>
> If the farmer has sown seed that were not the genetically altered/patented
> seeds, how does he get in hot water with the patent holders of the altered
> seeds? If the seeds taken from his land were in fact taken while someone
> was trespassing, how could they be used in a court of law against him. In
> the story real or is it unaltered BS.
I think you might wake the sleeping giant (BB) on this one...
It is fair to assume that when one thinks of "Industrial Farming" that Iowa
would be the poster-child of it. Iowa and surrounding states is ground-zero
when it comes to extreme-production farming. It doesn't get any more
industrial than here. That stated...
Those big "corporate farms" aren't necessarily owned by Monsanto and other
big mean companies. The typical "corporate farm" around these parts is 3000
acres, with half of that land rented from retired farmers. These "corporate
farms" are pulling in an average of 200 bushels of corn per acre, some much
more, some a little less. (in comparison, the small mom-pop farm with 500
acres gets about 150 bushels an acre and both husband and wife hold jobs in
town).
The farmers have a choice in seed:
1. Heirloom crops. Fine and dandy, but typically top out at 100 bushel and
acre, give or take.
2. Self-grown hybrid. Seed farming is highly technical and costly.
3. Puchase industrial-grown hybrid seeds. Seeds cost a lot and are
single-use only.
It takes multiple generations of hybridization to come up with some of these
seeds today. It is not unusual for a seed to have been hybridized 20-30
times to get to the point where it is today. Unfortunately, these seeds are
usually single-use, meaning that an attempt to hold back part of the crop
for replanting doesn't work well because the resulting plant will be
characterized as one of the plants that made up the hybrid mix. If left to
regenerating on their own without further hybridization, the plants will
digress back towards the original form.
It is usually quite easy to spot a field that has pirated seed in it because
the uniformity of plant height is usually a dead give-away.
The reason to purchase legitimate seeds from the seed companies is because
of the increase in yield and tolerance to disease, bugs, dry and wet. Yes,
they are expensive, but without hybrids, we'd be in deep trouble. Every
farmer must make the decision to buy expensive seed and get a big crop or
grow his own seed and risk everything.
GM (Genetically Modified) seed is another animal altogether. Hybrids are NOT
genetically modified. They are hybrids. Two entirely different critters.
AG
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