75-year-old soybean farmer sees Monsanto lawsuit reach U.S. Supreme Court
Who controls the rights to the seeds planted in the ground? A 75-year-old farmer takes the agricultural giant to court to find out
As David versus Goliath battles go it is hard to imagine a more uneven fight than the one about to play out in front of the US supreme court between Vernon Hugh Bowman and Monsanto.
On the one side is Bowman, a single 75-year-old Indiana soybean farmer who is still tending the same acres of land as his father before him in rural south-western Indiana. On the other is a gigantic multibillion dollar agricultural business famed for its zealous protection of its commercial rights.
Not that Bowman sees it that way. “I really don’t consider it as David and Goliath. I don’t think of it in those terms. I think of it in terms of right and wrong,” Bowman told The Guardian in an interview.
Either way, in the next few weeks Bowman and Monsanto’s opposing legal teams will face off in front of America’s most powerful legal body, weighing in on a case that deals with one of the most fundamental questions of modern industrial farming: who controls the rights to the seeds planted in the ground.
The Fracking Dilemma: Where Do You Stand?
May 23, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Featured
|
Rawesome Foods’ James Stewart arrested in $1 million warrant
March 4, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Americas
(NaturalNews) Rawesome Foods defendants James Steward and Sharon Palmer were ambushed in California court yesterday when they appeared for a preliminary hearing about the multiple felony charges that have been ludicrously placed against them for engaging in farm-fresh food production and distribution. In court, they were ambushed with a $1 million arrest warrant (James) and a $2 million arrest warrant (Sharon), then handcuffed and marched away by agents of the corrupt state.
This appears to all be part of California’s open war on family farming and real food. Observers present at the hearing described the ambush as something “done out of pure unadulterated intimidation” by a rogue government that has abandoned all law.
NaturalNews is holding the continuation of this story until more research and fact checking can be completed
In our original announcement of this, we stated that by Sunday evening we would roll out documented evidence that James Stewart has been targeted by rogue shadow government agents who have infiltrated California’s executive and judicial branches. Additional details are pouring in surrounding the arrest of James Stewart and Sharon Palmer, and until we can sort through all these details and fact-check the reports, we are holding our follow up story on this until sometime next week.
Something nefarious is afoot with all this, I assure you. We aim to get to the bottom of it and bring you the updated breaking news here on NaturalNews.com.
A very good overview of recent events both in Wisconsin (Vernon Hershberger) and Ventura County (James Stewart and Sharon Palmer) has been posted by The Complete Patient, a very informative website covering raw milk. You can read it here:
http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2012/3/3/hershberger-lives-…
One thought that immediately comes to mind in the finance-related charges against Sharon Palmer is that first the state of California made it impossible for Sharon to repay her loans on the farm by fining her and terrorizing her business beginning in 2008. And then, we she was unable to repay those loans, they charged her with multiple counts of felony financial fraud for failing to repay the loans. Or at least that’s the simplified version of what appears to be happening. It’s quite complex and there are many players, including at least one person in Wisconsin who is an enemy of James Stewart. So there is definitely some in-fighting going on across this industry.
By the way, yesterday I released a new InfoGraphic describing the differences between raw (fresh) milk and dead pasteurized milk. It’s very enlightening and well worth sharing. You can view it here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/035130_raw_milk_infographic_pasteurized.ht…
Sorry Bill Gates: GMO Crops Proven to be Ineffective at Fighting World Hunger
March 3, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Sci-Tech
Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
Monsanto shareholder Bill Gates has argued that GMOs are the solution to world hunger, going as far as to say that they are actually needed to fight worldwide starvation. Unfortunately for Gates, who back in 2010 bought 500,000 shares of the company he is now promoting in mainstream media as the solution to the world’s problems, a team of 900 scientists have found that GMO crops are actually not effective at fighting world hunger. In fact, the massive team found that Monsanto’s seeds, which have lead to thousands of farmer suicides due to excessive costs and failure to yield crops, were outperformed by traditional “agro-ecological” farming practices.
Funded by the World Bank and United Nations, an organization was created known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Consisting of 900 scientists and researchers, they set out to examine the complex issue of world hunger. While the issue of world hunger may be quite complex, their results were not.
Quite plainly, the group found that genetically modified crops were not a meaningful solution to the problem. In other words, the expert team showed through rigorous analysis and repeated study that the claims made by Bill Gates are completely inaccurate.
Perhaps what is most compelling, though, is the fact that Bill Gates was fully aware of these findings before going on air to inform the public that GMOs are the solution to world hunger.
The same GMOs that have been linked to organ damage, mutated insects, and a host of other issues.
Bill Gates Knew of These Findings Beforehand
The findings of the IAASTD regarding the ineffectiveness of GMO crops were published on April 15, 2008. That is long before Bill Gates’ address to the public in late January of this year. Did Monsanto stockholder Gates ignore this information, or does he believe the 900 scientists to be incorrect?
Perhaps the evidence generated from the expert team is not enough. In that case, then Gates should look no farther than the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Another massive research organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists also examined the true yield of GMO crops, only to find that the altered crops do not produce increased yields over the long run — despite their excessive cost and extreme danger to health and environment. The lack of scientific support behind the GMO crops was so startling to the Union that they documented all the details in a 2009 report entitled ”Failure to Yield.”
GMO crops are not only ineffective at fighting world hunger, but are a genuine threat to public health. Even if they were effective at feeding more individuals than traditional farming practices, would they really want to consume it?
Bill Gates appears to have the interests of massive corporations in mind when perpetuating the myth that GMOs are the answer to fighting starvation.
Explore More:
- Monsanto Investor Bill Gates Says GMO Crops Needed to Fight Starvation
- GMO Crops Continually Banned Around the World in Display of Health Freedom
- How the Bill Gates Foundation is Genetically Manipulating Nature and Devastating Our Health
- Bill Gates Foundation Buys 500,000 Shares of Monsanto
- Bill Gates Foundation Funds Experimental Insect Repellent
- How Biotech Corporations and GMO Crops are Threatening the Environment and Humankind Alike
This article first appeared at Natural Society, an excellent resource for health news and vaccine information.
Willie Nelson Joins Suit Against Agro Giant Monsanto
February 18, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Music/Book/Film/Art
The singer Willie Nelson has joined with 300,000 other activists in a lawsuit against the U.S. agricultural giant Monsanto, citing the company’s practice of suing small farmers whose fields have been contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds. The suit was filed as part of the “Occupy the Food System” campaign protesting the corporate takeover of small farms and the use of harmful pollutants like Monsanto’s “Roundup” herbicide.
Democracy Now! reports today:
Willie Nelson Joins 300,000 Activists in Suit Against Monsanto
Willie Nelson joins a plaintiff group of over 300,000 members in a lawsuit against big-ag giant Monsanto challenging the company’s patents on genetically modified seed.
The singer Willie Nelson has joined with 300,000 other activists in a lawsuit against the U.S. agricultural giant Monsanto, citing the company’s practice of suing small farmers whose fields have been contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds. The suit was filed as part of the “Occupy the Food System” campaign protesting the corporate takeover of small farms and the use of harmful pollutants like Monsanto’s “Roundup” herbicide.
The Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA) explains the lawsuit background on its website:
The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhatten on March 29, 2011, on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed. On June 1, 2011, we amplified our OSGATA v. Monsanto complaint by bringing on an additional 23 Plaintiffs to bring the total to 83. Our plaintiff group now represents over 300,000 members.
As Grist noted last week, the plaintiffs say that “Monsanto wants ultimate and absolute control over everything:”
OSGATA and company finally got their day in court on Jan. 31. Approximately 200 farmers and supporters showed up in front of the Federal District Court in Manhattan for opening arguments. Occupy Wall Street’s food justice working group helped organize the rally, though they are not plaintiffs in the suit. “We’re part of OWS, which is all about corporate consolidation, and you can’t discuss that without addressing agriculture,” says Corbin Laedlein, a member of the working group.
“We want nothing to do with Monsanto. We don’t want their seed. We don’t want their technology. We don’t want their contamination,” says Jim Gerritsen, an organic farmer from Maine and president of OSGATA. The organization originally brought the idea of a suit to the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a group that wants to change how patent law works in the U.S., and PUBPAT took on the case pro bono. In Gerritsen’s estimation, about 300,000 individuals are involved in the case by proxy of organizations they’re a part of, including most certified organic farmers in the country. Gerritsen calls the dustings of GMO-crop pollen and the occasional seed carried wayward by the wind — a natural atmospheric occurrence found in what is known as the “outdoors” — contamination which not only is unwelcome, but can also could potentially lower the quality and value of organic and other non-GMO crops.
“They are probably the most aggressive patent holder in the U.S.,” Gerritsen adds. According to PUBPAT, between 1997 and April 2010, Monsanto filed 144 lawsuits against farmers for patent infringement, and more than 500 farms are investigated each year.
“The seed that Monsanto doesn’t control, they will control through contamination,” Gerritsen says. “Monsanto wants ultimate and absolute control over everything.”
