Round up Ready Canola

[GrnAsMoss]

Just wondering how everyone feels about the Sask. farmer who lost his legal battle with Monsanto today.
How many of you won't ever seed this canola because of Monsanto's iron hand?

[amazed]

Percy is nothing more than a simple thief and lier.

He had 96% of his acres in RR canola and claimed it blew off a truck.

Who would ever believe that. No sympathy for him or any one else who tries to screw the people who develop a product. If one doesn't like RR Canola simply grow another type.

[skywalker]

I believe we need someone like percy to stand up to big corporations such as Monsanto . before long they will control everything we plant and sell and to who. we are controlled too much all ready . I . for onr salute percy , and i will never buy anything monsanto has there name on , just for this fact.

I don't agree with the fact that once we purchase their product , for which we pay dearly for, that we can't do what we like with the offspring from it. once we purchase it , it should be ours. . anyhow thats my opinion and i hope everyone has a good day, God knows we have a hard enough battle with mother nature in order to get ahead on the farm without outfits like Monsanto screwing us also

[ward]

I agree that he should be charged and found guilty. He chose to plant it and should live by his choice. I would not send the guy 5 cents to support him. If you don't pay for it don't plant it. I don't agree with the terminater gene, I think once you pay for the original seed, you should be able to reseed from your own stock, you paid for it.!

[gmj]

To all the farmers who don't agree with big companies, taking over their farms, how do you feel about the CWB taking away the right to market your own wheat and barley after you stuck your neck out trying to grow it.
Now there is a big
company/organization/whatever you want to call it which does not give me a lot of choices. Its either their way or no way.
With canola I can choose what kind to grow and what to do with it.
I have to grow wheat and or barley for rotational purposes and then I am stuck with that one institution (the CWB) out here in the west who controls it as if they spend all their money and time and worry growing the stuff in the first place.
Ipersonally would rather work with big private companies where I can have some choices rather than some idiotic government institution out here in the designated area (what an insult the designated area is) where I have no choices.
Oh my choice is to grow as little CWB grain as my rotation allows.

[gwynplaine]

Two simple fact, with regards to Roundup Ready technology.

1. No one forces you to grow it. Feel free to grow public, conventional varieties if keeping seed is the most important aspect of your crop production strategy. It's a simple contract. If you want to grow the varieties, and take advantage of the ease of use and powerful weed control, buy new seed every year. Monsanto doesn't tell you what to grow, or when. But they ask that you purchase new seed every year, which is the agronomically correct thing to do, in any case.

2. Profit, not need, drives innovation. As unfortunate as this sounds to the socialist demographic out there, people act and produce in their own best interests. This works two ways, the profit-driven companies won't develop products which provide no economic return to them, and the producer should select varieties and crops that do provide economic return.

We could argue the semantics of who owns what part of the plant and who has the right to dictate its use, but at the end of the day if you find no value in a product don't grow it. Otherwise, follow the rules set out. If we don't, (as mentioed elsewhere...) innovation will stop. Then maybe we can farm like we did in 1937 (Hmmm... I should watch what I say, this does seem to be the goal of the National Farmers Union...)

[GrnAsMoss]

What kind of message are you selling your own children when you sign a contract with a power mongering company like Monsanto to buy only one generation of seed canola. I appreciate all the research and devopment they've put into the product they sell, but how much like a multilevel marketing scheme does this scenario duplicate. I buy a bred cow, she has a calf the calf has a calf they are all mine.I buy RR Canola seed, it duplicates on my premises, my land grew it, it should be mine. Looks to me like you're just adding a new middle man.

[gwynplaine]

You'd think so, yet no.

(Please leave my children (or lack therof) out of it, and let's keep the argument in the realm of fact and not emotion.)

No one says you don't own the canola seed. You can sell it to whomever you want. Likewise (to extend your similie), with the cow that you bought. No one said you couldn't sell its offspring for slaughter, they said you couldn't keep it for breeding. You get the benefit of the sold cow, which must obviously have held some advantage for you, to have purchased it in the first place. I'd like to reiterate: IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE TERMS, DON'T USE THE SEED.

This argument is about as ridiculous as it gets. It's not as if there were no other alternatives to RR Canola! By all means, buy a public variety and keep the seed. That way, you could have the joy of re-seeding as many generations as you like. Then, I can stop hearing about how evil the Biotech companies are, because I'm sure they'll go out of business due to lack of demand. I'll just sit here and wait till it happens... maybe I'll have a beer while I wait.

[r.reid]

I don't agree with Percy. It's a copyright just like anything else. You can't take a quote from a book, put it in an esay, and call it your own, even if you did originally buy the book.

[wd9]

The Supreme Court case question was should plant cells be allowed to be patented. The decision of the court was to uphold the patentability of plant cells in Canada, which in turn confirmed the two lower court decisions. That fell under Patent Law.

Plant Breeder Rights Act (PBR), not multinationals, determine our right to keep seed. As it is today, we have no explicit right to keep seed, but through the Act, are allowed to keep the seed if the breeder allows us to.

Up until recently few breeders ever pushed the not keeping of seed as they didn't want to look like the bad guy, however the law in Canada is quite clear, protected varieties through PBR are the property of the breeder, not the farmer.

In answer to your question, I grew RR and Liberty canola and will continue to do so until something better comes along.

[greybeard]

The problem with Percy was,pure and simple ,he's a liar. The case wasn't based on if he was right or wrong to grow his own canola seed ,it was to prove he knew it was RR when he planted it. He lied , he lost.