A group of farmers are in Washington, DC this week to demand that the
federal court reconsiders a case against biotech giants Monsanto.
Last February, District Court Judge Naomi Buchwald dismissed a
lawsuit filed by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association in which
the plaintiffs sought legal protection from Monsanto, a billion-dollar
corporation that has grown exponentially in recent years to become a
dominating figure in the American agricultural market. Small time
farmers say there is a reason for that, though, and they want the courts
to do something about it.
Before Judge Buchwald rejected their
plea, the plaintiffs wanted the government to step in to make sure small
time farmers would no longer be sued by Monsanto, a company that has
introduced a number of lawsuits in recent years against independent
growers.
In addition to being a titan in the agricultural field,
Monsanto is also known for patenting genetically modified seed types
that can spawn crops that rival the ones made by Mother Nature. While
those products are a hot commodity among some farmers, others aren’t
fortunate enough to add them to their fields. That isn’t to say the
occasional wind gust or other method doesn’t move those GMO seeds onto
unlicensed farms, though, and Monsanto has spent millions to sue farmers
that infringe, even accidently, on their costly patent.
When the
plaintiffs hoped for federal protection last year, Judge Buchwald told
them it wouldn’t be possible. This week, however, the Organic Seed
Growers and Trade Association is back in the nation’s capital to file an
appeal.
“The District Court erred when it denied the organic seed plaintiffs the right to seek protection from Monsanto’s patents,” Dan Ravicher, an attorney representing plaintiffs with the Public Patent Foundation, says in a statement.
“At
the oral argument on January 10, we will explain to the Court of
Appeals the District Court’s errors and why the case should be
reinstated.”
Carol Koury, a farmer that operates Sow True
Seeds in Asheville, North Carolina, made the trek to Washington this
week to show support. Before any news emerged from federal court,
though, she was outside the White House to rally for justice.
"We want and demand the right of clean seed not contaminated by a massive biotech company that's in it for the profit,"
Koury told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was joined by around 200
others outside of the president's residence Thursday morning.
In Judge Buchwald’s original ruling, the justice stated,
"there
is no evidence to suggest that plaintiffs are infringing defendants'
patents, nor have plaintiffs suggested when, if ever, such infringement
will occur.” In Washington this week, though, the Public Patent Foundation’s Ravicher directly challenged that decision.
"If
our clients don't have standing today to seek protection, when will
they have standing? Do they have to wait to be contaminated?" he asked.
Commenting on the case in an official statement, Monsanto says attempts to drag them back into court are without merit.
“The
district court ruling dismissing this case noted it was simply a
transparent effort by plaintiffs to create a controversy where none
exists,” says Tom Helscher, Monsanto’s director of corporate affairs.
“Farmers
who have no interest in using Monsanto’s patented seed products have no
rational basis to fear a lawsuit from Monsanto, and claims to the
contrary, to quote from the district Court, are ‘groundless’ and
‘baseless.’ As was stated in the court, it has been, and remains,
Monsanto’s policy not to exercise its patent rights where trace amounts
of our patents are present in a farmer’s fields as a result of
inadvertent means.”
When Ravicher was in court last year to take on Monsanto, he said something quite the opposite.
“It
seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic
seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such
accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers
for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of
our clients,” the attorney insisted.
Monsanto announced
earlier this month that profits during the first quarter of fiscal year
2013 had more than doubled. Pierre Courduroux, the company’s chief
financial officer, tells Bloomberg he expects a gross profit in 2013 of
$7.65 billion for the company.
