Monsanto manufactures, produces and sells genetically modified seed. With the vagaries of the wind and insects those genetic markers can wind up in farmers fields that have not purchased genetically modified seed. Monsanto is a large corporation and has been suing and harassing thousands of farmers who do not use their products. OSGATA, the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association is suing Monsanto for relief from their continuing harassment. The amici brief is here.
The OSGATA website
Recently, other groups and organizations have joined the lawsuit. The following quote from Marty Mesh, whose organization just joined the lawsuit, aptly describes the situation.
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| photo from OSGATA |
Recently, other groups and organizations have joined the lawsuit. The following quote from Marty Mesh, whose organization just joined the lawsuit, aptly describes the situation.
Marty Mesh, Executive Director of Florida Organic Growers, states, “We join this suit with sadness but feel compelled to seek justice. If Organic farmers, seed growers, and companies have no assurance that technology they have never asked for, never signed a licensing agreement to use, have no desire to be a part of, and in fact, go to great lengths to avoid, can still trespass on their farms and subject them to a lawsuit by the patent holder who seemingly escapes all liability for that trespass, then it is not only morally wrong, ethically unjust, but also legally perverse.”Monsanto can sue organic farmers if trace amounts of genetically modified crops show up in their fields but organic farmers cannot sue Monsanto for polluting their organic crops? This is an important case and will have wide ranging consequences. I hope that most of the "conservative ethically challenged right wing activist" judges on the supreme court retire before this case hits their tainted benches.
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