Organic farmers can’t fight Monsanto patents in court

Organic corn near San Diego, California.

Suzie's Farm / flickr

Agribusiness giant Monsanto was in the news this year for taking a patent case to the Supreme Court. Now it has racked up another patent win in the higher courts, but the win has come at a price.

In the Supreme Court case earlier this year, farmer Vernon Bowman was trying to create a second crop of genetically modified Roundup Ready soybeans without Monsanto's permission. In the federal appeal case decided yesterday, Organic Seed Growers v. Monsanto, a group of farmers banded together with a wholly different concern. They didn't want another generation of GMO crops for "free"; they wanted the opposite. These farmers want to keep their fields entirely clear of transgenic seeds.

This is an increasingly difficult task, since Monsanto's patented crops have come to dominate some parts of the food supply. The organic farmers estimate that 85 to 90 percent of US-grown soybeans, corn, cotton, sugar beets, and canola contain Monsanto patented genes. The farmers in this case don't want to be anywhere near the "free ride" Bowman was accused of seeking; rather, they're concerned about "contamination." The Roundup Ready trait makes soybeans resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, but it isn't valuable to them. These farmers oppose the use of glyphosate altogether.