Farmers file suit to protect themselves from Monsanto's aggressive practices.

Another chapter in the ongoing David-and-Goliath-esque saga between organic farmers and the Monsanto Company kicked off recently with a lawsuit filed in federal court. The suit, titled Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, is an effort by a group of family farms, seed businesses and organic growers associations to both protect themselves from being sued by Monsanto and undermine its patents on genetically modified or transgenic seeds. The Public Patent Foundation filed the suit on behalf of these farmers and organizations, which collectively represent over 270,000 members. While it may appear to be just another hopeless attempt by a small band of rebels against a powerful, unrelenting empire, this lawsuit has the potential to stop the bullying practices of the company and undermine its foundation permanently.

As many readers are probably aware, genetically modified food is highly prevalent in the States and an increasing amount of transgenic seed is being used in other countries, though regulatory issues remain. Since the genetics revolution of the 1970s, interest in using gene technology to produce better food has abounded, and an obvious way to accomplish this is to make plants more robust to environmental changes and pathogens, which would ultimately lead to better yields. Monsanto’s approach has been to develop technology that makes plants genetically resistant to herbicides, so that fields could be sprayed with the company’s herbicide, called RoundUp, without crop loss. The way Monsanto immunized plants was to incorporate genes from other organisms into the natural plant genomes, patent their technology and then sell the transgenic seeds to farmers.

So how could a seemingly great technological advance from a company that claims to stand behind farmers end up being voted as the Most Evil Corporation, according to a NaturalNews poll, and become the subjects of some eye opening documentaries like Food, Inc. and The Future of Food? Fundamentally, it boils down to three things:

1.       Monsanto aggressively defends their patents.

How aggressively? Put it this way…Monsanto puts the “agro” in agricultural patent law. What’s worse is that the genes themselves are patented. So let’s say farmer A is using Monsanto seed next to farmer B who is using seeds passed down through the family. If the wind blows the wrong way, a seed gets caught in the fur of field mice, shared equipment gets contaminated or any other possible way that a transgenic seed or a patented gene should happen to get from farmer A’s field into farmer B’s crops and then Monsanto finds out about it, odds are the company will sue farmer B for patent infringement.

2.       Monsanto has pushed its transgenic seed business hard.

The lawsuit claims that currently 85-90% of all soybeans, corn, cotton, sugar beets, and canola grown in the United States contain Monsanto’s patented genes, primarily marketed under the RoundUp Ready brand, and its global reach is extending. That’s right — we are all already consuming these genetically modified foods.

3.       Transgenic seeds and natural seeds cannot coexist…and Monsanto knows it.

Unlike a traditional manufacturer that must continually make product, plants derived from Monsanto’s transgenic seeds make more transgenic seeds as part of their reproduction. Successfully introducing transgenic seeds into crops permanently places the gene in the genome of the species. The lawsuit puts forth that organic canola became extinct after contamination from transgenic seed and warns that the future of many crops, including organic corn, soybean, cotton, sugar beet, and alfalfa, face the same fate. It is an impossibility for a company to have the scientific prowess to develop this kind of genetic technology and yet be ignorant of population genetics within an ecosystem. In other words, Monsanto merely has to bide its time before its patented genes have found their way into the agricultural systems of the world and then everyone will have to buy its products.

In light of these points, what on earth could this little lawsuit actually accomplish, especially when a group known as the Organic Elite, consisting of Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, effectively surrendered to Monsanto this past January?

It turns out a lot.

Thanks to a previous controversial lawsuit that went in Monsanto’s favor last year, an opportunity was given to the organic community and anyone else worried about preserving a transgenic-free food supply. The Supreme Court overturned a ruling from a San Francisco district court, which had said that the USDA had approved Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready alfalfa seed illegally and forbade sales until the USDA completed an investigation. However, in that same hearing, the Court also recognized that economic loss due to genetic contamination or gene flow now constitutes “environmental harm,” which is antithetical to patent protection. This means that a technology can only be protected by a patent if it can be shown to be beneficial to the well-being of society.

So if someone could come along and show that Monsanto’s seed technology were causing environmental harm, either economically or genetically, to individuals and/or society as a whole, then the patents might be nullified and therefore not enforceable.

Enter the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association.

As the plaintiff in this case, this association is seeking to protect the farmers from being sued, for sure, but what it really wants to accomplish is no less than hobbling Monsanto for good. If the patents can be rendered invalid, then not only will the Monsanto v. anyone-who-accidentally-uses-a-transgenic-seed lawsuits stop, but the anyone-who-cares-about-food v. Monsanto lawsuits are going to keep coming.

While the lawsuit brings up many issues and emotions about food and the future of society, its worthwhile taking a moment to reflect on the reality of what all of this means.

Without a shadow of a doubt, genetically modified foods were certain to become part of our future.  There are some people who like the idea of food that is completely naturally grown that is never tainted by anything, but frankly, that approach only worked when there was one percent of the human population of today. The bottom line is the world needs more food and businesses need the food industry to be profitable. The genetics revolution opened the door to bolstering the DNA of plants and animals that provide foodstuffs against harmful conditions and organisms to create nutrient-rich superfoods. It only makes sense that in due time foods would be genetically modified to meet the demands of everyone. But clearly that research needed to be done carefully while respecting nature, and the development of products should have been done with a significant amount of oversight.

It may be too late for even organic food markets to protect consumers from Monsanto's gene technology

The real problem that this lawsuit underscores is Monsanto has been cavalier in its business practices. The company has taken an irresponsible stand on the negative impact its technology could have on crops worldwide, instead choosing to focus on market penetration and profits. Science has only scratched the surface on the complex role between genetics, diet, and environment, so how in the world can a company claim that introducing a foreign gene into a seed’s DNA is going to be safe for everything and everyone, both now and in the distant future? They can’t, but the law doesn’t require them to and that’s a detrimental problem. The legal system needs to catch up with the realities of the Genetic Age and fast.

Companies are often given credit for making the world a better place, but certainly no company wants to go down as the one that tainted the food chain. Hopefully, this lawsuit can at least protect organic farmers, but just maybe it will finally put the agricultural giant in its place. Unfortunately, it may be too late for certain crops. We have to sober up to an unfortunate truth: thanks to the aggressive and ecologically-disastrous policies of Monsanto, we may be eating a Monsanto gene with every spoonful whether we want to or not.

[IMAGE: sxc, sxc]

[SOURCE: FastCompany, Grist, Monsantoblog, NaturalNews, Organic Seed Alliance, OSGATA, PubPat,

Scientists have been tinkering with the DNA of commercial food for nearly two decades, and they’ve covered most of the food pyramid. Modern soybeans, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, rice, and sugarcane have all had their genomes tweaked to serve the human species. Most of the genetically modified (GM) food in the world sprouts on American soil, but the practice is growing in Argentina, Canada, Brazil, and China, to name just a few.

Maybe the strangest part of GM food is that most people have no idea they eat it. The majority of Americans don’t know how it’s done, why it’s done, how it’s regulated, or why they should care. The Grocery Manufacturers of America estimates that 70-75% of all processed foods in your local grocery store contain ingredients from GM plants. Genetically modified food: it’s what’s for dinner.

Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger

So why remix food genomes? It depends. Some GM food is designed to resist diseases, insect attacks, or herbicides regularly used in modern industrial agriculture. Plants can be made hardier and more tolerant to environmental stress such as drought or irregular weather. Crops can be made to mature faster (decreasing their growing time) and rot slower (increasing shelf-life). GM food can also produce higher crop yields, and be engineered to lack unwanted toxins (such as allergens).

But that’s not all. Genetic modification is giving a new meaning to the phrase “super food”. Crops are being engineered to produce more nutrients, vitamins, and all that healthy stuff. Work is also underway to turn plants into little pharmaceutical factories, pumping out desired drugs… is “Pfizer Farm” trademarked yet? And (of course) GM foods are specially tweaked to please your taste buds, engineered to make every edible on your plate that much more appetizing.

The ubiquity of GM foods – that 70-75% statistic – comes from its presence in staple ingredients for processed food. Soybean oil, cottonseed oil and corn syrup are three cornerstones of the Western diet, and each one is mostly likely GM-derived. Everything from bread and cereal to frozen pizza gets a dose, not to mention almost every soda on the market.

So now that it’s already in your body, wanna hear how it’s done?

Gene Cuisine

In olden days, farmers had to modify crop genomes the old fashioned way: selective breeding. At the very least, they had to work with the genes already at their disposal (in their crops). No longer. Genetic engineering lets scientists plop totally new genes – ones that would never naturally occur in corn, for example – into the target species to produce a new effect.

Sort of like skinning a cat, there’s a number of ways to genetically modify a genome. Still, they all share the same principles: first, isolate a gene that does something interesting. Next, insert that gene into a vector: a virus, plasmid, or other stretch of DNA capable of invading a cell’s nucleus. Introduce the vector to the target organism’s cells, and allow the new genes to be incorporated into the original genome.

So who does the remixing? Most of the GM strains available to farmers have been developed, patented and marketed by the agricultural biotech giant Monsanto. If you didn’t just wince at your computer screen, you probably haven’t heard of them. Cue transition to controversy section.

Give Me Spots On My Apples

The heated debates around GM food are tricky to untangle. Monsanto, a biotech company leading the way in creating new food strains, is sort of your prototypical evil corporation. Okay, maybe “evil” is a strong word… Let’s go with “ethically questionable”. In the fine tradition of Chevron and Dow, Monsanto has been accused of every manner of unethical behavior. From dumping hazardous waste to bullying small farms, the company has a pretty nasty laundry list of unsettling policy and action. Worse, lots of higher-ups within the company have occupied positions in the EPA, the Department of Agriculture, etc. One begins to wonder where interests conflict.

As Monsanto is the largest supplier of GM food seeds in the world, criticisms of GM food can be difficult to distinguish from attacks on the corporation itself. Bananas aren’t evil, but United Fruit was. Sure, Monsanto made Agent Orange… but is GM food a boon to mankind, innocuous but for the company that weilds it? Is it actually safe?

You might be wondering why you’ve never seen GM food labeled with a little “tinkered genome” sticker (I’m thinking a little double-helix would suffice). The FDA has approved all GM foods, and doesn’t consider the genetic engineering to pose any major risks to your health. Critics claim there haven’t been any long-term studies done (GM food has only been around for 20 years), that supportive research was biased or inadequate, and that the FDA rushed the approval. Others feel that GM foods might impact whole ecosystems in unpredictable ways, disrupting natural food chains in a sort of domino effect. A few countries – from Hungary to Venezuela – have banned GM foods altogether.

Middle Ground

Unless you’re technophobic by nature (in which case, reading this blog amounts to masochism), it’s hard to deny the benefits of GM foods. In the 90′s, reworking the papaya genome saved Hawaii from having a staple crop wiped out by a virus. GM foods resistant to insect attack actually require fewer pesticides than their natural counterparts, a seeming win for the environment. Stress-resistant GM crops can survive droughts and disease, warding off famine in developing countries across the globe. Frankly, it’s amazing that we can remix our food to be more nutritious, disease- and pest-resistant, faster-growing, longer-lasting, and tastier to boot.

Like all of genetic engineering (say, artificial life), GM foods show the power of the modern biotech revolution. They have the potential to make us healthier, improve ag production, make pharmaceuticals, and survive hell and high water. Maybe future crops could recycle more nutrients back into dirt and help avert the looming topsoil crisis. What kinds of GM foods would you want to see?

But the benefits don’t erase the legitimate concerns over health and the environment. I wouldn’t want Chevron running the EPA; is having Monsanto officials working at the FDA all that different? Ecosystems are so intricately complex and interconnected that it’s difficult to determine the consequences of even small changes (the most important aspect of endangered species conservation). GM foods are so new and exciting, it’s possible that our best science isn’t yet capable of understanding its long-term consequences (making regulation a dicey process). And with Monsanto patenting every crop they remix, it won’t be long until they own the genome of every fruit and vegetable you eat.

So that’s what all the fuss is about.  Given their widespread (and spreading) use, it’s important to keep you, dear consumer, up to date on the food that hits your plate. So now you know, and knowing is half the battle.