Monsanto Suing Farmers Over Piracy Issues

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Monsanto Suing Farmers Over Piracy Issues

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Jan 26, 2005 19:01 PST

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Science - AP

Monsanto Suing Farmers Over Piracy Issues

Thu Jan 13, 9:51 PM ET Science - AP

 

By PAUL ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer

 

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.

AP Photo

Slideshow: Farmer Sued for Seed Replanting

 

" My daddy saved seed. I saved seed, " said McFarling, 62, who still

grows soy on the 5,000 acre family farm in Shannon, Miss. 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

issued Thursday by The Center for Food Safety, a biotechnology foe.

 

 

In a similar 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 itself says it annually investigates about 500 " tips " that

farmers are illegally using its seeds and settles many of those cases

before a lawsuit is filed.

 

 

In this way, Monsanto is attempting to protect its business from pirates

in much the same way the entertainment industry does when it sues

underground digital distributors exploiting 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.

 

 

Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last

year, an increase of 20 percent from 2003, according to a separate

report released Wednesday.

 

 

Many of the farmers Monsanto has sued say, as McFarling claims, that

they didn't read the company's technology agreement close enough. Others

say they never received an agreement in the first place.

 

 

The company counters that it sues only the most egregious violations 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 many farmers say makes it

easier to weed their fields and ultimately cheaper to grow their crops.

 

 

" 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

doesn't mind buying new seed each year and 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, " Heck said.

 

 

 

 

 

The company said the licensing agreement protects its more than 600

biotech-related patents and ensures a return on its research and

development expenses, which amount to more than $400 million annually.

 

" We have to balance our obligations and our responsibilities to our

customers, to our employees and to our shareholders, " said Scott Baucum,

Monsanto's chief intellectual property protector.

 

Still, Monsanto's investigative tactics are sewing seeds of fear and

mistrust in some farming communities, company critics say.

 

Monsanto encourages farmers to call a company hot line with piracy tips,

and private investigators in its employ act on leads with visits to the

associates of suspect farmers.

 

Baucum acknowledged that the company walks a fine line when it sues

farmers.

 

" It is very uncomfortable for us, " Baucum said. " They are our customers

and they are important to us. "

 

The Center for Food Safety established its own hot line Thursday where

farmers getting sued can receive aid. It also said it hopes to convene a

meeting among defense lawyers to develop legal strategies to fight

Monsanto.

 

The company said it has gone to trial five times and has never lost a

legal fight against an accused pirate. The U.S. Supreme Court (news -

web sites) in 1980 allowed for the patenting of genetically engineered

life forms and extended the same protections to altered plants in 2001.

Earlier this year, a Washington D.C. federal appeals court specifically

upheld Monsanto's license.

 

" It's sad. It's sickening. I'm disillusioned, " said Rodney Nelson, a

North Dakota farmer who settled a Monsanto suit in 2001 that he said was

unfairly filed. " We have a heck of an uphill battle that I don't think

can be won. "

 

 

 

 

 

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