by knowingly growing GM plants without paying
monsanto's license.

Schmeiser claims his crop (from which he has always saved seed) was
cross-pollinated by nearby Monsanto GMO plantings. Monsanto claimed there
was too much of the genetic material to not be a direct descendent of their
plants. The court ruled (though I don't have and probably wouldn't grok
the actual ruling) in their favor.


Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

gunner wrote:
"Gary Woods" wrote in message
...
"Steve Peek" wrote:

The real problem is that when you grow your open pollinated corn
downwind of
the frankinstein corn, your seed becomes tainted. You should be
able to sue
Monsanto for damages.

You've got it backwards. You'll get sued for having Monsanto's
patented genes in your crop.
I'm not making this up.
Google "Percy Schmeiser."


Just curious to know if you have ever read the Court decisions ?

Not in the original but my understanding is that Schmeiser was found to have
infringed Monsanto's patent by knowingly growing GM plants without paying
monsanto's license. Is that right?

David

Want to go messin' up a nice clean narrative, huh? Well, I kicked the
topic around with a couple of biologists and they thought that GMO soy
would have been pretty hard not to recognize, so Schmeiser may have
known that he had something different. Did he knowingly plant GMO soy?
He is known to be a seed saver, so there is the possibility that his
field was cross pollinated by someone else's GMO crop. Apparently,
ownership follows the patented genes. If the genes show up in you, for
example, you would be, technically, the property of the Monsanto
Corporation. It just gets curiouser and curiouser, here in the rabbit
hole.
--
³When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.²
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

Wildbilly wrote:

Well, I kicked the
topic around with a couple of biologists and they thought that GMO soy
would have been pretty hard not to recognize, so Schmeiser may have
known that he had something different.


The case that I heard about (at the Seed Saver's meet a few years ago) was
canola aka rape, rather than soy. Schmeiser claimed that he did indeed
save seeds, but they were from his fields, and if GMO markers were there,
it was cross-contamination and not his fault.
What really needs to be decided is if anybody owns those genes once they
escape into the wild.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

In article ,
Gary Woods wrote:

Wildbilly wrote:

Well, I kicked the
topic around with a couple of biologists and they thought that GMO soy
would have been pretty hard not to recognize, so Schmeiser may have
known that he had something different.


The case that I heard about (at the Seed Saver's meet a few years ago) was
canola aka rape, rather than soy. Schmeiser claimed that he did indeed
save seeds, but they were from his fields, and if GMO markers were there,
it was cross-contamination and not his fault.
What really needs to be decided is if anybody owns those genes once they
escape into the wild.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

I sit corrected, canola it is ;O)

The courts have ruled that if your seeds have the Monsanto added genetic
material, they are Monsanto's property. If Round up ready corn pollutes
traditional Mexican corn, the corn belongs to Monsanto. End of story.

(Rant Mode Engaged)
The jury may be out on glyphosate as an environmental contaminant but
that it it leads to under-productive monocultures that require more and
more of the herbicide to suppress increasingly resistant weeds, that the
Cabbage Mosaic Virus inserted with altering DNA has the ability to turn
on dormant genes, and that "spliceosomes" mistake alien transfer-RNA for
more familiar encoded amino acids, and produce unique proteins (
allergens) are not in doubt.

That our "new" war mongering President appointed a GMO enthusiast as
Secretary of Agriculture will give you an idea of our problems.

http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


VILSACK, GROSS WEIGH IN ON BIOTECH DECISION

DES MOINES, Iowa - Gov. Tom Vilsack was cited as writing in a letter to
the
Biotechnology Industry Organization that a decision by a biotechnical
industry group not to grow genetically engineered corn for
pharmaceutical
purposes in states such as Iowa is "a dangerous precedent," adding that
"I
feel this decision by for a pharma-crop ban is a knee-jerk reaction that
is
not fully warranted by the scientific evidence." BIO was cited as saying
this week that its members had agreed not to grow pharmaceutical crops
in
states where it could contaminate neighboring crops intended for human
consumption. That includes Iowa, and Vilsack reacted quickly, dashing
off a
letter asking the group for a clarification of its policy. Vilsack was
quoted as saying, "I support food safety and security, but this decision
appears to be overreaching. It seems more like an effort to exclude the
nation's most productive farmers, small businesses and university
researchers from this emerging industry." Vilsack has said the state
could
have a bright future in developing genetically engineered crops for the
pharmaceutical industry.

------

At least when there was a Republican in the White House, it was easy to
know who the bad guys were.

Our "Robber Barons" just up graded their flak and you can be sure that
all that will come out of health care reform is mandatory insurance
coverage, and a lack of interest on the part of the citizens to revisit
the problem anytime soon.

(Rant Mode Disengaged)
--
"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist."
-Archbishop Helder Camara

http://tinyurl.com/o63ruj
http://countercurrents.org/roberts020709.htm

"Wildbilly" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Gary Woods wrote:

Wildbilly wrote:

Well, I kicked the
topic around with a couple of biologists and they thought that GMO soy
would have been pretty hard not to recognize, so Schmeiser may have
known that he had something different.


The case that I heard about (at the Seed Saver's meet a few years ago)
was
canola aka rape, rather than soy. Schmeiser claimed that he did indeed
save seeds, but they were from his fields, and if GMO markers were there,
it was cross-contamination and not his fault.
What really needs to be decided is if anybody owns those genes once they
escape into the wild.
Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at
home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic
Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

I sit corrected, canola it is ;O)

yes.

The courts have ruled that if your seeds have the Monsanto added genetic
material, they are Monsanto's property.

Where is the case law on this?