Published: 04 June, 2012, 13:05
Machines lined up before harvesting soybeans at a farm in Tangara da Serra in Cuiaba, Brazil (Reuters / Paulo Whitaker)
Five million Brazilian farmers are locked in a lawsuit with US-based biotech giant Monsanto, suing for as much as 6.2 billion euros. They say that the genetic-engineering company has been collecting royalties on crops it unfairly claims as its own.
The farmers claim that Monsanto unfairly collects exorbitant profits every year worldwide on royalties from “renewal” seed harvests. “Renewal” crops are those that have been planted using seed from the previous year’s harvest. While the practice of renewal farming is an ancient one, Monsanto disagrees, demanding royalties from any crop generation produced from its genetically-engineered seed. Because the engineered seed is patented, Monsanto not only charges an initial royalty on the sale of the crop produced, but a continuing 2 per cent royalty on every subsequent crop, even if the farmer is using a later generation of seed.
“Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production,”Jane Berwanger, lawyer for the farmers told the Associated Press reports.
In the latest installment of the legal battle erupting in South America, the Brazilian court has ruled in favor of the Brazilian farmers, saying Monsanto owes them at least US$2 billion paid since 2004. Monsanto, however, has appealed the decision and the case is ongoing.
In essence, Monsanto argues that once a farmer buys their seed, they have to pay the global bio-tech giant a yearly fee in perpetuity – with no way out.
At stake is Brazil’s highly profitable and ever growing soybean production. Last year, Brazil was the world’s second producer and exporter of soybean behind the United States, according to the AFP report. The crops can be used for anything from animal feed to bio fuel, and worldwide demand is growing.
Genetically engineered soy first appeared illegally in Brazil in the 1990’s, smuggled in from neighboring Argentina. The Brazilian farmers found the seed attractive despite the ban in place from the Brazilian authorities because Monsanto had specifically designed the seed to be resistant to its own immensely powerful and popular herbicide Roundup.
When used in tandem, the strong herbicide will kill the weeds while allowing the soy crops to grow unimpeded. After the ban was lifted, genetically modified seed flooded the Brazilian market, and now 85 per cent of the Brazilian soy crop is genetically-engineered. Soy has been extremely successful in Brazil, currently making up 26 per cent of the country’s farm exports last year and netting Brazil a total of $24.1 billion, according to AP. However, Brazil’s farmers were apparently unaware there would be a heavy price to pay.
To make a deal with Monsanto is to make a deal with a company that is one the most powerful and pervasive food giants in the world. It is the world’s number one seed developer, and its patented genes have been inserted into 95 per cent of all American soy, and 80 per cent of all American corn crops. Monsanto has repeatedly levied large damage suits against independent farmers that have unknowingly or unwittingly used their seed.
And Monsanto’s reach goes far beyond agriculture.
Monsanto is also the world’s largest manufacturer of synthetic bovine growth hormone, injected into cows in order to stimulate greater milk production. The widespread pressure by the company to use the chemical and the subsequent measures taken by Monsanto to suppress information regarding the potential health risks sparked uproar among American farmers.
When dairy producers that did not use Monsanto’s products began labeling their products as “Hormone Free” or “Organic”, Monsanto slapped them with a lawsuit as recently as 2008, claiming the labels amounted to negative advertising against hormone-produced milk.
Director of corporate communications for Monsanto, Phil Angell, summed up Monsanto’s take on the issue in a report by food author Michael Pollan for New York Times Magazine in 1998: “Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA’s job.”
I rarely use terms such as “evil”, but there IS such a beast, and it runs this world. Monsanto, the Bush-Nazi Illuminati factions, and the global elite are all part of this interconnected intelligent plan to eliminate, then control, human energy, our DNA and our various higher bodies. Monsanto is but ONE ARM of the tentacles which represent Draconian-archontic demise of all things organic.
Removing the higher bodies is now possible and has been for some time. I wouldn’t underestimate this corporate giant, nor slough it off as “stupid scientists”. These people are SMART and KNOW what they are doing, why and are rushing to the finish-us-off line! That spells intent, and that implies no conscience, no heart = “evil”, however one chooses to interpret it.
Best,
Zany
Monsanto is like the Chicago mafia, strong-arm tactics and all – TOTAL EVIL all the way. Are you surprised? They are run by Bilderbergers and follow their Satanic plans!
Actually, Soros is a big share holder in the company, and Bill Gates just invested a chunk of money in Monsanto. Gates thinks he is helping feed the world without doing any research. I sent him a tweet asking why he was trying to kill the childrenn of the world. Wish more folks would do so.
What a wonderful opportunity for Brazil to go back to using natural seeds and shifting to organic production. People would be lining up to buy their harvests. Why anyone would choose to use Monsanto’s seeds in the first place is beyond me. Must be Monsanto’s slick marketing and false promises.
Bovine Growth Hormone has been strongly linked to cancer…..they know it and now you know it…stop using anything other than organic dairy………………we can put them out of business is enough people know it and protest it and refuse to buy their poison…..a news report on Sunday evening local mainstream news said cancer rates are expected to go up 75% by 2040……this is being engineered………chemicals…………..antibiotics…………….we must stop this insane destruction of our food crops and out health….Death by Diet….that is the Monsanto motto…..
Hi sister, Debbie,
When I was younger, I had this little diary that my wife and I had purchased in the “back to the land” movement popular among professional people back then. I had grown up on a dairy farm and was a partner with my friend in another small one so I wasn’t worried about being able to run this one.
One day, the Co-0p guy showed up with a Monsanto rep who wanted me to go on a “program” to shoot my herd up with BGH. Now, just to give you some background, when I bought the farm, the old geezer I bought from couldn’t get the herd to produce much more than 9600lbs per cow. I put the same herd on a feeding program and on DHIP (that’s Dairy Herd Improvement Program for you brothers and sisters who were raised in the city) and by the end of the first year I had the herd average up to 18, 700lbs per cow! So, I didn’t think I needed BGH and told him so. He tried to argue economics with me explaining that my cows (who answered my sons by name) were “assets” and that I wasn’t thinking like a business man. “That’s right,” says I. I’m a Dairy Farmer. After an hour of my playing around with his head (he thought I was an uneducated country bumpkin), he got angry and told me if I didn’t go on the program “Things could go bad for me.” I told him that if he didn’t get his ass off my land, things would most definitely go bad for him! That day, I quit that Co-Op and joined another. Two years later, at a Farmer’s Union meeting, we learned that three of the big corporate farms who had put their herd on that stuff lost their herds. Those herds were valued at a couple of hundred thousand a piece. Two more family farms lost theirs as well. It seems that the BGH just wasted the animals away–sort of like putting them on Crack-Coccaine.
Monsanto isn’t an evil corporation. They’re a useless, stupid, unnecessary corporation that is trying to “improve” upon Mother Nature by shooting her up with hormones and modifying her genes 5 BILLION YEARS IN THE MAKING! Just imagine how god damned arrogant you have to be to become a Monsanto “scientist” and how incredibly stupid you have to be to become a Monsanto executive.
Well, it’s too late now. The whole damned world knows how useless they are and how they’ve screwed up food production AND the world economy with their assembly-line agriculture. Idiots! Scientific observation should have given them the “big clue” that what is not normally found in nature is unsustainable. Don’t worry sis, our Great Mother has something “special” planned for them. You watch. I’ll bet you dollars-to-donuts that when She pulls the rug out from under them, they still won’t have a clue as to what happened as their boney little heads and pea-sized brains hit the pavement.
DNA is CHANGING! It’s growing more strands. And, what’s more, they KNOW it and can’t stop it! Sit back and let Mom handle this. Her “foot print” is much bigger than yours. In the meantime, yeah, I agree, lets bankrupt the bums.
Love and Light,
SaS
Stunned….really enjoyed your story…..I do buy only organic dairy and I stopped using canned foods about a year ago when I had tumors(fortunately they were benign) removed and when I asked what caused them by surgeon surprised me by saying likely environmental toxins….this started my quest for knowledge about what was happening to my “container” (et humor), boy did I lear A LOT! I bought an electirc pressure cooker and I can whip up dried beans and soups in minutes! I call the canned goods aisle at the supermarket carcinogen row………….
I actually disagree with one point you made….I think Monsanto is very EVIL, they know what they are doing…..they won’t eat their own GMOs! at their office cafeteria where employees are promised they are not served GMOs………..
But I think to that the forces of good are just about ready to clean house………I’ve even stopped obsessing over chemtrail poisoning……the ETs have promised they have that under control….when I see one now I take a moment to meditate and telepathicly request the removal of them……………..may the chemicals only harm those who sent them…..
Peace be with us from here on in!!!!
A wonderful, ‘real’ story SaS. Many thanks and hugs, ~Jean
I would love to post your comment on my Facebook page – can I have your permission? Thank you, and more power to all of us
Catie Stewart
Catie, I’m not sure to which comment/person you are referring, so please let us know. I can’t imagine anyone would mind. Hugs, ~Jean
Sorry, my message skipped! ‘Stunned at Sunset’, his dairy, the co-op and the man from Monsanto. It’s really inspiring, down to earth and totally sensible! Thanks Jean x
Thank you for explaining this to people in such an eloquent easy for them to understand way. I have been doing the same for 18 yrs or more yrs., and got laughed at for spending money on organic milk for my family. I’m glad people are becoming so much more aware!
General post,
Dow Chemical produces Rat Poison however, they don’t sell it as nutritious food regardless of how the FDA handles it and they clearly mark it with a “skull and crossbones” because their laboratory testing has confirmed that it kills living organisms.
SaS, is it fluoride that is part of the ingredients in rat poison? I think so . . . Hugs, ~Jean