Monsanto Wins, Organic Farmers’ Worst Nightmare Realized
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: the-irascible-harry-krishner • 12 years ago • 4 comments
Monsanto Co. on Monday won another round in a legal battle with U.S. organic growers as an appeals court threw out the growers efforts to stop the company from suing farmers if traces of its patented biotech genes are found in crops.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a previous ruling that found organic growers had no reason to try to block Monsanto from suing them as the company had pledged it would not take them to court if biotech crops accidentally mix in with organics.
Organic farmers and others have worried for years that they will be sued by Monsanto for patent infringement if their crops get contaminated with Monsanto biotech crops. (Link)
1) Obama and the Democratic Party were involved in this. The Republicans also just as complicit.
2) More Obama hypocrisy.
3) Meet you new, hand picked, Obama appointee.
The war goes on, and Monsanto is winning, sadly.
Love the photo of Taylor and both his faces...Good one Aeon.
I'm prefacing by saying I don't like splicing genes from cross species into plants and animals synthetically to target what we want out of an organismbecause there simply isnt the knowledge base to know what you did as a result. I do NOT support roundup crops because it doesnt address the overall problem of pests in the ecosystem that are showing up because of a breakdown in the ecosystem. That said, I do support gene manipulation through inter-specie breeding (good, old fashioned mendelian genetics), duplication, and controlled study of organism genetics (that is currently driven bybig companiesin every university because the government isn't paying for jack scientifically these days).
But
1. The people who ask for this kind of labeling have no idea of what they are asking for. They think it is a simple label that costs a penny to apply, but labeling is much more in depth process and requires so much more than just some penny label anyone can print off their computer. Regulatory Affairs is no joke.
2. The people who have a problem with former company leaders moving into FDA roles have no idea what the industry is like and must think that it's a-okay to have a janitor running the FDA or something.Anyone with any experience or expertise in the field is going to have worked in the industry for many, many years.A lotofany candidate's employment history for this high profile jobis going to be taken up by working for the industries people want the FDA to "protect them against" (don't even get me started on what the FDA actually does and has the power to do). How else is that person going to know what the hell they are looking for/at when reviewing applications and complaints against the industry? Even university professors that have any expertise are going to be tied to the companies they have expertise in because that is how they pay for their lab research.
3. No label is going to be able to compensate for lack of knowledge on a subject. And right now, there is a total lack of knowledge on this subject. I understand that GMO=bad, but most people can't even define a GMO. It is a spectrum where everything we eat falls into a GMO category... EVERYTHING has been genetically modified.Dont get me wrong, watching peoplefall for the "organic" sales hype is fun too. P.T. Barnum had it pegged... what a businessman.
4. The gene patent ruling on plants was a bad deal and should not have passed. I'm glad the human gene patent ruling went the way it did at least. I am hopeful that in the near future we can actually enact a containment law where farmers can sue for lack of genetic containment. That would definitely curb some of this plant genetic manipulation since no one can really contain nature.