The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

the iron law of the patenting of life 205case that when Robert Shapiro came up with the brilliant idea of having allfarmers who bought RR soybean seeds sign a “technology use agreement,”he encountered a good deal of resistance. The agreement, which dealerswere required to present, provided for payment of a technology fee, set firstat $5 and then at $6.50 per acre of soybeans, and, most important, a commitmentnot to replant any harvested seeds the following year. Anotherclause required growers to use only Monsanto’s Roundup, not any of themany generics on the market, after the expiration of the patent in 2000.The terms of the contract that must be signed are still draconian: farmerswho violate it risk having to pay a heavy penalty or being sued in state or federalcourt in St. Louis (which has certain advantages for the company).Monsanto also assumes the right to review customers’ accounts going backthree years and to inspect their fields at the slightest suspicion: “If Monsantoreasonably believes that a grower has planted saved seed containing a Monsantogenetic trait, Monsanto will request invoices or otherwise confirm thatthe fields in question have been planted with newly purchased seed. If thisinformation is not provided within 30 days, Monsanto may inspect and testall of the grower’s fields to determine if saved seed has been planted.” 3The provision also covered seed dealers, one of whose activities used to beto clean the seeds farmers had harvested before they could replant them, byremoving the chaff. In Lords of the Harvest, Daniel Charles tells of an Ohioseed dealer who was forced against his will to post a notice in his barn thatwas supposed to protect him from growers Monsanto called “pirates”:“important information for individuals saving seed and replanting...Seed from Roundup Ready soybeans cannot be replanted. Itis protected under U.S. patents 4,535,060; 4,940,835; 5,633,435 and5,530,196. A grower who asks to have Roundup Ready seed cleaned is puttingthe seed cleaner and himself at risk.” 4 “In the end,” Charles remarks,“most farmers went along. They signed, grumbled, and joined the new agriculturalorder.” 5 According to Peter Carstensen, a professor at the Universityof Wisconsin Law School, the practice instituted by Monsanto effected a“dual revolution.” “First,” he told me when I met him in October 2006, “ithad the right to patent seeds, which was absolutely prohibited before the adventof biotechnology; second, it extended the rights of the manufacturergranted by patents. For that I would adopt the image that Monsanto likes touse. It compares a transgenic seed to a rental car: when you’ve finished usingit, you return it to the owner. In other words, the company doesn’t sell