Thread: GMO's: Monsanto Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach

Genetically Modfied Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach


by Linn Cohen-Cole
Global Research, February 14, 2009
opednews.com - 2009-02-03


People say if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, just don’t buy their GMO seeds.

Not so simple. Where are farmers supposed to get normal seed these days? How are they supposed to avoid contamination of their fields from GM-crops? How are they supposed to stop Monsanto detectives from trespassing or Monsanto from using helicopters to fly over spying on them?

Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples and if they find any GMO plants growing there (or say they have), they then sue, saying they own the crop. It’s a way to make money since farmers can’t fight back and court and they settle because they have no choice.

And they have done and are doing a bucket load of things to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of NORMAL seeds.

1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.

2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork and testing and tracking every variety and being subject to fines, that having normal seed becomes almost impossible (an NAIS approach to wiping out normal seeds). Does your state have such a seed law? Before they existed, farmers just collected the seeds and put them in sacks in the shed and used them the next year, sharing whatever they wished with friends and neighbors, selling some if they wanted. That’s been killed.

In Illinois, which has such a seed law, Madigan, the Speaker of the House, his staff is Monsanto lobbyists.

3. Monsanto is pushing anti-democracy laws (Vilsack’s brainchild, actually) that remove community’ control over their own counties so farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops. So if you don’t want a GM-crop that grows industrial chemicals or drugs or a rice growing with human DNA in it, in your area and mixing with your crops, tough luck.

Check the map of just where the Monsanto/Vilsack laws are and see if your state is still a democracy or is Monsanto’s. A farmer in Illinois told me he heard that Bush had pushed through some regulation that made this true in every state. People need to check on that.

4. For sure there are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA right now that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal (another way to leave nothing but GM-seeds) because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.â€

Monsanto is trying to control all food sources so they can have global control. Sooner or later, their patented seeds will push out natural seeds and therefore natural food.

As the son of a farmer, I find this information deeply troubling. If individuals do not control the food supply which is the very substance of life, then they place their well being into the hands of money grubbing demons. Non-farmers do not realize the control that government has over the small to medium sized farms. I remember the heavy handed tobacco allotments that my parents had to deal with when they farmed. The governement told you how much you could plant and monitored your sales. Now we have mega-corps who control all the seeds.

I have long wanted to restart my parents dormant farm in northeast NC and turn it into an organic vegetable producer (with natural seeds), but the cost and lack of legal labor have always stopped me. But now, if I could get some help I would do it. Anybody out there interested in joining an effort to help ourselves and our country? If so, send me a PM.