Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 February 2012 03:14 Posted by Home Cure Wednesday, 15 February 2012 03:14

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Willie Nelson, the famed singer and President of Farm Aid, has recently called for the national Occupy movement to declare an “Occupy the Food System” action.

Nelson is quoted to say that, “Corporate control of our food system has led to the loss of millions of family farmers, destruction of our soil…”

Hundreds have joined Occupy the Food System groups, gathered outside the Federal Courts in Manhattan on January 31st, to support organic farmers in their landmark lawsuit against Monsanto, or more officially the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association v. Monsanto case.

Oral arguments were heard that day concerning the lawsuit by 83 plaintiffs representing over 300,000 organic farmers, seed growers, and seed businesses.

The lawsuit addresses Monsanto’s aggressive actions against organic farmers with lawsuits of “patent infringement” if any organic farmer ends up with any trace amount of GM seeds on their organic farmland.

Judge Naomi Buckwald heard the oral arguments on Monsanto’s Motion to Dismiss, and the legal team from Public Patent Foundation represented the rights of American organic farmers against Monsanto, maker of GM seeds. For some of your who do not know the company that well, they also made Agent Orange.

After hearing the arguments, Judge Buckwald stated that on March 31st she will hand down her decision on whether the lawsuit will move forward to trial.

The lawsuit states that Monsanto is potentially ruining the organic farmers’ pure seeds and crops with the introduction of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) seeds anywhere near the organic farms, but additionally any nearby GM fields can withstand Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides, thus possibly further contaminating the organic farms nearby if Roundup is used.

Naturally, the organic farmers don’t want anything to do with contaminated GM seeds. But the farmers have to worry about getting sued by Monsanto and even have to spend extra money and land (for buffers which only sometimes deter the contaminated seed from being swept by the wind into their crop land).

So what was President Obama doing when he appointed Michael Taylor, a former VP of Monsanto, as Sr. Advisor to the Commissioner at the FDA?  The FDA is responsible for “label requirements” and recently ruled under Michael Taylor’s time as FDA Food Czar that GMO products did not need to be labeled as such, even though national consumer groups loudly professed the public’s right to know what is genetically modified in the food system.

Sad to remember: President Obama promised in campaign speeches that he would “let folks know what foods are genetically modified.”  These are the conflicts of interests that led to the 99% movement standing up for the family farmers.

Jim Gerritsen, President of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, has pointed out that there are 5th and 6th generation family farmers being pushed off their farms today, and because of a “climate of fear” (from possible lawsuits from Monsanto), they can’t grow some of the food they want to grow.

These farmers are the ones who have been able to survive the changes over the past twenty years by choosing to go into the budding niche of organic farming.  Now look at what they have to deal with while trying to grow successful businesses: Monsanto’s threats.

Even organic dairy farmers have had to suffer Monsanto lawsuits when they labeled their organic milk “non-BGH” referring to Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone used by conventional dairies.

Recently, the Obama Administration, in an effort to boost food exports, signed joint agreements with agricultural biotechnology industry giants, including Monsanto, to remove the last barriers for the spread of more genetically modified crops.

But in this recent lawsuit filed by the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, it was argued that a previous contamination of a “genetically engineered variety of rice”, named Liberty Link 601, in 2006, before it was approved for human consumption, “extensively contaminated the commercial rice supply, resulting in multiple countries banning the import of U.S. rice.”  The worldwide economic loss was “upward to $1.285 billion dollars” due to the presence of GMOs.

 

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1. 

   Lori

   February 26, 2012 at 10:34 am

   I’m trying to start living organically and use heritage seeds for growing. Any info on living off the land would be helpful. We live on 21 acres in very rocky ground with lots of cedar trees and some oaks, lots of cactus and lots of deer, raccoons, squirrels, foxes and skunks. Thanks.
2. 

   Garrett Mccarther

   February 27, 2012 at 4:57 am

   Thanks for the update on 300,000 Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto – Garrett Mccarther