Kansas Farmer Sues Monsanto Over Rogue GMO Wheat

reply to post by Phage


Well, hopefully there will be a jury trial,
I'd like to see it get that far....then of course likely
Monsanto would offer a settlement.

However, that does not fix the wheat problem.

Originally posted by burntheships

However, that does not fix the wheat problem.

Exactly what "wheat problem" are you speaking of?

The wheat price hasnt changed,
nobody can point to any cancelled sales,
the GMO found in the farmers field was a small part of one area,
the affected area were only a few "volunteer" ** plants,
has not been harvested,
none of the farmers other fields are affected,
has not been sent into the production line,
none of it is suspected of being used or exported,
Monsanto isnt suing the farmer.


** plants that had germinated and developed in a place
where they were not intentionally planted.

reply to post by burntheships


I looked around and couldnt find anything. They probably want that supressed, especially if it's something really bad....

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Peter Brake

 

Not possible to scale up? we as a species have become very capable, and we can, if we choose feed the world for all time - organically. What do we not have?

We don't have the labor force required, for one thing. Is it not true that organic farming is more labor intensive? There's a reason organic produce costs more.

But the problems of pest control in a field of 10,000 acres is an entirely different thing from pest control in a 2 acre plot, labor or not. The same techniques used in organic farming cannot be used in large scale agriculture.

Surely you know that the insertion of a gene has created a new organism, making sure that people spell their arguments correctly doesn't dispel the truths contained in them.

Yes, the insertion of a gene has created a new organism. That's sort of the whole point. I'm not sure how the second part of your sentence applies to the first though. I'm not even sure what it means.

edit on 6/6/2013 by Phage because: (no reason given)

If organic farming is perfectly doable over a farm of around 10 acres, and produced more produce and better produce, surely the easy solution is to have many more small farms and farmers and many fewer mega farms and farmers.

If mega farms of thousands of acres are the bar to better, healthier and much safer farming...break up the mega farms.

Simple really.

Millions of people are scratching around in the dirt for a living in the USA... it would be much better for ALL Americans if some of those millions of people were gainfully employed, being productive scratching around in their own small farm dirt and producing healthy, clean and non-transgenic foods for the entire USA?

The farming methods don't have to scale up. The unemployment count has to scale down, and organic, safe and healthy, small scale farms and farmers need to rise...this would be a 3 birds with one stone initiative.

Huge, ugly profit machines like Monsanto and others of a similar ilk won't like it of course, but they are not the important factor here...the public and their sense of purpose, their trust in those who produce food for their families, and their right to expect a government that will proactively tackle rising unemployment, while safeguarding and ensuring the quality and safety of what they eat IS the important factor.

Monsanto and others like them, could be broken up today and nobody will shed a single tear for their passing. Many small farmers are not only shedding tears, but also their blood because of Monsanto and others like them.

Break up the mega farms, train and award small low acreage parcels of farming land to families and individuals, organise farming co-ops to enable multiple small farmers to work together and spread outlays and equipment costs and the entire US aggricultural effort would be able to go organic, which is proven to be a better method than anything else.

Originally posted by MysterX
reply to post by burntheships

 

Monsanto’s vice president and general counsel David Snively..

Snively? Snivelling Snively sound an apt name to me.

Hope all the small farmers get together and give that creepy outfit a good kick in the backside.

ETA:

I don't have a problem with GMO cotton, as it isn't going to be ingested in any way by people or animals, so if GMO can increase yeild and quality for crops like cotton, hemp, flax and so on, i don't see the problem.

But having said that...thinking about it, insects still visit these types of crop and will still be affected by the GMO pollen etc..so probably better to lose 10% yeild and still have the ability to naturally fertilise our food crops.

edit on 6-6-2013 by MysterX because: (no reason given)

I disagree, fiber is only a small part of the cotton plant, the seeds are the other part which are made into cotton seed meal used as livestock feed. So cotton is a culprit, just like GMO corn and soybeans. Adios Amigo. John

reply to post by Mike.Ockizard


So far, I managed to find this artlcile, it has quite a bit more information in it.

www.organicconsumers.org...


I might need to check through the
research papers. News today, another farmer has filed suit, and an advocacy
group.

Monsanto Co. (MON), the world’s largest seed company, was sued by an environmental group and a Washington farm over claims it failed to take steps to prevent genetically altered wheat from contaminating regular wheat.

Yesterday’s complaint by the Center for Biological Diversity and another filed in federal court in Spokane, Washington, follow a June 3 lawsuit in Kansas brought after wheat modified to withstand St. Louis-based Monsanto’s Roundup Ready weed killer was discovered on a farm in Oregon last month.

www.bloomberg.com...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating how the wheat showed up eight years after the company ended field tests. Meanwhile, scientists are not exactly buying into Monsantos claims.

Several plant scientists questioned conclusions Monsanto Co. drew from its investigation of an escaped gene-altered wheat variety and said there is still a risk that rogue grain is in the seed supply.

In its first detailed response to last week's announcement that a genetically modified wheat not approved for use was found growing in an Oregon farmer's field, Monsanto said that it has since tested 31,200 seed samples in Oregon and Washington and found no evidence of contamination.

That's not enough to convince some researchers that this genetic modification, not cleared for commercial sale, won't be found in some wheat seeds. www.columbian.com...

Originally posted by alfa1

nobody can point to any cancelled sales,

Are you purposely trying to be ignorant?
In the begining of the thread, other countries refused shipments
due to the contamiination.

has not been harvested,

Trawl all you want, you maybe ignored.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by burntheships

 

Here is recent finding on Bt Eggplant, found to be unsafe, therefore it will
not be approved for farming.

My goodness. You completely misstate what is in that article.
That isn't what it says. It isn't about farming and the eggplant has not been found to be unsafe.

from the article:

The appeals court said there is still no full scientific certainty on the effects of the Bt talong (eggplant) to the environment and to the health of the people. ...[An organization of farmers and scientists, Greenpeace and Masipag] said Bt eggplant and other GMO crops are dangerous to human health and the environment. They also pointed that scientific tests on laboratory animals fed GMO food such as the Bt eggplant have shown that GMOs affect their liver, kidneys and blood.

Equals Unsafe.

reply to post by TheEthicalSkeptic


And honestly, I'm VERY VERY VERY surprised that kind of science came from the Philippines (where that article comes from and the country it affects). Like shocked that this Monsanto product is not approved with the amount of corruption here.

Originally posted by Philippines
reply to post by TheEthicalSkeptic

 

And honestly, I'm VERY VERY VERY surprised that kind of science came from the Philippines (where that article comes from and the country it affects). Like shocked that this Monsanto product is not approved with the amount of corruption here.

Good point Philipp

The reality is that in the United States we practice a different form of institutionalized corruption. This grievance may not be able to be fairly adjudicated in this country, ever. As is the case with many many subjects. We have to look to the international community for help.

Our corruption is woven skillfully betwixt the dotted i's and crossed t's. We in the US may not take bribe payments to enable contracts, but we will equivocate, fabricate, astroturf, lie, kill, blackmail, intimidate in order to construct a sourcing, practice or patent monopoly with the greatest expediency.

This hegemonic form of corruption is much more insidious and powerful. In a developing nation, an official may take an entitlement payment for a contract; but he still loves his people, his nation, and his children.

We have long ago lost that community.

Originally posted by Arolexion

Originally posted by watchitburn
reply to post by burntheships

 

I find it humorous that their lawyer's name is Snively.

Monsanto is scum, it is also funny that they act like anyone considers them as anything other than scum. I have yet to meet someone with a favorable opinion of that company.

You obviously haven't met Hopechest the forums CIA employee.

May she rest in peace. Here, lay Hopechests last flitters amoungst us.

Now, back to the topic at hand, Monsanto has just announced it is testing GMO
wheat again, starting in 2011. What do you know, they claim sabotage, however its
looking pretty grim for them. Snively, are you reading?

Break up the mega farms, train and award small low acreage parcels of farming land to families and individuals, organise farming co-ops to enable multiple small farmers to work together and spread outlays and equipment costs and the entire US aggricultural effort would be able to go organic, which is proven to be a better method than anything else.



I do like your attitude, we have quite a few community farms here now, and I have always wished that my own farm would be shared by a group of people. I'm interested in facilitating or helping formulate ways to make this shared way flexible, sustainable and survivable. For any who have been involved with this know how easy it is for this shared energy to collapse.

I look after a 35 acre organically certified farm here, 99% of the work is done by me. From my perspective it becomes about getting the job done. Looking at machinery and efficiency, but with 35 acres the really good equipment costs too much. I do hire some gear, and make do with 2nd hand equipment that I have brought. The cost is time and money keeping this old stuff going.

What I am saying is that their is efficiencies that come with size, and a good tractor does the job of 15 men. If perhaps the company hiring the equipment was a jointly owned cooperative, we smaller farmers can have some time to do more of the value adding personal attention stuff that brings about quality.

I would be interested in farming 10000 acres, and having the ear of a good research & development team. My main point is that we can grow enough organic food to feed the world. It is silly given our capabilities to say otherwise.

People here are arguing for eating a food engineered to produced a toxin, my understanding from the testing so far, is that this toxin production can continue inside our bodies. The testing made on pregnant Canadian women showing the bt toxin in their bodies should have been the end of the sale of these organisms.

Clearly this is as shoddy a science as humans have ever produced, when will we learn?

Originally posted by alfa1
Not taking anyone's word for it, I check the wheat futures for myself at tradingcharts.com

And correct me if I'm wrong but there is no drop at all after May 30 when the news broke, not even if you zoom into the chart at the day level.

Time for an update...



Wheat prices have now dropped (although as you see, they have been at lower levels in the recent past).

But here's one for the lawyers out there. Does a lawsuit still count if the damage you're suing for happens AFTER you lodge the lawsuit, or do you have to file a new one?
Or will the judge only look at what happened up to the point in time the papers were filed?

Bravo to the farmers for learning how to fight back. The best way to take down a company is to sue their pants off over and over again till they are broke. Does not matter if they have a case or not, which is why their lawyer was so pissy about all these farmers lining up to sue. They dont all need to win, they just need to keep them in court. Bravo, well played on the farmers part.