Farmer Homer McFarland is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Monsanto corporation. His crime? Replanting his crops' own seed, as farmers have done for millennia, which violates the biotech giant's intellectual property rights, the company claims. Quietly, Monsanto's aggressive "seed police" have been suing farmers in 25 states for years, often settling out of court for huge sums, according to the Center for Food Safety's new report, Monsanto vs. US farmers [PDF link]. For more information, also see a new documentary called The Future of Food.
posted by digaman on Jan 15, 2005 - 55 comments

If computer engineering defined the last half of the twentieth century, then biotech will surely define the first half of the twenty-first century.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 5, 2001 - 5 comments

The ethical problems of biotech patents have been noted here before. Now the New Scientist reports that those patent applications are on the brink of crippling the world wide patent system to the detriment of real inventions and to the disadvantage of poorer countries (and what is the PC term for those now that 'third world' and even 'less developed countries' have fallen out of favor?)
posted by norm on Dec 12, 2000 - 6 comments

True or not?! One of the weirdest things I've ever seen on the web. I was sure this was a hoax and kept digging for confirmation and never found it.
posted by norm on Nov 3, 2000 - 11 comments