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The article is about a dispute over when royalties have to be paid. Monsanto expects to be paid every time, farmers are saying only the first generation can hav
by Guvante 11y ago
The article is about a dispute over when royalties have to be paid. Monsanto expects to be paid every time, farmers are saying only the first generation can have the royalty requirement by law.
- hodwik 11y agoBy that logic we should let Lenovo purchase one copy of Windows which they then install on every machine they export to the US. Then, not only will customs not help Microsoft shut down the pirating of their OS, but Microsoft won't even be allowed to investigate obvious cases of the pirating themselves. That would clearly be in violation of international law. The same stands here. The farmers agreed to the license at the start. It's over. They don't get to pick and choose.
- mikeash 11y agoMonsanto implicitly agreed to Argentine laws when they started operating in that country. They don't get to pick and choose.
- hodwik 11y agoArgentina is signatory to both the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, which is why Monsanto felt safe importing. Argentina is now going back on these treaties, which is why the Government should be stepping in here. It's not Monsanto's job alone to defend international law.
- lettergram 11y ago> It's not Monsanto's job alone to defend international law There is not international law. Sure there are treaties, as you said, but Argentina produces a ton of food. If the U.S. does anything to darastic it will starve or at least decemate the economy. Point being, the U.S. can do very little. Argentina has to be willing to uphold those treaties on its own or it will lose business (which is the incentive to uphold those treaties).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- gozur88 11y agoThis is the second time I've read something like this in as many weeks. It's nonsense. The US is a net food exporter to the tune of thirty million tons per year. If Argentina decided not to sell food to the US it would have no effect whatsoever.
- Kalium 11y agoDisputes like this are why companies like Monsanto engineer in terminator genes to make the business model viable.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoCan you use CRISPR to remove the terminator genes?
- Bluestrike2 11y agoWhy would anyone bother, even if such terminator genes were present? Your development costs would far exceed the cost of additional licensing, to say nothing of the eventual lawsuits that you would lose. Even with the licensing costs, the benefits of the modified seeds are significant. That's why farmers started using them in the first place.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoAre your costs really that high? This was a Kickstarter I participated in several years ago working on plants that glow in the dark. Total cost was ~$484k. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-plants-natural-lighting-with-no-electricit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-pla... Put $1-2 million together, knock out the terminator genes, profit. How are you going to sue? The plant is no longer they same biological entity Monsanto rights apply to.
- knd775 11y agoIf you modify Windows, it's still Windows.
- toomuchtodo 11y agoGood luck sequencing plants from visual inspection.
- ptaipale 11y agoIt is odd if second-generation seeds wouldn't have to be licensed. Licensing is standard practice with all seeds, GMO or not, and has been for decades. Argentine is a member to UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) which seeks to guarantee plant breeders' rights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_the_Protection_of_New_Varieties_of_Plants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_the_Pr...
- saalweachter 11y agoI'm actually curious how that works with Monsanto breeds. A lot of seeds are actually hybrids which don't breed true. You plant two varieties in the same field, detassel one, and use the seed next year as your hybrid crop. You cross (say) a big growing breed with a fast growing breed, and because the two parent strains were uniform, the children will be uniformly big and fast growing, but the grandchildren won't. This is why most farmers nowadays prefer to buy their seed corn: it's better but a pain to produce (anyone here have a summer job detasseling corn?). I'm curious if the pirated Monsanto breeds have third generation degeneration.