Monsato's War on Seed Cleaners!

[Joanne98]

MONSANTO'S DESTRUCTION OF SEED CLEANERS AND THE IMMENSE THREAT TO HUMAN ACCESS TO SEEDS

I have been reporting on the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's raids on Mennonite dairy farmers, on the recent Ohio Department of Agriculture SWAT team raid on an organic coop, on the USDA's terrible weapon against all farmers with animals (NAIS - the National Animal Identification System) - trying to give an idea of the destructive forces being used intentionally against non-corporate farming.

But unless one sees what is happening to seeds themselves, one misses the scope of things.

Life itself depends on seeds.

Multinational biotech corporations such as Monsanto have been genetically engineering them, promoting GE-seeds as producing better yields, helping the starving of the world, using less pesticides and as a boon to small farmers.

Continued>>>
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Raids-on-Seeds-life-itsel-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-081215-45.html

Monsanto patent fight ensnares Missouri farm town
http://greenbio.checkbiotech.org/news/monsanto_patent_fight_ensnares_missouri_farm_town

Agricultural Giant Battles Small Farmers
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/26/eveningnews/main4048288.shtml

and now in Illinois where they are going after Steve Hixon.


Shortly after someone broke into Mr. Hixon's office and he found his account book on his truck seat where he would never have left it, evey one of his remotely located and very scattered customers had three men (described as goons with "no necks") arrived at each farm, going out onto it without permission, and serving close to 200 farmers. Mr. Hixon and state police who were called in, believe a GPS tracking device may have been put on Mr. Hixon's equipment. All of his customers being sued and are being intensely pressured to settle, with the men coming back again and again and with daily calls and letters. It appears they are being a choice between being sued or settling out of court or testifying against him that he encouraged them to clean GE-seeds.

Monsanto has made a fortune on those kinds of Mafia extortion settlements since no one has the money to stand up to them and paying them off some huge amount even if the farmer has done nothing, saves them from legal costs they can't possibly manage and then a potentially worse fate as one little local lawyer goes up against not one but multiple legal teams working for Monsanto and present in court.

The first words out of the judge's mouth when Moe Parr, a seed cleaner in Indiana was sued, were "It's a honor to have a fine company like Monsanto in my courtroom."

In addition to the personal attacks on seed cleaners, Monsanto is getting laws put into place that themselves are overwhelming and destructive of seed cleaners and all those who save normal seeds.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Raids-on-Seeds-life-itsel-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-081215-45.html

I HATE THIS COMPANY!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I hate them too!

[derby378]

2. After you shake hands with a Monsanto rep, count your fingers

These goons are the Blackwater of agriculture.

[Muttocracy]

3. One more reason not to be thrilled about our new USDA head. nt

[humus]

4. exact opposite direction

If you’ve lost the capacity to be outraged by what’s outrageous, you’re dead. Somebody ought to come and haul you off.

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

- Wendell Berry

"a people who are entirely lacking in economic self-determination,
either personal or local, and who are therefore entirely passive in
dealing with the suppliers of all their goods and services, including
political goods and services, cannot be governed democratically--or
not for long."
Wendell Berry

"We assume that we can have an exploitive, ruthlessly competitive,
profit-for-profit's-sake economy, and yet remain a God-fearing and a
democratic nation, as we still apparently think of ourselves. This
simply means that our highest principles and standards have no
practical force or influence, and are reduced merely to talk."
Berry

[bvar22]

5. K&R

The only way to know for sure.....Grow your Own from heirloom seeds.

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. What the heck is "seed cleaning"? nt

[yellowcanine]

7. Cleaning harvested grain so that it can be used for seed but in fact there are other reasons to

clean grain - for example if it is going to be ground into a flour for use in food. So it is a bit perplexing that the simple act of cleaning grain is somehow illegal.

[hvn_nbr_2]

8. Thanks.

Sounds like it's part of their (Monsanto's) system of making it illegal to keep seed grain to force farmers to get all their seeds from Monsanto.

[yellowcanine]

12. It is illegal for farmers to save Roundup Ready seed for replanting.

That is the point here. Monsanto is trying to make the claim that someone cleaning seed for farmers is assisting in an illegal activity - however seed cleaning by itself should not be illegal imo unless the person doing the cleaning knows it is Roundup Ready seed. Roundup Ready soybean seed looks like any other kind of soybean seed.

[LiberalEsto]

9. MonSATAN

They should change their name.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Joanne.

[acmavm]

11. OH well, Tom Vilsack will take care of that. NOT!