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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis story infuriates and breaks my heart (Monsanto)
David Runyon and his wife Dawn put a lifetime of work into their 900-acre Indiana farm, and almost lost it all over a seed they say they never planted.
The Runyons charge bio-tech giant Monsanto sent investigators to their home unannounced, demanded years of farming records, and later threatened to sue them for patent infringement. The Runyons say an anonymous tip led Monsanto to suspect that genetically modified soybeans were growing on their property.
"It's about protecting the patent, defending the patents, so farmers have the protection and can use these technologies over time," said Monsanto spokeswoman Tami Craig Schilling.
The Runyons say they signed no agreements, and if they were contaminated with the genetically modified seed, it blew over from a neighboring farm.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-4048288.html
paulk
(11,586 posts)I guess all that a person can do is try to educate their friends and acquaintances about the evil that is Monsanto.
It sure doesn't help that both political parties are in their pocket.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)land.
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)not understanding the severity of what they agreed to by allowing access to their fields.
Additionally, it would be worth knowing what sort of lies are being told at point of contact by these investigators to strong arm them onto their property.
Is anything illegal being done/said when they tell these farmers that they demand access to their fields...?
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)sudopod
(5,019 posts)jillan
(39,451 posts)felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)but companies like Monsanto are pushing this country to the limits, they are asking for a strike. They are criminal and there is no one stopping them from getting worse.
handmade34
(22,757 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)They are part of the killlers of plants, insects, animals, communities, water and people. I could post the videos or stories, but am sure DUers know all of the story. Thanks for the newer videos there.
roody
(10,849 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Has not been mixed with GMO crops. As the videos says and other sources, too, the vast majority of all soy is GMO. Farmers don't ask for it, they get stuck with it. This has also caused dissension in some rural areas as some want their seeds to be heirloom, not hybrid or GMO and their neighbors have gone for GMO with its Roundup Ready regime.
Organic growing refers to a method of cultivation, not the type of the seeds planted. Organically grown patented GMO crops still support these criminals, so I won't eat it. Neither will I eat corn, as it's in trouble for the same reasons. And there are alleged to be health affects from GMO no matter how it's grown. Be that as it may, I won't support the criminal enterprise that is Monsanto, and other countries have banned them. It's time for us to do the same. I'm disappointed by the regulatory agencies dropping the ball here.
roody
(10,849 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)roody
(10,849 posts)handmade34
(22,757 posts)not everybody knows the stories... we must not rest until everyone understands the long term damage Monsanto (and others) are doing to our well-being!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The learned lack of empathy is the worst disease. What has been done in Canada and is still being done in India, what GMO corn has done to the natural world, is a crime against everything that a freedom loving person should stand for. The EU has taken measures, but we're still living under the corporatist boot and the hypnotism of commercial outfits who sell us faux health products. After a while, one just wants to get away from all of it.
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)NAO
(3,425 posts)that's absurd. Farmers did just fine before they were forced to buy seeds from Monsanto.
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)EVIL. They will not prevail, at least ultimately.
peacebird
(14,195 posts)iemitsu
(3,888 posts)clarence thomas was monsanto's lead attorney.
you can tell by the company they choose that they are scum.
justice1
(795 posts)Monsanto dropped their case against the Runyons, believing they were mislead by Parr.
JohnyCanuck
(9,922 posts)snip
But What was going on behind the scenes? "The FDA's pro-rBGH activities make more sense in light of conflicts of interest between the FDA and the Monsanto corporation. Michael R. Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for policy, wrote the FDA's rBGH labelling guidelines. The guidelines, announced in February 1994, virtually prohibited dairy corporations from making any real distinction between products produced with and without rBGH. To keep rBGH-milk from being "stigmatized" in the marketplace, the FDA announced that labels on non-rBGH products must state that there is no difference between rBGH and the naturally occurring hormone. In March 1994, Taylor was publicly exposed as a former lawyer for the Monsanto corporation for seven years. While working for Monsanto, Taylor had prepared a memo for the company as to whether or not it would be constitutional for states to erect labelling laws concerning rBGH dairy products. In other words. Taylor helped Monsanto figure out whether or not the corporation could sue states or companies that wanted to tell the public that their products were free of Monsanto's drug" [16]. Rachel's Hazardous Waste News adds a few details, "It is no accident that the FDA and Monsanto are speaking with one voice on this issue. The FDA official responsible for the agency's labeling policy, Michael R. Taylor, is a former partner of King & Spaulding, the Washington, D.C. law firm that has brought the lawsuits on behalf of Monsanto.... In 1984 he joined King & Spaulding and remained there until 1991; during that time the law firm represented Monsanto while the company was seeking FDA approval of rBGH.... Taylor signed the FEDERAL REGISTER notice warning grocery stores not to label milk as free of rBGH, thus giving Monsanto a powerful boost in its fight to prevent consumers from knowing whether rBGH produced their milk" [17].
"Taylor did not simply fill a vacant position at the agency", says Jeffrey M. Smith in his book Seeds of Deception, "In 1991 the FDA created a new position for him: Deputy Commissioner for Policy. He instantly became the FDA official with the greatest influence on GM food regulation, overseeing the development of government policy. According to public interest attorney Steven Druker, who has studied the FDA's internal files, 'During Mr. Taylor's tenure as Deputy Commissioner, references to the unintended negative effects of bioengineering were progressively deleted from drafts of the policy statement (over the protests of agency scientists (1)), and a final statement was issued claiming (a) that [GM] foods are no riskier than others and (b) that the agency has no information to the contrary" [18] [19]. After his stint at the FDA Taylor went back to work as Monsanto's vice-president for public policy [20].
In disappointing news however, Taylor was again appointed to the FDA, this time for the Obama administration in July of 2009 as an "Advisor to FDA Commissioner" as a "food safety expert" [21]. His new duties include, "Assess current food program challenges and opportunities", "Identify capacity needs and regulatory priorities" and "Plan implementation of new food safety legislation".
Another example of the Government-industry revolving door is Margaret Miller, "In order for the FDA to determine if Monsanto's growth hormones were safe or not, Monsanto was required to submit a scientific report on that topic. Margaret Miller, one of Monsanto's researchers put the report together. Shortly before the report submission, Miller left Monsanto and was hired by the FDA [as deputy director of the Office of New Animal Drugs]. Her first job for the FDA was to determine whether or not to approve the report she wrote for Monsanto. In short, Monsanto approved its own report. Assisting Miller was another former Monsanto researcher, Susan Sechen" [22]. Here [23] you can read Robert Cohen's testimony before FDA on the subject of rBGH including the disclosure that, while at the FDA and in response to increasing sickness in cows on the stuff, Miller increased the amount of antibiotics that farmers can legally give cows by 100 times. See also [24]. "Remarkably the GAO determined in a 1994 investigation that these officials' former association with the Monsanto corporation did not pose a conflict of interest. But for those concerned about the health and environmental hazards of genetic engineering, the revolving door between the biotechnology industry and federal regulating agencies is a serious cause for concern" [25].
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Labeling_Issues,_Revolving_Doors,_rBGH,_Bribery_and_Monsanto
hunter
(38,325 posts)... and we end up with something worse than the Irish Potato famine.
(If some antibiotic resistant bacteria or factory farm flu virus doesn't kill us first.)
Mimosa
(9,131 posts)When i read the word 'Monsanto' I know something BAD will follow.
Ilsa
(61,697 posts)Javaman
(62,533 posts)sounds like monsanto "tipped" themselves off.
more like predatory litigation to me.
all they have to do is look on a map of the various farms and see which ones buy their crappy seed and those who don't. Then check the various weather reports for wind direction over the time when fields go to seed and just extrapolate from there to the farms where the GMO seed could have possibly blown onto.
they sue the farmer when they find a single seed, drive up court costs to astronomical levels, the farmer has to declare bankruptcy and in swoops a monsanto to buy up the land.
check and mate.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)When the rich own the land and the crops and the food and the rest of us merely toil for a bite of bread.
Fits right in with people losing their homes and the homes being bought up by the rich, to be rented back to those who lost them.
The dream is over.
HeiressofBickworth
(2,682 posts)All wrapped up in the last paragraph: "they sue the farmer when they find a single seed, drive up court costs to astronomical levels, the farmer has to declare bankruptcy and in swoops a monsanto to buy up the land."
This appears to be their business plan -- they sure do it often enough to make one believe that it is, indeed, a plan.
Monsanto and similar corporations are pure evil
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...that they managed to install "their guy" as the Secretary of Agriculture in the White House.
Google: " Vilsack ties to Monsanto"
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kentauros
(29,414 posts)We need to start calling it what it is: pollution. Nevermind those of you that will say genetic-engineering is "natural" whether done in the field or in the lab. Nature can do similar genetic modification, but only for those plants that are compatible. After all these eons, why hasn't a fish gene found it's way into a maze plant? Lab-created plants are pollution, simple as that.