Monsanto Still Suing Farmers for Saving Seeds

Monsanto sues farmers, calls them seed technology pirates
Associated Press
Posted Thursday, January 20, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - Monsanto Co.'s "seed police" snared soy farmer Homan
McFarling in 1999 and the company is demanding he pay it hundreds of
thousands of dollars for alleged technology piracy.

McFarling's sin? He saved seed from one harvest and replanted it the
following season, a revered and ancient agricultural practice.

"My daddy saved seed. I saved seed," said McFarling, 62, who still grows soy
on the 5,000-acre family farm in Mississippi and is fighting the
agribusiness giant in court.

Saving Monsanto's seeds, genetically engineered to kill bugs and resist weed
sprays, violates provisions of the company's contracts with farmers.

Since 1997, Monsanto has filed similar lawsuits 90 times in 25 states
against 147 farmers and 39 agriculture companies, according to a report by
The Center for Food Safety, a biotechnology foe.

In a case a year ago, Tennessee farmer Kem Ralph was sued by Monsanto and
sentenced to eight months in prison after he was caught lying about a
truckload of cotton seed he hid for a friend.

Ralph's prison term is believed to be the first criminal prosecution linked
to Monsanto's crackdown. Ralph has also been ordered to pay Monsanto more
than $1.7 million.

The company said it annually investigates about 500 "tips" that farmers are
illegally using its seeds and settles many cases without suing.

Monsanto said it is attempting to protect its business from pirates in much
the same way the entertainment industry does when it sues underground
distributors of music, movies and video games.

In the process, it has turned farmer on farmer and sent private
investigators into small towns to ask prying questions of friends and
business acquaintances.

Monsanto's licensing contracts and litigation tactics are coming under
increased scrutiny as more of the planet's farmland comes under genetically
engineered cultivation.

Many of the farmers Monsanto has sued say that they didn't read the
company's technology agreement close enough. Others say they never received
an agreement.

The company counters that it sues only the most egregious violators and is
protecting the 300,000 law-abiding U.S. farmers who annually pay a premium
for its technology. Soy farmers, for instance, pay a "technology fee" of
about $6.50 an acre each year.

Some 85 percent of the nation's soy crop is genetically engineered to resist
Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, a trait that makes it easier to weed fields.

"It's a very efficient and cost-effective way to raise soy beans and that's
why the market has embraced it," said Ron Heck, who grows 900 acres of
genetically engineered soy beans in Perry, Iowa.

Heck, who is also chairman of the American Soybean Association, said he
appreciates Monsanto's crackdown on competitors who don't pay for their
seed. "You can save seed if you want to use the old technology," he said.

The company said the licensing agreement protects its more than 600
biotech-related patents and ensures a return on its research expenses of
more than $400 million a year.

The company said it has gone to trial five times and has never lost a legal
fight against an accused pirate.