An email sent to me:
These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, virtually forcing growers to pay them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t.
But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to have exclusive rights over conventional seeds, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands -- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s greedy plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again.
Many farmers and politicians are already against this -- we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_rb/?bCpVjcb&v=24037
Once a patent exists in one country, trade agreements and negotiations often push other countries to honour it as well. That’s why patents change everything about how our food chain works: for thousands of years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without worrying about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But now, biotech companies are getting patents on the seeds and then charging farmers exorbitant royalty fees. And farmers can’t even save patented seeds for replanting the next season -- Monsanto has sued hundreds of them for practicing the age-old art of seed-saving and plant breeding. Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation -- but in fact they create a corporate monopoly of our food.
But luckily, the European Patent Office is controlled by 38 member states who, with one vote, can end dangerous patents on food that is bred using conventional methods. Even the European Parliament has issued a statement objecting to these kinds of destructive patents. Now, a massive wave of public outcry could push them to ban the patenting of our everyday food for good.
The situation is dire already -- Monsanto alone owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and 49% of cauliflower varieties registered in the EU. With a simple regulatory change, we could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from corporate control -- and it's up to us to make it happen.
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Yes I went and signed the petition.
OTG
A sense of humor is absolutely essential to survival.
thanks for sharing, it is certainly a very big issue, I am closely watching both the GMO alphfa hay fight currently going on and also the court battle going on in regards to pig genes and monsanto in germany.. as it would effect my large black pigs which all carry this gene that they are trying to create a legal right and control to, as most old heritage breeds do have this gene..
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
I'm so divided, personally, with regards to Monsanto and like corporations.
I mean, I've used Roundup in the past. With limited and proper use, it can be a useful tool. I know people that have come to rely on it to help pay the bills and mortgages on their farms. Same could be said with their crop seed.
I certainly don't begrudge a company their right to develop and protect their products. Otherwise, we'd have foreign knock-offs of everything and no real research and development.
But despite that, I do certainly have issue with Monsanto and companies like it when it comes to offering products that they bloody well KNOW has harmful effects to the food chain. It's criminal and because of their money and their lawyers they are getting away with it.
I have strong issue with the fact that if their patent seed happens to make it's way for however reason onto your property that your infringing on their patent and you owe them. What if I've been growing and developing a crop of something and the guy next to me oversprays roundup and kills it? What if I'm keeping some heritage or my own breed and their seed contaminates it - some bird eats it on the field over and fly's over mine and craps it out or whatever. Can I be compensated for their contamination? Unlikely, as my pockets are not as deep as theirs to fight it in a court.
The true crime at any rate here is the very decision that life - in any form - could be patented. It should have never been allowed, all lifeforms should be public domain.
Runs With Scissors