4 ms·

Farmers cannot fight Monsanto. That is suicide. Let's say you sue for an entire year's worth of crops and you win. Then you win the appeal. And you win the app

Farmers cannot fight Monsanto. That is suicide. Let's say you sue for an entire year's worth of crops and you win. Then you win the appeal. And you win the appeal of the appeal. All the way up the chain. For 10 years, you win on every level. But you never plant another crop and you go out of business. At this point, Monsanto owns the world of agriculture. If you are planting something that is not owned by Monsanto, you are losing. Monsanta-engineered crops have such a higher yield that to plant anything else would wipe out your profit margin. The higher yield is magnified by the fact that non-Monsanto crops planted anywhere near Monsanto crops are dying from Monsanto herbicides. It's simple math. No farmer can survive 10 years of losses due to inferior production. The giants like ADP won't go after Monsanto because they have not been affected. They are already using Monsanto seed. Young independents won't go after Monsanto because the only way they can compete against the ADPs is to use Monsanto. So you have a few handfuls of old farmers who are ready to retire and have no family who want to carry on. They are going to sell out to some cookie-cutter subdivision developer anyway, so maybe they could be enticed into an otherwise suicidal court case. Or maybe they don't have the energy for it. Those who win (iffy at best) will not win a real windfall. No court is going to give Monsanto a death sentence. And the farmers will have a hardtime arguing too much harm when they still got 50% of their crop harvested and made $millions$ by selling the land. Mansanto can absorb a million dollar settlement here and there. If I'm Monsanto, I'm not worried. If I'm a no-holds-barred in-it-for-the-buck securities advisor, I'd say "buy Monsanto." I might also say, "short Whole Foods" because their supply is dwindling and their prices have to go up. If I'm a save-the-world stop-injustice activist, I'm looking for new sources of significant capital to stem the tide. And I'll keep fighting on because it was a dim prospect from the beginning anyway.

prklmn 9y ago
> Let's say you sue for an entire year's worth of crops and you win. Then you win the appeal. And you win the appeal of the appeal. All the way up the chain. For 10 years, you win on every level. Herein lies the beauty of a class action suit. Let the lawyers finance and worry about the lawsuit while you go on your merry way running your farm.
- countryslicker 9y ago
  Running your farm without Monsanto seed. That's the point. Farming without Monsanto seed today is a death sentence.
  - zzzeek 9y ago
    Organic farms don't use Monsanto GMO seeds. they haven't died.
    - neolefty 9y ago
      It's a major undertaking to switch from conventional to organic farming. Much more labor intensive, can take a few years for pesticide residues to dissipate, not even possible in some location due to neighbors. Not something most farmers are in a position to do, at least for their entire acreage.
      - askz 9y ago
        So what? Do we continue because we're f* up anyway? I don't think it's an option to consider alternatives in this case.
        jonreem 9y ago
        Easy to say when your livelihood isn't on the line.
  - Chris_Jay 9y ago
    It seems that farming with Monsanto seed is just a slower death sentence.
    - nothrabannosir 9y ago
      Life is a slow death sentence. Who will commit suicide to protest Death?
  - 9y ago
s73ver_ 9y ago
So, if it's that bad, why don't we rise up and string their executives and legal team up? I don't want to have to resort to that, but at some point it seems that's the only thing they'll listen to.
- sova 9y ago
  At the very least they must advocate for the earth and health of the ecosystems. However, it is much more tempting for fools to put the earth through a wood chipper, just to dance in a pile of mulch that we call money. Monsanto could actually be a world saving company, but they are not trying to further nature, but exploit it. And then, when they screw up, they try and hide it. It is not going to last forever, but they believe that with lies they can last longer, and this is incorrect. Not to mention that we are eating what they are growing. The Egyptians mastered irrigation and the Native Americans taught the pilgrims agriculture, for what, so we can enslave our farmers and hard working agrarians on a treadmill of defeat and lawsuits? My country, how I weep for thee.
shawn-butler 9y ago
Monsanto does not own the world of agriculture. This is a ridiculous claim. There are many more than 1,000 separate seed companies that supply the many types of commercial seeds globally, and hundreds of seed companies that sell corn and soybean seed to American farmers. In fact, aggregate commercial sales by all seed companies account for only about 40 percent of the total volume of seeds used globally in 2014 (not sure of the last seasons). Of those commercial seed sales, roughly 2/3 of the seed volume comes from private breeding programs and significantly 1/3 comes from national or public institutions. The remaining non-commercial seed volume is seed saved and replanted by farmers. Monsanto participates in only a few crops, with the two largest being corn and soybeans. While Monsanto is one of the largest commercial seed companies, even in those crops their output probably accounts for less than one-third of global commercial volume. Therefore, if a farmer wants to plant seed from someone other than Monsanto, it’s very easy to do that. People use Monsanto products because of the genetics/profitability not out of intimidation or fear.
- kjs3 9y ago
  What does a Monsanto astroturf campaign pay these days? Just curious.
- cisanti 9y ago
  You seem like a person who knows the deal. Is there illegal market for Monsanto seeds? Let's say people smuggling the product out of USA to countries that they can't go after the IP etc? Could North Korea use secretly their seeds to have better output or are those seeds so very specifically engineered?
  - sprucely 9y ago
    Most commercial varieties these days are hybrids. Many of the desirable traits are fixed for the plants that grow from that "F1" generation. But if you try to plant harvested seeds from those plants ("F2" generation) you'll get inconsistent results. It's possible to isolate particular traits via selfing and selecting for those traits. It's a years-long process, but I could see that happening in countries not beholden to Monsanto or trade deals.
eartheaterrr 9y ago
What's ADP? Are you referring to this company: https://www.adp.com/ https://www.adp.com/ ?
- grzm 9y ago
  I suspect they may mean ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Daniels_Midland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Daniels_Midland I would have read it as a typo, but they did use it twice.

prklmn 9y ago

> Let's say you sue for an entire year's worth of crops and you win. Then you win the appeal. And you win the appeal of the appeal. All the way up the chain. For 10 years, you win on every level. Herein lies the beauty of a class action suit. Let the lawyers finance and worry about the lawsuit while you go on your merry way running your farm.

countryslicker 9y ago
Running your farm without Monsanto seed. That's the point. Farming without Monsanto seed today is a death sentence.
- zzzeek 9y ago
  Organic farms don't use Monsanto GMO seeds. they haven't died.
  - neolefty 9y ago
    It's a major undertaking to switch from conventional to organic farming. Much more labor intensive, can take a few years for pesticide residues to dissipate, not even possible in some location due to neighbors. Not something most farmers are in a position to do, at least for their entire acreage.
    - askz 9y ago
      So what? Do we continue because we're f* up anyway? I don't think it's an option to consider alternatives in this case.
      - jonreem 9y ago
        Easy to say when your livelihood isn't on the line.
- Chris_Jay 9y ago
  It seems that farming with Monsanto seed is just a slower death sentence.
  - nothrabannosir 9y ago
    Life is a slow death sentence. Who will commit suicide to protest Death?
- 9y ago

s73ver_ 9y ago

So, if it's that bad, why don't we rise up and string their executives and legal team up? I don't want to have to resort to that, but at some point it seems that's the only thing they'll listen to.

sova 9y ago
At the very least they must advocate for the earth and health of the ecosystems. However, it is much more tempting for fools to put the earth through a wood chipper, just to dance in a pile of mulch that we call money. Monsanto could actually be a world saving company, but they are not trying to further nature, but exploit it. And then, when they screw up, they try and hide it. It is not going to last forever, but they believe that with lies they can last longer, and this is incorrect. Not to mention that we are eating what they are growing. The Egyptians mastered irrigation and the Native Americans taught the pilgrims agriculture, for what, so we can enslave our farmers and hard working agrarians on a treadmill of defeat and lawsuits? My country, how I weep for thee.

shawn-butler 9y ago

Monsanto does not own the world of agriculture. This is a ridiculous claim. There are many more than 1,000 separate seed companies that supply the many types of commercial seeds globally, and hundreds of seed companies that sell corn and soybean seed to American farmers. In fact, aggregate commercial sales by all seed companies account for only about 40 percent of the total volume of seeds used globally in 2014 (not sure of the last seasons). Of those commercial seed sales, roughly 2/3 of the seed volume comes from private breeding programs and significantly 1/3 comes from national or public institutions. The remaining non-commercial seed volume is seed saved and replanted by farmers. Monsanto participates in only a few crops, with the two largest being corn and soybeans. While Monsanto is one of the largest commercial seed companies, even in those crops their output probably accounts for less than one-third of global commercial volume. Therefore, if a farmer wants to plant seed from someone other than Monsanto, it’s very easy to do that. People use Monsanto products because of the genetics/profitability not out of intimidation or fear.

kjs3 9y ago
What does a Monsanto astroturf campaign pay these days? Just curious.
cisanti 9y ago
You seem like a person who knows the deal. Is there illegal market for Monsanto seeds? Let's say people smuggling the product out of USA to countries that they can't go after the IP etc? Could North Korea use secretly their seeds to have better output or are those seeds so very specifically engineered?
- sprucely 9y ago
  Most commercial varieties these days are hybrids. Many of the desirable traits are fixed for the plants that grow from that "F1" generation. But if you try to plant harvested seeds from those plants ("F2" generation) you'll get inconsistent results. It's possible to isolate particular traits via selfing and selecting for those traits. It's a years-long process, but I could see that happening in countries not beholden to Monsanto or trade deals.

eartheaterrr 9y ago

What's ADP? Are you referring to this company: https://www.adp.com/ https://www.adp.com/ ?

grzm 9y ago
I suspect they may mean ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Daniels_Midland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Daniels_Midland I would have read it as a typo, but they did use it twice.