Oh the joy of the news I heard yesterday. On the way home from work yesterday I was listening "Marketplace" on NPR and heard a beautiful story. It seems the Justice Department is investigating Monsanto for anti-trust violations for its genetically immune Round-up soybean. They are holding a series of meetings and the first one was in Iowa last night. There are also a number of states investigating Monsanto for anti-trust violations. While this certainly will not end the dirty tricks and bullshit lawsuits that Monsanto files against farmers it may bring this corporation some very bad press and also bring too light the things that are doing to control the seed market throughout the world.Monsanto has some very powerful connections in assorted positions throughout Washington and I suspect that there will be quite a bit of pressure brought down on the Justice Dept. to make this investigation go away.
Monsanto owns so much of the seed market and uses it sheer size to bully farmers through the courts to use their seeds or go out of business. Farmers who fight them do not have the financial resources to fight a corporation of this size and generally end up settling in fashion because if they do not they face total devastation.
A corporation should not be able to go and buy patent on seeds. Monsanto owns about 90% of the soybean market and 80% of the corn market. How can we justify a corporation owning such a large percentage of a market that is so important to the daily lives of citizens of the world.
There will be a series of meetings across the U.S. and I bet that Monsanto will feel the heat.
Time to turn the pressure up on this company and also time to get some laws changed on how the seed market works. There major implications for how and what we eat if things continue on this current trend.
This was my garden just before I moved.
3 comments:
I hope some good old T. Roosevelt trust busting comes out of the Monsanto thing, but it will probably be many years down the road before it happens ... if at all.
The photo looks like a place of eternal springtime. I now miss your garden, too.
Glad to see a photo of the garden. It looks (ed) great! Willie Nelson is greatly involved in helping the farmers of this country and anyone can get tapped into some of the information regarding farmers, seeds, etc through his site. some of my seeds this year are heirloom variety. This is a good issue to discuss. My New Jersey neighbor has planted a garden this spring and is even composting. She blames it on me and I am delighted to have spread the word. The soil heals..
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of this.
Monsanto will have the spinmasters out in full force.
The garden was a blast will I was there.
Nowbody should have patents on seeds. It is just wrong.
I'll check out Willie's site,
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