All Your Crops Belong to Us
Monsanto strikes again. And again. And again.
From the article:
“the corn flakes you had for breakfast, soda you drank at lunch and beef stew you ate for dinner likely were produced from crops grown with Monsanto’s patented genes.”
But that’s not all. The piece continues:
“one contract provision bans independent companies from breeding plants that contain both Monsanto’s genes and the genes of any of its competitors”
…
“We now believe that Monsanto has control over as much as 90 percent of (seed genetics). This level of control is almost unbelievable,”
So now they got hold of the farmer’s testicles, they squeeze harder.
“Monsanto increased some corn seed prices last year by 25 percent, with an additional 7 percent hike planned for corn seeds in 2010. Monsanto brand soybean seeds climbed 28 percent last year and will be flat or up 6 percent in 2010,”
And they seem to have borrowed a technique from Microsoft:
“One contract gave an independent seed company deep discounts if the company ensured that Monsanto’s products would make up 70 percent of its total corn seed inventory.”
Using Monsanto seeds is doing a deal with the devil. How long before open pollinated non GMO comes back ? Too long, we fear. The monocultures of Monsanto raise the risk that a single blight could wipe out a huge fraction of crops. Betcha they won’t accept the blame for that bit when it happens.
