A farmers stand against monsanto.

[ColevilleH2S]

[URL="http://t.co/AGJkO8Kl"][/URL]

[ColevilleH2S]

That should say, link to the original
court decision. Note date.

[wd9]

Fun times.

Pretty sure the Supreme Court will find the same as the fed circuit court
that the the elevator, while having no right to plant seeds, could not grant
that right to Bowman. Doesn't matter how it got to him, as soon as Bowman
plants, he infringes.

He sprayed the crop with glyphosate, the only reason Monsanto went after him,
utilizing the technology, and broke patent law.

Bowman going to the SC is much like Perky's last swing knowing full well he
broke the law, but just hoping for a lucky win. SC ruling will be for
Monsanto.

2014, its all done anyways.

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/roundup-ready-patent-expiration.aspx

[wd9]

In Canada in 2012, a farmer may decide to buy certified original
Roundup Ready seed from a company holding a valid licence for
original Roundup Ready soybeans, without any contractual obligations
or royalty payment to Monsanto.

Also in 2012, a farmer may decide to save seed from the 2012 harvest
for replanting in 2013, as long as the seed company from which they
purchased the seed for 2012 planting does not have any contractual
obligations preventing them from doing so.

In 2013, a Canadian farmer may decide to plant original Roundup
Ready soybeans saved from his own seed.

[HappyFarmer]

I think pioneer hibred is comming out with their
own version of a tua in 2015. We will see if there
is going to be some competition in the market
once that happens. They may just go with the
trend and there won't be any competition at all.

[hedgehog]

how did monsanto find out about the crop? do they have spies out there?
just glad we dont have gm in the uk.
bucket, i could send you some conventional vanola.

[wd9]

Probably bragged to his neighbors.

The neighbors that were pissed off because this loser was
stealing his RR beans while they had to pay for them.

Just a guess of course.

[bucket]

wd9

Are the other neighbors to stupid to do the same thing?

I understand that farmer's reasoning for using lower cost seed for double crop. It could be a waste of money, and he didn't want to spend big.

It also sounds like he supported Monsanto for the first crop.

[wilagro]

hedgehog: From what I hear...Monsanto has spies EVERYWHERE. They trespass on farmer's fields, they check with seed-cleaning plants to find out what you had cleaned. They enquire at your sales point. They check your seed drills. They checkout the gossip and check with your neighbours. Some call them the ENFORCERS a la the MAFIA.

[LWeber]

quote:

Unfortunately, second- and third-generation seeds are very hard to track, which may explain why Monsanto devotes $10 million a year and 75 staffers to investigating farmers for possible patent violations.

... the Obama administration is presenting their own defense of Monsanto, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was once a Monsanto lawyer (but will not recuse himself from Bowman’s case). Still, the same high court that enabled the current state of American agriculture in 1981 now finds itself in a position to check Monsanto’s power — or help them tighten their hold on the industry.

unquote

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/how-one-75-year-old-soybean-farmer-could-deal-a-blow-to-monsantos-empire-today.html#ixzz2LSmIMls3

[HappyFarmer]

A update.


WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared
likely Feb. 19 to side with Monsanto Co.
in its claim that an Indiana farmer
violated the company’s patents on
soybean seeds that are resistant to its
weed-killer.

None of the justices in arguments at the
high court seemed ready to endorse
farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman’s argument
that cheap soybeans he bought from a
grain elevator are not covered by the
Monsanto patents, even though most of
them also were genetically modified to
resist the company’s Roundup herbicide.

Chief Justice John Roberts wondered “why
in the world would anybody” invest time
and money on seeds if it was so easy to
evade patent protection.

To protect its investment in their
development, Monsanto has a policy that
prohibits farmers from saving or reusing
the seeds once the crop is grown.
Farmers must buy new seeds every year.

The case is being closely watched by
researchers and businesses holding
patents on DNA molecules,
nanotechnologies and other self-
replicating technologies.

The issue for the court is how far the
patents held by the world’s largest seed
company extend. More than 90 percent of
American soybean farms use Monsanto’s
“Roundup Ready” seeds, which first came
on the market in 1996.

The 75-year-old Bowman bought the
expensive seeds for his main crop of
soybeans, but decided to look for
something cheaper for a risky, late-
season soybean planting.

He went to a grain elevator that held
soybeans it typically sells for feed,
milling and other uses, but not as seed.

Bowman reasoned that most of those
soybeans also would be resistant to weed
killers, as they initially came from
herbicide-resistant seeds too. He was
right, and he repeated the practice over
eight years. In 2007, Monsanto sued and
won an $84,456 judgment.

Across the court’s conservative-liberal
divide, justices expressed little
sympathy for Bowman’s actions.

Justice Stephen Breyer said Bowman could
make many uses of the soybeans he bought
from the grain elevator. “Feed it to the
animals. Feed it your family or make
tofu turkey,” Breyer said.

But patent law makes it illegal for
Bowman to plant them. “What it prohibits
here is making a copy of the patented
invention and that is what he did,”
Breyer said.

Mark Walters, Bowman’s Seattle-based
lawyer, tried to focus the court on the
claim that Monsanto has used patent law
to bully farmers.

“What they are asking for is for the
farmer to assume all the risk of
farming, but yet they can sit back and
control how that product is used,”
Walters said.

Monsanto lawyer Seth Waxman said the
company put 13 years and hundreds of
millions of dollars into developing
herbicide-resistant seeds.

“Without the ability to limit the
reproduction of soybeans containing this
patented trait, Monsanto could not have
commercialized its invention and never
would have produced what is now the most
popular patented technology” in farming,
Waxman said.

The Obama administration also is backing
the company.

Consumer groups and organic food
producers have fought Monsanto over
genetically engineered farm and food
issues in several settings. They lost a
campaign in California last year to
require labels on most genetically
engineered processed foods and produce.
Monsanto and other food and chemical
companies spent more than $40 million to
defeat the ballot measure.

A decision is expected by June.

[LWeber]

How to turn Democrats into "three minutes to Wapner" candidates ....

"Obama administration is presenting their own defense of Monsanto"