I think the hate for Monsanto is way, way, way overrated. Honestly I still haven't read a super compelling reason to hate them.
All the talk about evil lawsuits against poor farmers who got accidentally contaminated seems to be FUD. The big recent case was a guy deliberately trying to skirt the rules.
If farmers would like to use non-Monsanto seeds then they are free to do so. If they'd like to use (arguably) superior seeds that have to be re-purchased every year then they are also free to do so.
If people think it's bullshit that Monsanto can prevent their seeds from being re-used then that's not insane, but I'd politely disagree. It's not terribly different from copyright protection on software. The way I see it is we could revoke that protection and then the seeds wouldn't be developed because it wouldn't be profitable and we'd be stuck with the old stuff. Or we could give protection to enable the development of new seeds and then farmers have the choice to use the old stuff or new stuff. And if the new stuff is so much better than the old stuff that using the old stuff isn't financially feasible then I'd be inclined to call that a success.
Maybe someone can convince me to grab my pitchfork and join the mob but so far I'm just not seeing it.
All the talk about evil lawsuits against poor farmers who got accidentally contaminated seems to be FUD. The big recent case was a guy deliberately trying to skirt the rules.
If farmers would like to use non-Monsanto seeds then they are free to do so. If they'd like to use (arguably) superior seeds that have to be re-purchased every year then they are also free to do so.
If people think it's bullshit that Monsanto can prevent their seeds from being re-used then that's not insane, but I'd politely disagree. It's not terribly different from copyright protection on software. The way I see it is we could revoke that protection and then the seeds wouldn't be developed because it wouldn't be profitable and we'd be stuck with the old stuff. Or we could give protection to enable the development of new seeds and then farmers have the choice to use the old stuff or new stuff. And if the new stuff is so much better than the old stuff that using the old stuff isn't financially feasible then I'd be inclined to call that a success.
Maybe someone can convince me to grab my pitchfork and join the mob but so far I'm just not seeing it.