this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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They make more money suing farmers for accidentally growing patented crops from natural seed dispersal mechanisms.
They make their money from royalty payments for GMO traits. It's up to 3x more profit than they get off the seed alone.
No they don't. There's never been any legal action taken for accidentally growing GM crops.
Google is free
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/02/18/171896311/farmers-fight-with-monsanto-reaches-the-supreme-court
I don't see any natural means by which those seeds dispersed. Actually, it looks like he knew he was growing seeds that could get him in trouble
Monsanto is evil enough, we do not have to exaggerate how evil they are.
I know that you feel that you are correct because by the strict definition of the word suing, there may never have been a lawsuit, but most laymen are going to understand suing to also include being threatened with a lawsuit and settling out of court.
I feel that I'm correct because by both the strict definition of the word suing, and the inclusion of out of court settlements, I can't find any examples of Monsanto pursuing any sort of legal action against farmers who accidentally grew their crops when the seeds were spread by natural means.
Don't get me wrong, the concept of patenting a living thing is ghoulish and evil, and farmers should absolutely be allowed to grow whatever seeds they want. Just don't misrepresent someone intentionally breaching a contract as something totally accidental and out of their control
Maybe Monsanto is as forgiving as you say, but I don't believe it. I think it is a lot more likely that the type of farmers insist on regrowing from their own seed are small independents who are too far in debt to even think about fighting. I think they took the first offer given to them because it was just a smidge under the quote given to them by the lawyer they went to see where they first got a letter from Monsanto.
Monsanto is not stupid, if they ask for too much the people will fight it and go even deeper into debt to pay the lawyer and by the time Monsanto gets their cut of the remaining carcass, they won't even make enough to cover the cost of their own lawyers. But if they make the price just a bit cheaper than the cost of fighting, the victims will hand over every penny that they can squeeze out and then go off to quietly die the slow death left to them in the NDA they had to sign to get the "deal" Monsanto offered.
Or maybe I am just jaded and a giant multinational corporation is doing the right thing for the right reasons and not taking advantage of anyone.
Sure, you've just described one of the ways that Monsanto is evil. Keeping a deathgrip on the seed production and making the cost of signing another contract just slightly less than the cost of a potential legal battle is scummy as hell. Instead of making things up to be mad at, let's be mad at them for that.