Monsanto vs. Mother Earth petition

Article: "It’s unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry biotech companies have found a way to gain exclusive control over the seeds of life – the source of our food. They’re trying to patent away varieties of our everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons, forcing growers to pay them for seed and risk being sued if they don’t.

But we can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have found loopholes in European law to have exclusive rights over conventional seeds, so we just need to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent.And to do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands -- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop Monsanto’s greedy plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before, and we can do it again.

Many farmers and politicians are already against this -- we just need to bring in people power to pressure these countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food.Sign now and share with everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever. "

I don't think much needs to be said on my part other than "fuck these lobbyist assholes please sign the petition", so I'll leave it as is in fear of "conspiracy theoring" up the thread. :P

Petition: http://www.avaaz.org/en/monsanto_vs_mother_earth_rb/?bjsXocb&v=24005

The first time I ever heard of this seed-patenting thing was in 1998, and then only because that was the first time that I lived away from home as a student, and came in contact with people that had "counter-information" material in their possession (ya know, Fair Trade products, articles exposing the Echelon network, GMOs, Globalisation, Debtocracies etc.)

In my experience, such articles are to be taken with a grain of salt: they don't always depict a current situation, but they may paint a medium-term future one, especially as the conditions (e.g. crisis) mature and degenerate.

In hindsight, I have to admit that among the many harbinger of doom-type articles, some eventually came close to the truth or were even spot on.

And yet, you'd figure out they'd already have achieved the seed-patenting thing by now, as it sounds the "easiest" of them all?!

they gave tomatoes flippers
they made the fishes sing
they made the hedgehogs yellow
they gave the beetroots wings

all things bright and beautiful
all creatures great and small
all things weird and wonderful
monsanto made them all

darknation said:

they gave tomatoes flippers
they made the fishes sing
they made the hedgehogs yellow
they gave the beetroots wings

all things bright and beautiful
all creatures great and small
all things weird and wonderful
monsanto made them all

Beautiful.

Is this a Darknation original? Sounds vaguely like Margaret Atwood, but I don't recognize it.

This feels rather... Alarming.

Besides, genetically manipulated seeds could have nice niche in market. And add that certain plants and crops could need some certain chemical compounds to grow...

Seems I am starting to paint devils on the walls. Maybe.

.:edit:.
Wait a minute... Didn't this company started to patent certain pig specie, too?

Monsanto is straight out of The Omen. They're the fucking Anti-Christ.

Monsanto is the closest thing we have a to a real life Umbrella Company. It'd be funny if it weren't so terrifying.

Watch this quick doc if you wish to be frightened by their mustache twirling, world dominating, conquest.

Quasar said:

Monsanto is straight out of The Omen. They're the fucking Anti-Christ.

I see what you did there.

AVAAZ BY THE NUMBERS

0 members worldwide
0 actions taken since January '07
0 countries with Avaaz members

Well, that's convincing.

Phml said:

AVAAZ BY THE NUMBERS

0 members worldwide
0 actions taken since January '07
0 countries with Avaaz members

Well, that's convincing.

Someone else uses NoScript! :p

They use a silly AJAX-y thing to make the number go up from 0 to whatever it actually is. The main result is that you need to wait like a full minute (and allow JS for the site) before it shows the actual number. On the plus side it allows their pages to update in real-time when one of these numbers change; but they didn't need to start from 0 for that...

AVAAZ
BY THE NUMBERS

21,099,422
members worldwide

123,707,512
actions taken since January ‘07

194
countries with Avaaz members

Sad thing is Monsanto will get there way. Lets face it what chance does anyone have to stop then when Monsanto is so entrenched in the government that the ex-head of the company is the head of the FDA? When it comes right down to it, this whole mess is yet another example of how corrupt the government is and how corporate America writes the laws. Not the people.

Don't get me started on those pricks at the FDA.

but we need crops and food.

these are man made problems (overpopulation, anti-biotic resistance) in our food supply. I can handle giving control of these things to companies that have control in the US because someone, in china or the sudan, will treat these laws with the contempt they deserve. they will use US technology but not pay for it, same as china does with windows distros.

we are developing technologies that can, and will be, stolen and used en-masse, simply because the USA does not determine international law. Think of it like that, and humanity is the winner.

i typo'd 'used' with 'sued' in the above statement. take from that what you will.

darknation said:

they will use US technology but not pay for it, same as china does with windows distros.

But if you don't understand the technology you're stuck with fruit that doesn't produce viable seed and grain that becomes sterile after 2 or 3 planting seasons. It's not as straightforward as loading disks into a duplicator and pressing START.

Satyr000 said:

Sad thing is Monsanto will get there way. Lets face it what chance does anyone have to stop then when Monsanto is so entrenched in the government that the ex-head of the company is the head of the FDA? When it comes right down to it, this whole mess is yet another example of how corrupt the government is and how corporate America writes the laws. Not the people.

Not only that but, Sen. Roy Blunt slipped the "Monsanto Protection Act" into the latest budget.

Section 735 -- branded the “Monsanto Protection Act” by its opponents -- strips federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and propagation of genetically modified seeds and crops if concerns about health risks arise during safety tests.

Why stop there? Why not give them unbridled right to experiment on human subjects, make it illegal for anyone else to grow food, make it illegal to talk negatively about them, and maybe mandate everyone eat at least a certain amount of Monsanto food per month? That last one isn't any more egregious than being told you have to pay for worthless a government health care plan that nobody accepts no matter how poor you are, after all.

Probably one of the most scary things to come out of all this, is the recent ability to patent genes, simulated or pre-existent. That video I posted has Monsanto patenting already existing genes found in all pigs, meaning they could potentially charge fees for farmers just to raise and sell pork, much like their grain seed.

People at the patent office don't understand biology. Once a gene is introduced to the wild, there is no way to control it from spreading throughout the species, and that's what they (Monstanto) want. Farmers who are not under contract with Monsanto are finding themselves being sued becasue Monsanto brand wheat are found in their fields. How did this happen? The wind. Same goes for livestock. Farmers trade live stock to keep population genetics strong. If a farmer gets the wrong animal, potentially, their whole stock can be exposed to patented genes and the farmer liable to pay royalties.

Monsanto is one of many companies that I'd like to see forcibly dismantled, its assets seized, its top executive put on a terror watchlist, and all its "intellectual property" put into the public domain.

Gez said:

Monsanto is one of many companies that I'd like to see forcibly dismantled, its assets seized, its top executive put on a terror watchlist, and all its "intellectual property" put into the public domain.

I don't know if I want agent orange made public.

Too late. Interestingly, it seems the manufacturing process is worse than the defoliant parts because it introduces horrible contaminants.

Let's patent humans

Gez said:

Monsanto is one of many companies that I'd like to see forcibly dismantled, its assets seized, its top executive put on a terror watchlist, and all its "intellectual property" put into the public domain.

That's something which will probably have to be put on hold until the revolution, with the dismantling and asset seizure being done by angry mobs and executives hung from lamp posts alongside their political lackeys.

What if avaaz is ever bribed to use signatures against what they say they will use them for?

Clonehunter said:

Let's patent humans

Thus far, humans are the only living creature you can't patent.

But it's being questions right now.

Someone call Captain Planet!

Technician said:

But it's being questions right now.

So Michael Crichton's "Next" could become a reality? What if someone, by pure chance/mutation happens to have one of the "patented" genes? Will patent holders have ownership rights over his/her body, just like in the novel?

Gene patents was step #1 on Monsanto's roadmap for global domination. There will be mandatory genetic screenings. People who bear a patented gene sequence will become property of Monsanto and dragged to a highly-secured secret facility where they will be used for research purposes, so as to allow the fulfillment of step #2: zombie army.

Do not make fun of it. This is serious concern. We should capture all people who work in Monsanto and Myriad, even janitors, and punish them by death sentence. Earth can be purified only by death of unworthy parasites.

Maes said:

So Michael Crichton's "Next" could become a reality? What if someone, by pure chance/mutation happens to have one of the "patented" genes? Will patent holders have ownership rights over his/her body, just like in the novel?

If anyone of his novels should become reality please let it be Jurassic Park.

If not that, then Pirate Latitudes.