>
> The story being passed around seemed to be that the farmer planted
> his non-patented/not round up resistant seeds and the bees and the wind
> caused his field to be pollinated from with the patented seed plants in a
> neighboring field and this cross pollination is what caused the problem.
> Perhaps I misunderstood.
I think it's a pretty safe bet that this particular farmer planned the whole
thing. Anybody who has hung around a grain elevator for more than 30 seconds
will know that there is a pretty good sized percentage of the farmers out
there who are conniving, thieving and generally considered to be scumbags.
The key to this whole thing is "paper trail". It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to figure out that when a farmer buys his hybrid seed every year
and suddenly he isn't buying any seed that there is something hokey going
on. But when there is sufficient evidence that he is growing his own seed
from non-patented seeds then he's got a satisfactory grounds to defend
himself on.
The fact is, when you buy hybrid seeds, you are actually under contract to
NOT withhold seed for replanting. To do so is absolutely considered to be
theft. The seed purchase contract is very clear on this issue.
There is nothing holding anybody back from buying non-patented seeds and
doing their own hybridization. In fact, there are hundreds, if not
thousands, of farmers that have done this themselves and turned around and
sold seed to other farmers. Seed prices generally scale with yield
potential. The greater the yield potential, the higher the price for the
seed.
And it is an urban (rural?) myth that the Monsantos and Pioneers of the
world are driving the small family farmer out of business. It's a whole lot
of reasons--mostly mismanagement related. These are the ones that lose their
lands. The current economic downturn is no excuse--people still eat and
crop prices haven't tracked stock prices.
Due to the extremely intense agri-industry here in Iowa, I admit that we are
in a different situation than some parts of the world, but as of 2004, here
is some interesting statistics:
74% of farmland is owned without debt. (this is up from 62% in 1982)
In 2002, 24% of the farmland is owned by those older than 74 years old.
In 2002, 48% of the farmland is owned by those older than 65 years old.
In 2002, 59% of the farmland is under lease
In 1982, 43% of the farmland was under lease
Women own 47% of the farmland
In 2002, 69% of the leased farmland was "cash-rent"
This year's harvest is expected to be 2.5 BILLION bushals of corn in just
Iowa alone.
Over 90% of all surface area of Iowa is used for agriculture.
If you are interested in seeing what the AVERAGE farmland value in Iowa is:
http://www.recap.iastate.edu/atlas/farms/ag-land-values.php
Another interesting chart is this one on farm operators:
http://www.recap.iastate.edu/atlas/farms/number-of-operators.php
As Iowa contains around a quarter of all the top-grade soil in the entire
world, if the big multi-nationals were into land ownership, you'd see that
here. But they don't. It isn't the multi-nationals owning all the land,
it's the retirees as well as family corporations. Besides, just like the
1849 California Gold Rush, the only ones that made money weren't the miners,
but the suppliers.
Back in the early 1980's we had the farm credit crisis. During that time,
there was a huge purging of the "family farms" that had been in the family
for 100+ years. The consolidation of farmland has occured ever since the
Children's Blizzard in 1888 and accellerated with mechanization. We've
pretty much levelled off with mechanization, though, as it takes people to
drive grain trucks from the fields to the bins.
There are lots of accusations against the Monsantos and Pioneers, but rarely
does anybody provide anything more than anecdotal evidence.
What exactly is Monsanto? It is a business. Who owns Monsanto? 81% of
Monsanto stock is owned by institutions and mutual fund. I don't know about
you, but last time I checked my retirement funds, they included a pretty
good chunk of Monsanto and other companies like it.
Therefore, YOU and I own Monsanto. If these companies are evil, then WE are
evil.
AG
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|