Monsanto Investigator in Illinois Laughs They Are Doing 'Rural Cleansing'

[ensho]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/MONSANTO-investigator-in-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090110-871.html



As of last night, a US marshall, 2 state police and a county police are all over Mr. Hixon's area, serving notices to farmers that they are being sued by Monsanto. They arrive in pairs, with two cars parked a quarter mile and half mile down the road. They've served 3 so far and said "a bunch more are coming." No telling how many will be served since Hixon has between 200-400 farmers he cleans seeds for and these farmers have been repeatedly threatened by Monsanto thugs for the last two months, getting "visits," letters, and calls daily.

Farmers report that a Monsanto investigator laughed that they were doing "rural cleansing."

Steve Hixon is a seed cleaner in southern Illinois. He has equipment that takes the plant materials and "cleans" it so that the seeds are separated out and can be given back to farmers to save for the next season. It's a mechanized step up from farmers hand picking seeds off their own plants, which, with hundreds of acres - or even 10 - would not be easy to do.

Mr. Hixon has the non-distinction of being attacked by Monsanto. He is far from alone. Monsanto has been picking off seed cleaners across the Midwest, having already done its thuggish thing in Pilot Grove, Missouri, and in Indiana, attacking Maurice Parr, destroying business for all of them.
- long snip that will turn your stomach-
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Monsanto is a criminal corporation

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Have you got a seperate account of this story?

One from a credible source?

[ensho]

4. you have something against opednews?

nt

[Occam Bandage]

6. I do. They're no more a "news source" than WorldNetDaily is.

[ensho]

9. well, that's your opinion

nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. AND their website gives me epilepsy, hives, and hysterical pregnancy.

What a bad, bad, bad piece of design.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Well, there's the ridiculous bias.

And the quality of their writing ought to be rejected by a high school newspaper editor.

Other than that, no.

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. Monsanto corp is a terrorist organization

Too big and it has become harmful to US citizens rather than helpful.

Pull their corporate charter. (Is that the correct term?) All corporations in the US operate with permission of the govt. We the people, need to put Monsanto out of business.

[MadHound]

3. And yet Obama is putting Monsanto's boy Villsak in his administration

Big Ag isn't going to be satisfied until they own everything, and it looks like the Obama administration will help that come about.

[ensho]

7. yes, I'm anti Villsak

is Monsanto powerful enough to use Obama as a tool?

[MadHound]

14. Well, considering that Big Ag chipped in over 2 million to Obama's campaign

I suspect that they probably at least have his ear. Meanwhile, small farmers, being unable to compete with such money, are left voiceless in the Obama administration.

[Occam Bandage]

15. It was pretty clear that Obama would be a friend to corporate agriculture ever since Iowa,

when he declared his support for ethanol.

[ensho]

16. the black farmer's group has spoken up before but I haven't seen

anything about them lately. wonder what they think of Villsac

[Occam Bandage]

5. Monsanto is like Microsoft in the '90s.

They're using their patents for their proprietary innovations to the fullest extent. People are, of course, free to not purchase seeds from them, but their products are necessary to remain competitive.

[arcadian]

8. I take it, this is so Monsanto can sell them their seeds

So they can't reuse the old ones. Monsanto is criminal.

[Occam Bandage]

10. You do not purchase seeds from Monsanto. You license them.

It's like software. You don't buy the product, you buy a license to use the product. If you bought the product, and not a license, the company would go out of business in a year, as the purchasers could simply copy the product and sell it to other people. If you don't like that arrangement, you are free to develop your own proprietary version, or use a cheaper non-patented alternative. Good luck with that.

[ensho]

12. you work for Monsanto?

or are you just an undercover neo con?

[Occam Bandage]

13. No. I'm a research assistant for a patent law professor.

While I am not a lawyer, tend to get things wrong, and won't be a lawyer for at least five years, from where I'm sitting it looks like Monsanto is well within their rights as a patent developer. It's a tough situation for farmers, but keep in mind they're always able to buy non-licensed seeds. It's just that Monsanto seeds provide such an enormous competitive advantage that they have to go with Monsanto, and Monsanto, lacking competition, is able to charge such high prices with such steep conditions that they can take 99% of that advantage for themselves, and it will still be in the farmers' interest to go with them.

[ensho]

17. well, you just gave the nice version of the story. . . . . .

nt

[Occam Bandage]

19. So I did, so I did.

I'm not denying they're thugs. They're just being thugs in an entirely legal way, and an entirely legal way that would be difficult to prevent without a radical overhaul of the patent system.

Which, I might add, may become necessary at some point. Technologies are advancing so quickly, and becoming so interdependent, that there may come a point when patching up a system that was designed for the Industrial Revolution makes less sense than starting over.