Monday, the Supreme Court ruled against 75-year-old farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman who had been sued by the Monsanto Corporation for patent infringement when Bowman planted soy seed he bought at a local grain elevator. The Court ruled that it was illegal for Bowman to plant seed harvested by fellow farmers. Monsanto’s patent controls prohibit re-planting of seed from crops they’ve raised, requiring farmers to buy seed each year, thus assuring the corporation’s profit while destroying generations of traditional farming practice.
Some 93% of the soy grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered.
Bowman’s lawyer, Mark Walters, told Bloomberg News in an e-mail that the ruling “makes infringers out of 95 percent of America’s soybean farmers, dependent on the grace of a single company to avoid liability.” A pro Monsanto patent attorney said simply, “this is fantastic for their business model.”
Last month, Monsanto reported that its net profit rose 22% in the last year. It’s genetically engineered seed business increased 10% while its sales of herbicide, much of it tied to genetically engineered crops, rose a whopping 37%. Roundup, the herbicide tied to Monsanto’s GMO crops, increase 73%. (Editorial comment from your friendly Planet Natural Blogger: Oh, boy! More chemical herbicide in the environment.)
Meanwhile, world-wide protests against Monsanto’s control of food production have been scheduled for May 25. Here’s the official website for the event. ‘Nuff said.
Eric Vinje founded Planet Natural with his father Wayne in 1991, originally running it as a grasshopper bait mail-order business out of a garage.
Eric is now retired, but is still a renowned gardener known for his expertise in composting, organic gardening and pest control, utilizing pesticide-free options, such as beneficial insects.
Eric believes when you do something good for the environment, the effects will benefit generations to come.
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10 Responses to “Bowman v Monsanto: Company Wins Seed Patent Case”
Clarence Thomas (supreme court) worked for Monsanto.
It won’t be long and EVERTHING will be controlled by big business, yes that includes the puppets in Washington.
This is ludicrous, ridiculous, horrendous, evil and stinks of payoffs.
Monsanto’s ‘business model’ is to ruin humanity and the world, and get rich doing it by any means possible.
Whoever is in their pocket should be prosecuted to the fullest.
slay the giant with it’s own rules! find seeds that are GMO free grow plants from said seeds and save enough to plant next year. yes they will not be herbicide resistant but they will be yours to do with as you please if enough farmers did this it would cut monsanto’s profits . Didn’t we grow crops before without monsanto’ GMO seeds? Ahh yes more weeds less profits, Pick your poison.!
except that if your neighbor is growing the GMO stuff, and some pollen drifts into your yard, your seeds have genes from their GMO stuff — and you can still be prosecuted for patent infringement. That’s another recent case – and the farmer lost that one too — even though as an organic farmer raising heirloom seed he clearly was doing everything possible to NOT contaminate his crop with Monsanto’s stuff.
Then why cant monsanto be prosecuted for polluting other peoples crops?
I save my seeds year after year.
Just wait until it starts getting the gardener too. It won’t be long till we will be in the same boat.
stop Monsanto!! Global killers..leave the natural stuff to the people, we are all dying of GMO, including employees of Monsanto.
Has any lawyer thought about suing monsantos for trespassing. Their pollen crossed over and infected others crops instead of fighting to stop patent infringement? Especially if they are organic farmers then Monsantos In all actuality destroyed their crops and need to reimburse them monetarily.