permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

Like hell they own the world's food supplies. Power to home growers and 
local producers! Viva Independent Growers!

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/13/how-monsanto-owns-an.html
How Monsanto owns and manipulates the world's food supply
Steve Silberman sends us "A major AP expose of how Monsanto uses secret 
licensing agreements for its genetically manipulated crops to squeeze 
smaller seed companies, lock out competition, and keep food prices high.".

    Monsanto's methods are spelled out in a series of confidential 
commercial licensing agreements obtained by the AP. The contracts, as 
long as 30 pages, include basic terms for the selling of engineered 
crops resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, along with shorter 
supplementary agreements that address new Monsanto traits or other 
contract amendments...

    For example, one contract provision bans independent companies from 
breeding plants that contain both Monsanto's genes and the genes of any 
of its competitors, unless Monsanto gives prior written permission -- 
giving Monsanto the ability to effectively lock out competitors from 
inserting their patented traits into the vast share of U.S. crops that 
already contain Monsanto's genes...

    "We now believe that Monsanto has control over as much as 90 
percent of (seed genetics). This level of control is almost 
unbelievable," said Neil Harl, agricultural economist at Iowa State 
University who has studied the seed industry for decades. "The upshot of 
that is that it's tightening Monsanto's control, and makes it possible 
for them to increase their prices long term. And we've seen this 
happening the last five years, and the end is not in sight."

AP INVESTIGATION: Monsanto seed biz role revealed (Thanks, Steve!)

(Image: Monsanto == Satan, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from 
illustir's photostream)