Rights of Farmers and the Future of Seeds

[P F Tinmore]

Percy Schmeiser vs Monsanto: The Story of a Canadian Farmer’s Fight to Defend the Rights of Farmers and the Future of Seeds

Gathered here in Bonn this week are some eighty Right Livelihood Award laureates, including the Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who has battled the biotech giant Monsanto for years. When Monsanto seeds blew into Schmeiser’s property, Monsanto accused him of illegally planting their crops and took him to court. Ultimately his case landed in the Canadian Supreme Court. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for fighting to defend the rights of farmers and the future of seeds.

Percy Schmeiser vs Monsanto: The Story of a Canadian Farmer's Fight to Defend the Rights of Farmers and the Future of Seeds

 

[Mr. H.]

Sow what?

 

[Old Rocks]

Monsanto GM-corn harvest fails massively in South Africa

 

[waltky]

Dairy farmers gettin' squeezed on both ends...

Dairy Farmers, Squeezed by Higher Corn Prices, Says Higher Milk Prices Don't Help Much
Friday, March 18, 2011 - While milk prices continue to rise and exports to Asian markets have expanded, many dairy farmers are still struggling with the aftermath of several disastrous years and hoping the federal government will do something to help stabilize the industry.

After milk prices plunged and farms began going under, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said a year and a half ago that the industry needed restructuring and his department would look at its programs to see what changes could be made to help create more stability. A committee the U.S. Department of Agriculture formed in 2009 in response to the crisis issued its recommendations this month, but no legislation has been written yet. Agriculture officials say it's forthcoming.

That's not a lot of comfort for farmers like Jamie Bledsoe of Riverdale, who saw his income drop by $2 million in 2009 and had to sell off about 300 cows to pay his bills. Many dairy farmers used up savings and sold property they had accumulated over 15 or 20 years, he said. Now, they're being squeezed by high corn prices and an inability to get loans to buy feed for their cows. The situation is particularly bad in California, where most dairy farmers don't grow their own hay and corn.

Nearly 250 dairies in California have gone under in the past three years, and more are expected to close this year, said Michael Marsh, chief executive of Western United Dairymen. California is the nation's No. 1 milk producer, followed by Wisconsin and Idaho. The crisis started when milk prices that had been driven up by demand in developing nations plummeted from a high of $18 per hundred pounds in 2008 to about $12 amid the recession in 2009. Farmers began slaughtering their cows to try to cut production. At one point, an average of 50,000 cows a week were being killed in an effort to reduce the milk glut.

This year, milk is expected to average about $17 per hundred pounds. But farmers aren't doing much better than before because federal subsidies for ethanol have created a big demand for corn among biofuel producers and prices have skyrocketed, said Ray Souza, a California farmer who serves on the USDA's Dairy Industry Advisory Committee. About a third of the U.S. corn crop now feeds car engines, not cows, and Souza said feed accounts for about half of dairy farmers' expenses.

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