Former Cops To Police USSA Farms For DuPont
The world’s second largest seed company is planning to send dozens of former police officer across North America to make sure that no farmer does as their ancestors: replant seeds. DuPont, the shady company which brought the world the likes of DDT and the best-selling genetically modified soybean seed, is combing coast-to-coast to find evidence of farmers illegally saving Dupont seeds for replanting. Replanting of seeds bought from DuPont is not okay under the sales contracts. The company has already begun the operations in Kanada, and will begin looking through fields in the USSA this coming year, according to a DuPont senior manager.
DuPont is nervous that, for some reason, demand for their Roundup Ready soybeans might not be what they like, so they are trying to protect their Roundup by Monsanto ready crops. Monsanto has carried the task of patrolling the crops of the US, but they are getting out, moving onto a new line of seeds, and so DuPont will now have to police the “illegal beans.”
“Farmers are never going to get cheap access to these genetically engineered varieties,” said Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources. “The biotech industry has trumped the legitimate economic interests of the farmer again by raising the ante on intellectual property.”
And farmers get sued. Monsanto controls approx. 28 percent of the soybean market in the US, making it the largest soybean producer and exporter in 2011. DuPont has about 36 percent of the share. The weed-killer tolerant seeds and related licenses generated nearly $2 billion in sales for Monsanto in the year through August, 13 percent of the company’s overall total. DuPont saw $1.37 in soybean revenue in 2011, or 3.6% of overall sales.

-
Charles
-
Charles Savoie





