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NE Colorado | I began to dislike Monsanto in the late 90's when I read that a farmer in Montana got prosecuted for bringing in Canadian Roundup, which was far cheaper there than in the US. But Monsanto, on the other hand, was out promoting free trade. That is, as long as it's not free trade with one of its products. And that's the real irony when companies such as Monsanto promote free trade, what they really mean is that they will give other countries free access to our traditional industries, including agriculture, in return for other countries tightening of Intellectual Property Rights protection.
But sometimes that protection goes too far in the US. The reason Roundup was cheaper in Canada was because Canada, as most countries around the world, did not recognize a serial patent on glyphosate that Monsanto got in 1983. Effectively, this extended Monsanto's monopoly on glyphosate an extra nine years in the US, as its original patent was in 1974 and expired in 1991. But Monsanto got to keep its monopoly here because the US was one of the few countries to recognize its serial patent.
And I have no doubt similar scenarios will play out as its GMO patents expire, Monsanto will use all kinds of means to extend its monopolies here and most likely will succeed doing so in the US far better than anywhere else in the world.
And as Monsanto started to prosecute farmers for saving seed, calling them "pirates", I always wondered if the Monsanto executives ever looked at themselves in the mirror. Especially when Pioneer in 1999 sued Monsanto for "misappropriating" its genetics. | |
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Why does Monsanto have such a negative public image compared to the other seed companies?
