Comments on: Small American Farmer Sends Monsanto Seed Patents to Supreme Court

By: Lucy Mauterer

Lucy Mauterer — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 01:37:21 +0000

With the jury still out on whether GMOs are harmful, and the undisputed fact that they have indeed “flown the coop” so to speak, in that genetic material is being found in places where it ought not be found, perhaps it is time to pull the plug on the irresponsible behavior of the biotech industry, since they seem more interested in turning a profit than actually feeding the hungry. That and the fact that it has not been proven that GMOs produce a higher crop yield. Also, consider the many reasons so many people in the world are going hungry. There are droughts, fires, floods, corrupt governments, which keep aid for themselves, letting their citizens starve, and lack of education. Designing new and more complex GMOs is not going to fix any of that. The argument for biotech feeding the world’s hungry just does not hold water.

By: Ken Jones

Ken Jones — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:29:21 +0000

Patents only last twenty years, some of Monsanto’s have already expired. These could well inspire a whole generation of backyard GM inventors trying out ideas in their own fields and patenting themselves without attorneys, by simply rewriting Monsanto expired patents and adding in their own modifications. This can even even be done right now. These days you can do the whole patent process online, internationally. Even applying for a US Provisional patent is not the cheapest way to go, apply for a UK patent and you get a year to pay any fees and your UK Filing Date is good for your Non-Provisional US Patent. If nobody is interested in a year, just abandon your patent and it has cost you nothing. If someone is interested the royalty advance can pay the fees. A great cheap Amazon ebook which explains all this is DIY Patent Online, it includes links to search and filing sites and lists all the fees, plus you can even read some of it free. They also have a website but aren’t trying to sell their services like most patent sites. Attorney’s must love them. Populations need to be fed and until World population begins to contract, Monsanto is in business. However like all products Monsanto will hit a maturity barrier and that is when new backyard GM seed inventors, working in a similar way to Vernon Bowman and doing the patents themselves, could be in for a field day. Literally.

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:02:36 +0000

sadly, here is one man of many who could, he stands up to yet another monopoly that is slowly and surely burning up this small planet – all well and good that we read here and write our comments – where are we when this farmer fronts court? – observing, not good enough everybody.

By: Mari

Mari — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:10:10 +0000

The only concern of Monsanto is continued profits. Providing food for a hungry world (nice try). Think of Jonas Salk and vaccine for polio. Permaculture and organics are the natural way to go. The more they are used and less dependent on the monopolies, the better for everyone.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:55:33 +0000

I m not looking it up again but I think there is no prof that gmo’s produce more food. Just monopolies .

By: JTR

JTR — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:31:13 +0000

The only reason Monsanto can produce and sell an ever-growing mass of its genetically altered plant products is the ever-growing human population, now more than 7 billion and counting. So, peacefully reduce the population with family planning education, while safely recycling 100% of all human-generated waste materials. Then everyone can return to a natural balance with this living biosphere that is our planet Earth.

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:18:28 +0000

What do I say? I say each and every day i become more educated on both sides of this “fight.” And I still have a lot more to learn. But what I have learned so far is that we don’t serve ourselves when we only read, or listen to, people on one side of any argument. I was blatantly anti-GMO for a long time — specifically because of my fear that our lack of understanding of the long term impacts of GMOs may be leading to connected increases in chronic illness like food allergies. On the other hand, I do believe there are heroes in this world who believe that GMOs or other types of breeded seeds are the answers to a global food crisis. I think it’s important to keep having conversations; keep reporting both studies and perspective pieces; and keep exploring options that serve both our short term and our long term needs.