This may not be news to you:
[youtube:2k5vx16d]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P1CJ7IEt0c[/youtube:2k5vx16d]
Farmers having to pay royalties for saving seeds to be used for the next season is plain ridiculous.
Welcome to the wonderful world of IP law, where big corporations run unchecked and everyone else gets screwed.
Welcome to the wonderful world of economy.
Welcome to wonderful world of all politicians can be bought for a price.
Folks, this is a silly argument. If farmers don't want to agree to Monsanto's terms, they don't have to buy Monsanto's seeds. It's as simple as that.
Besides, the patent on Monsanto's GM Soya runs out next year. After that, farmers will be able to do as they please with Monsanto GM Soya.
If there were no patent laws, companies would have no incentive to put millions of dollars in research into developing new products. No new medicines, no new crops, nothing. As it is, patent laws guarantee that companies will be able to recoup their research dollars, and then the patent will run out and the new product will become public domain. Win/win.
It is that simple indeed. This is exactly what economy does; make people try to make as much money as possible. Monsanto is simply succeeding exceptionally well.
Now, if anyone wants to argue that Monsanto is an immoral fuck of a megacorp, that's a separate discussion entirely. Monsanto certainly deserves to be liberally shat upon, but not for their perfectly legit use of [strike]copyright[/strike] patent law.
I have no problem with patent law. I agree that having patent law paves the way to innovation. The laws that Monsanto lobbies for and in effect create go WAY beyond what any patent should allow IMHO.
Quote from: "Johan"I have no problem with patent law. I agree that having patent law paves the way to innovation. The laws that Monsanto lobbies for and in effect create go WAY beyond what any patent should allow IMHO.
Which laws in particular are you referring to? I don't like Monsanto either, but I'm not aware of any laws they've lobbied for that are all that bad. Maybe you could educate us?
Quote from: "Davka"Quote from: "Johan"I have no problem with patent law. I agree that having patent law paves the way to innovation. The laws that Monsanto lobbies for and in effect create go WAY beyond what any patent should allow IMHO.
Which laws in particular are you referring to? I don't like Monsanto either, but I'm not aware of any laws they've lobbied for that are all that bad. Maybe you could educate us?
Its been a while so I'd have to go do some research on it to find which specific laws bothered me. Suffice it to say I would not want to farm in this country using non-Monsanto technology unless I had a boatload of lawyers and at least a few well connected politicians in my immediate family.
They are very aggressive in protecting their patents even when it's obvious the party in question was not infringing nor had any intention to infringe and was only guilty of not being a Monsanto customer. They are able to do that because of the legislation their lobbyists bring about.
Quote from: "Davka"Folks, this is a silly argument. If farmers don't want to agree to Monsanto's terms, they don't have to buy Monsanto's seeds. It's as simple as that.
Monsanto controls the markets so they don't have a choice.
The pros of genetically engineered food far outweighs the cons in my opinion.
I don't think GM foods are inherently bad. But I do think there should be safeguards in place to insure that non-GM seeds remain in existence and readily available.
No, I do not think they are inherently bad, either. I think the potential, though, for the effects to go undetected for a long time because our molecular technologies are just not advanced enough is there. I think labelling GMO foods should absolutely happen and an disappointed that they are not.
Biology is incredibly complicated, and one of the basic tenets of biology is that any mutation or modification that affects the fitness of an organism is almost certain to have other, nontarget effects on its own fitness or to the fitness other organisms that it comes in contact with.