Monsanto Calls Lawsuit By Organic Farmers “Misleading & Deceptive"

By Theodora Filis

On March 29th, 2011, Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses, and organic agricultural organizations against Monsanto Company to challenge the chemical giant’s patents on genetically modified seed.

The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue pre-emptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.

The case, Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto, was filed in federal district court in Manhattan.

Plaintiffs in the suit represent a broad range of family farmers, small businesses, and organizations from within the organic agriculture community who are increasingly threatened by genetically modified seed contamination, despite using their best efforts to avoid it. The plaintiff organizations have over 270,000 members, including thousands of certified organic family farmers.

Monsanto calls the lawsuit against it by organic groups and growers a “publicity stunt,” adding that many of the allegations are “false, misleading and deceptive.”

According to a statement in Beyond the Rows, a blog written by Monsanto:

“Monsanto has not ever sued and has publicly committed to not sue farmers over the inadvertent presence of biotechnology traits in their fields.”

“The plaintiffs’ approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture. These efforts seek to reduce private and public investment in the development of new, higher-yielding seed technologies. This attack comes at a time when the world needs every agricultural tool available to meet the needs of a growing population, expected to reach nine billion people by 2050. While we respect the opinion of organic farmers as it relates to the products they choose to grow, we don’t believe that American agriculture faces an all-or-nothing approach.

Rather we believe that farmers should have the ability to choose the best agricultural tools to farm their own land and serve their own end-market customers. We are confident that these multiple approaches can co-exist side by side and sustainably meet the world’s food needs over the next 40 years,” according to the Monsanto blog.

“We stand behind the American farmer, remain committed to investing in new tools to help American agriculture meet the needs of our growing world, and are prepared to vigorously defend ourselves.”

"This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property," said Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of Public Patent Foundation, which filed the lawsuit and charges that Monsanto “has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement … ”

A New York federal district court holds the filing, instigated by more than 60 plaintiffs, including the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, Organic Crop Improvement Association International, and The Cornucopia Institute.

It challenges the validity of Monsanto’s transgenic seed patents using, as legal basis, an 1817 lawsuit that determined “a new invention to poison people … is not a patentable invention” (Lowell v. Lewis, 15 F. Cas.1018). “Because transgenic seed, and in particular Monsanto’s transgenic seed, is ‘injurious to the well-being, good policy, or sound morals of society’ and threatens to ‘poison people,’ Monsanto’s transgenic seed patents are all invalid,” the lawsuit states.

Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto... http://www.pubpat.org/assets/files/seed/OSGATA-v-Monsanto-Complaint.pdf.

Suggested Reading:
Organic Farmers & Monsanto Fight It Out In Court... http://t.co/tj1XICI

Don't Know If You're Eating GMOs? Then You Probably Are!... http://t.co/ZelbfJx

US Consumers Concerned About Unlabeled GMOs http://t.co/5kHm2wY