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There was a lawsuit several years ago in western Canada where Monsanto sued a farmer whose canola (I think) crop was pollinated by his neighbour's Monsanto strain.
Somehow, Monsanto won, and got to burn this poor guy's crops.
It was still in the courts on Appeal, last I heard, and don't know how the Appeal turned out. I know he was broke and sending out appeals for funds for his defense.
And an acquaintance who works in rural development in India said that *thousands* of Indian farmers have committed suicide, as I recall because they were sold terminator seed without understanding what it was or the implications, and then tried to save seed as they usually did and ended up with no crops.
The idea of some corporation "owning" the food source just gives me the willies. Food is a basic human right, and no one should have that kind of power over the rest of the human race.
I hear you. The Indian government had to fight off a patent on Basmati rice by a Texan company. That would have effected the traditional livelihood of hundreds of millions. We've had similar problems protecting Australian products & concepts from foreign patenting but of course, our backs aren't against the wall like ppl in the third world.
It all points to the importance of staying connected to the land yourself. Seedsavers are putting out a movie I think, called Guardians of the Seed that talks about gardeners working together to form a globally-disseminated seed bank for the future.
The Indian government currently has a huge push on to document all the plants used in traditional Indian medicine (Ayurveda) as some companies have tried to patent different things, such as Neem, and the only way, apparently, to fight them in the world courts is to show a documented history of use - for each ailment someone else might want to patent it for.
I think we have to be very aware of what's going on with our food and medicinal plants.
~m
Its ridiculous hey? But I am optomistic. Ultimately, nature & humanity will triumph. Corporations are a great evil but they gain all their power from the fact that ppl are unable to fend for themselves & have become so dependent on the modern, packaged world. At the end of the day though, we don't need corporations or the wealthy elite. They need us. Seedsaving, bartering, re-using materials & resources are all ways we can give power to ourselves instead of them. Such notions may seem abstract right now, but the human race doubles in size every 25 to 30 years. Things have to change.
