Forum Post: Family Farmers to Travel to Washington, D.C. to Take on Monsanto
Posted 11 years ago on Jan. 6, 2013, 9:29 p.m. EST by john32
(-272)
from Pittsburgh, PA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
"WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 4, 2013 - Dozens of family farmers, Plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association et al v. Monsanto,will travel from across America to Washington, D.C. next week to take on Monsanto and demand the right to farm. They will attend the January 10th Oral Argument in the Appeal of Dismissal to be aired before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A Citizen's Assembly in support of family farmers at 10am in Lafayette Square will coincide with the beginning of the Oral Argument inside the court room.
"Our farmers want nothing to do with Monsanto," declared Maine certified organic seed farmer, Jim Gerritsen, President of lead Plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. "We are not customers of Monsanto. We don't want their seed. We don't want their gene-spliced technology. We don't want their trespass onto our farms. We don't want their contamination of our crops. We don't want to have to defend ourselves from aggressive assertions of patent infringement because Monsanto refuses to keep their pollution on their side of the fence. We want justice."
Many farmers have been forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits from Monsanto. This case challenges the validity of Monsanto's genetically engineered seed patents and seeks Court protection for family farmers who, through no fault of their own, may have become contaminated by Monsanto's patented seed and find themselves accused of patent infringement. "
Continued...........
Down with Frankenfood.
I'm going primal, myself. grins
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-perfectly-primal-foods-you-probably-havent-eaten/#axzz2H5U4SiM5
Yep - the next step to shopping for groceries.
Tell us what you want - we'll be happy to ship it right out to you.
? - OK - I want to be the hulk - is 10 weeks to soon to see results? Ummm double my order - Thx.
I switched the link.
Got it wrong first time.
I'm off any kind of grain, except for rice.
I hear ya - wheat has gotten totally screwed up - 90% of the population has trouble digesting it.
I try to get whole rice - brown. Complete and easy to digest - but not processed so is not a starch rush to the system either.
Primal diet is what I'm trying.
Omnivores are what we are, and wheat/rye/corn came in very late in our existence. You're right in saying most of us have trouble digesting it.
I'm building a dehydrator to make jerky, and I'm avoiding gluten totally.
Careful with the sodium intake ( jerky )
That's why I'm making my own.
No sodium. Just herbs and a bit of honey.
Good deal - for longer storage prior to use ( dehydrating ) ?
Trekking. I've given up the motor car.
When people ask me how I'm travelling, the answer will be; "two feet and a heartbeat."
LOL - If you can do it ( make it work ) awesome. Makes planning ahead an essential for growing what you need or hunting - then prep work - processing for storage. 24/7/365 real work in that.
I have to have the vehickal for tool transport, but always camping on site till the job's done now. I did it on my last project, and got 188 hours work done in 15 days. Zero fuel consumption.
I'm not fanatical about anything, really, but more flexible in reality.
We tend to rely too much on transport, when the reality is, we have two feet and a heartbeat. If you fail to use it, you lose it.
Yes - absolutely - I applaud your efforts and successes. This is called choosing and living a lifestyle that is within your means - no diets no trends - just a look at a thru z requirements and how to implement within your needs/capabilities. Me? I am challenged just getting out of bed - but I do look for ways to be as healthy as I can be for myself and in extension my environment.
I'm no saint. I've been drinking beer now for seventeen hours straight.
That reminds me; time to start the home brew keg again.
We all have our own row to hoe, my friend.
Well and there ya go - you took a break - now you are gonna work on restocking. No neither of us is gonna be walking on water ( unless it is properly frozen ) - but you have chosen a pretty healthy subsistence lifestyle. That I admire.
The four steps of capitalist degeneration in agricultural sector:
1) The chartering (licensing) of competing companies to provide needed services/products all in competition to provide better services/products at cheaper prices.
2) Consolidation to avoid stress of competition (John D. Rockefeller: "Competition is sin"), but still enough competition to serve needs of farmer.
3) Consolidation into cooperating cartels. Business model becomes forced extortion of monies from farmers for needed services/products. Price controlled by cartels, not by competing market.
4) Monopolies form. No longer serve needs of farmers. Power, with the demise of markets, now totally lies with monopolists. Now the farmer is now just one more farm animal to be milked/sheared to the max.
MonSATAN deserves the corporate death penalty. Capitalism needs to be returned to the first step level. The genius of capitalism is competition, it's what drives innovation. But unregulated capitalism will always drive competition out, like water always flowing downhill. We need to return to a small business, competing, innovating, job providing capitalism (with the fringe benefit of no democracy challenging concentrations of economic power).
Next month I'll be attending my state's Biological Farming Conference : http://vabf.org/ . I highly recommend that you check to see if your state has similar organizations that relate to biological farming, permaculture, organic farming. I learn SO much from the workshops and classes that I take. You don't have to be a gardener or farmer to benefit from these conferences. You learn quite a bit about current legislation as well. The group that John mentioned was at a conference that I attended two years ago and discussing this very topic about Monsanto, etc.. It may seem unimportant that we conserve the integrity of our seed but this issue is truly one of the most important issues of our time. If we lose the integrity of our seed, we will lose our ability to produce healthy and natural crops that we and other species rely on...bees for example. We could not survive without bees.
Here is a recent article about pesticides:
Pesticides More than Ever Mark Bittman, NY Times
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/pesticides-now-more-than-ever/?emc=eta1
Couldn't agree more...thanks for the article.
John, Here's a really good Gary Null doc video about GMOs for those who may not be clear of the effects on all animal and plant species: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakLhePNT2s
Good video - straight to the point and gives a great overview of health effects to animals and humans. Everyone should watch this.
We must keep this in the news! We have had it and we are not going to take it anymore! Rise up!
Thank you for posting news of this very important issue.
Ban GMO's !
amen
I believe the heart of this issue are supreme court decisions that give GMO companies rights that hurt America & its farmers.
Is this true?