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Fri Nov 30, 2012, 04:36 PM

Judi Lynn (78,150 posts)

Genetically Modified Seed Giant DuPont to Unleash Seed Police

Source: Common Dreams

Published on Friday, November 30, 2012 by Common Dreams

Genetically Modified Seed Giant DuPont to Unleash Seed Police

DuPont will use seed security firm to monitor if farmers have saved Roundup Ready soybeans

- Common Dreams staff

Agricultural behemoth and genetically modified seed maker Dupont is preparing to send out former police officers as "soybean police" to enforce its seed patents.

As Monsanto has done in the past, DuPont will be looking for evidence that farmers have saved and replanted its Roundup Ready soybean seeds, a practice that violates that company's contract.

Bloomberg reports that Dupont has hired Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Agro Protection International to do the policing, a company which conducts farm visits to determine "appropriate usage" of seeds and to create deterrence of illegally using their client's products, the company explains.

Critics see the move as more evidence of corporate control over agriculture.

"Farmers are never going to get cheap access to these genetically engineered varieties," Bloomberg quotes Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, as saying. "The biotech industry has trumped the legitimate economic interests of the farmer again by raising the ante on intellectual property."

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/30-7

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17 replies	Author	Time	Post
Genetically Modified Seed Giant DuPont to Unleash Seed Police (Original post)	Judi Lynn	Nov 2012	OP
dupont and monsanto are the real terrorists in this world.	Dont call me Shirley	Nov 2012	#1
jeez how I hate these fuckers...	Volaris	Nov 2012	#2
This nonsense gives patent law a bad name	PatentlyDemocratic	Nov 2012	#4
And what the heck can we do about the Supreme Court?	truedelphi	Nov 2012	#5
Farmers should boycot and use only open market seeds.	blackspade	Nov 2012	#3
What agriculturists need to do is....	ReRe	Nov 2012	#6
Dupont executives should be tried & imprisoned for contaminating the planet with this crap.	Faryn Balyncd	Nov 2012	#7
+1,000 to what you said!	freshwest	Dec 2012	#9
How the hell can someone in their right mind grant a patent	Hayabusa	Nov 2012	#8
Why can't the farmer bill Monsanto if their heirlooms are contaminated/ if they did buy seed from	freshwest	Dec 2012	#10
I think....	BronxBoy	Dec 2012	#16
Be on the lookout for guys that look like this...	adirondacker	Dec 2012	#11
This is Sick. And, it's questioned why so many support	Cha	Dec 2012	#12
Don't know how they stack up as an insurance company....	BronxBoy	Dec 2012	#15
Good to know!..thanks BronxBoy..	Cha	Dec 2012	#17
DuPont - failing to understand how marketing and public opinion works	tomm2thumbs	Dec 2012	#13
Ag Fascism, Inc. (R)	Berlum	Dec 2012	#14

Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 05:04 PM

Dont call me Shirley (1,395 posts)

1. dupont and monsanto are the real terrorists in this world.

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 05:15 PM

Volaris (1,594 posts)

2. jeez how I hate these fuckers...

Last edited Fri Nov 30, 2012, 05:22 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

the "original thinking" on US Patent Law was that you couldn't patent Life or Living Systems. If you bred a better cow (Genetic Engineering), and then SOLD that cow, guess what? The guy you sold that cow to could make MORE better cows, and didn't owe you a damn red cent (because he paid for the ORIGINAL better cow). And if you didn't want anyone else to HAVE your better cows, you didn't SELL them.

The current incarnation of this idea is that there is an End-User Liscence Agreement involved in buying crop seed; You don't actually buy the SEED, you RENT the right to grow the plant. It's bullshit, and everyone knows it (accept, apparently, the US Supreme Court--thanks for that, BWT, we really appreciate it).

Constitutional corporate Non-Personhood makes ALL this kind of nonsense go away.

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Response to Volaris (Reply #2)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 07:18 PM

PatentlyDemocratic (31 posts)

4. This nonsense gives patent law a bad name

SCOTUS should use contract law to interpret the "rentals" as sales, thereby ending this nonsense. Monsanto's gestapo tactics are overt undue influence, not to mention the grossly unequal bargaining power. It's a disgrace.

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Response to Volaris (Reply #2)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 08:30 PM

truedelphi (26,094 posts)

5. And what the heck can we do about the Supreme Court?

The sloganeering about Kagen being a woman and Sotomayor being latina - well, guess what. Those two women are totally in support of Monsanto.

So how do we get things to change? This year, both the "R" and the "D" candidates running for the Highest Office supported Monsanto... What in the world has happened wherein major changes are made to our way of life, and there aren't any possibilities of stopping the changes?

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 05:32 PM

blackspade (2,560 posts)

3. Farmers should boycot and use only open market seeds.

I know cross breeding is a huge problem, but perhaps they could find a supplier that can sell uninfected seed for a few years to make a difference in Monsanto and DuPont's bottom line.

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 11:12 PM

ReRe (3,422 posts)

6. What agriculturists need to do is....

...come up with seeds of their own that attack the GMO seeds, as if they were weeds. No, I guess that's further contamination of our food supply. Bizarro world....that's what vulture capitalism has created on this earth. Who was the president who signed the legislation allowing GMOs? Was Congressman Glick in on the deal? I know, I need to read up on the issue...
All I know is it's not right to disallow farmers to keep their seed. Farmers have been propagating their own seed for millenniums.

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 11:14 PM

Faryn Balyncd (3,869 posts)

7. Dupont executives should be tried & imprisoned for contaminating the planet with this crap.

Last edited Fri Nov 30, 2012, 11:14 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

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Response to Faryn Balyncd (Reply #7)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 12:06 AM

freshwest (32,410 posts)

9. +1,000 to what you said!

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Nov 30, 2012, 11:17 PM

Hayabusa (1,524 posts)

8. How the hell can someone in their right mind grant a patent

on living things? Seriously?

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 12:14 AM

freshwest (32,410 posts)

10. Why can't the farmer bill Monsanto if their heirlooms are contaminated/ if they did buy seed from

Monsanto, why not bill them for their costs in bringing them to germination?

Such as, water, minerals in the ground, labor, machinery, fuel, transport, etc.?

Why not use their own thinking patterns against the patent owners?

I don't have a lot of sympathy for those who signed these contracts, unless they were fooled like the farmers in India. But the issue before was that the patent seed had contaminated the seed the farmers did own themselves. That has been documented in Canadian cases.

Overall, this is fundamentally immoral and against the future of life on this planet. It is wrong to cut off the advantage of life for profit. Biological reproductive abundance, not being restricted to the market and profits, is the secret of life on this planet. This is wrong.

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Response to freshwest (Reply #10)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 07:43 AM

BronxBoy (1,388 posts)

16. I think....

a test case would probably involve a farmer suing another farmer. I can see Monsanto saying they have no responsibility for what is done with their seeds once they are purchased. Unfortunately, I think lawsuits make more sense against a farmer who plants GMO seed and doesn't take appropriate steps (if there were any) to keep the crops of his non-GMO neighbors from being contaminated.

Monsanto's pockets are very deep and suing them takes more resources than many small farmers have

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 12:46 AM

adirondacker (113 posts)

11. Be on the lookout for guys that look like this...

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 02:25 AM

Cha (125,775 posts)

12. This is Sick. And, it's questioned why so many support

Last edited Sat Dec 1, 2012, 02:27 AM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

Organic Farmers.

I saw some good news regarding ~~GMO~~ on here the other week!..

"Kaiser Permanente advises its customers against GMOs"

It has come to our attention that Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed healthcare organization in the United States, has advised its members against GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in food.

In its Northwest Fall 2012 newsletter, Kaiser suggested membership limit exposure to genetically modified organisms.

“GMOs have been added to our food supply since 1994, but most people don’t know it because the United States does not require labeling of GMOs,” according to the newsletter.

Sounding like a radical organic health proponent, the huge corporate Kaiser continued, “Despite what the biotech industry might say, there is little research on the long-term effects of GMOs on human health.”

Independent studies have shown GMOs to cause organ damage in rats and the inability to reproduce. Kaiser gave tips on how its members can avoid GMOs, including buying organic, looking for the “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal and to download the “ShopNoGMO” app.

http://occupy-monsanto.com/kaiser-permanente-advises-its-customers-against-gmos/

Thanks Judi Lynn

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Response to Cha (Reply #12)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 07:39 AM

BronxBoy (1,388 posts)

15. Don't know how they stack up as an insurance company....

but KP has been a very strong supporter of local food systems, organic and sustainable agriculture and healthy eating for some time in this area. They are the major sponsor of the 2013 Georgia Organics annual conference. And they have made a rolling van with Doc Broc and other characters who teach folks about healthy eating available to any farmers market that wanted them to show up.

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Response to BronxBoy (Reply #15)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 05:07 PM

Cha (125,775 posts)

17. Good to know!..thanks BronxBoy..

"Doc Broc".. I love it!

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 03:14 AM

tomm2thumbs (9,209 posts)

13. DuPont - failing to understand how marketing and public opinion works

This is only going to make proposals to label products as GM-products MORE likely

Keep it up DuPont - you're doin' a heckuva job

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Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Dec 1, 2012, 06:11 AM

Berlum (3,974 posts)

14. Ag Fascism, Inc. (R)

is marching onto your kitchen table...

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