Monsanto uses behind the scenes influence to kill Montana farmer protection bill.

[JohnyCanuck]

Did a Monsanto-Hosted Dinner Kill the Montana Farmer Protection Bill?

The opposition that lined up against House Bill 445, or the Farmer Protection Bill, last week wasn’t exactly unexpected.

Whether the bill would make Montana “unfriendly to business” was one topic of conversation. Another line of questioning involved whether the bill would scare off big bio-tech companies, such as Monsanto, from investing research dollars in the state’s university system.

These arguments are commonplace in the halls of the Montana Capitol, especially on legislation that offers any kind of regulation on any kind of business. But, considering the simplicity of the bill, and considering that Monsanto in particular was not there to tell legislators what signals the bill would send to the company and others like it, it seemed just a little out of place.

Then, Kahrin Deines of the Associated Press found out that Monsanto did in fact offer input on the bill. It just did so via a private hosted dinner—rather than through customary channels like, you know, registering as a lobbyist or testifying before the committee along with the rest of the public.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/monsanto_hosts_dinner_for_montana_legislators_on_seed_sampling_bill/C37/L37/

[Canuckistanian]

1. More on the bill:

The bill in question is House Bill 445, sponsored by Rep. Betsy Hands, D-Missoula. The legislation aimed to establish rules on how providers of expensive, proprietary seeds (often for genetically modified crops) can go about policing their patents. Farm country is full of horror stories about legally-purchased patented plants pollinating the next farm, or last year’s seeds sprouting this year, leaving innocent farmers subject to aggressive legal action.

House Bill 445, which was patterned partly after similar bills in North Dakota, South Dakota, Maine, Indiana and California, had a simple objective: protect the rights of farmers while still allowing the company to enforce its patents. The bill would have done that by regulating the seed sampling process (allowing farmers to have 3rd party testing done, making the company get permission from farmers before coming on to the land, etc), eliminating liability for farmers that unknowingly grow patented seed, and by mandating that the cases be tried in the farmer’s home state, rather than the company’s home state.

I like the original title of the article:
"Did a Monsanto-Hosted Dinner Kill the Montana Farmer Protection Bill??"

Seems like Monsanto doesn't like doing their dirty work in public.

[JohnyCanuck]

2. And in other news,

the Fox and the Chickens were encouraged to work together on a compromise bill on hen house security.

The committee did vote on Tuesday to write a letter to both proponents and opponents of the bill inviting them to begin working on a compromise bill for the next legislative session. It’s a commendable move, but let’s just hope that this time, the committee will listen to—and put—Montana farmers first.