5-23 IAT Monsanto

 The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week  that farmers could not use Monsanto’s patented genetically altered soybeans to create new seeds without paying the company a fee.

 Farmers who buy Monsanto’s patented seeds must sign a contract promising not to save seeds from resulting crops which means they must buy new seeds every year. The seeds are valuable because they are resistant to the herbicide Roundup. By the way, Roundup itself is a Monsanto product as we all know. I spoke with Monsanto spokesperson Lee Quarrels ( which incidentally is a great name for someone who is in any dispute):  “The court’s ruling ensures that long-standing principles of patent law apply to break through, 21st-century technologies that are central to meeting our growing planet and its people. The ruling also applies to all investors throughout the public and private sector, that they can and should continue to invest in innovation that feeds and improves lives, creates jobs in the laboratories of America to help keep its competitive edge.”  Indiana farmer Vernon Bowman who had signed such contracts for his main crop said he discovered a loophole for a second riskier crop later in the growing season. For that second crop, he bought seeds from a grain elevator filled with a mix of seeds in the reasonable hope that many of them contained Monsanto’s patented Roundup ready gene. Seeds from grain elevators are typically sold for animal feed, food processing or industrial uses. Instead, Bowman planted them and sprayed them with Roundup. Many plants survived and he replanted their seeds.