Family Farm and Consumer Organizations Speak Out in Lawsuit Against Monsanto<\/p>\n
Fourteen Groups File \u201cFriend of the Court\u201d Brief<\/p>\n
CAMERON, TX (July 13, 2012)\u2014Fourteen family farm and consumer organizations have filed a friend of the court (amici curiae) brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., in support of request by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association to overturn a lower court\u2019s ruling in favor of Monsanto Corporation in a case involving Monsanto\u2019s genetically engineered seed.<\/p>\n
The original suit, which was filed in March of last year in the Southern District of New York by a coalition of family farmers, seed businesses and agricultural organizations, asked the court to protect farmers from abusive lawsuits by Monsanto, which the company has a history of filing to protect their patents on GMO seed.<\/p>\n
In their brief, the Amici organizations noted that Monsanto has \u201cchosen to patent products that, by their very nature, will inevitably end up on the private property of people who have no desire to use them\u201d noting that \u201cfor the first time in history, (farmers) can be sued for something as natural as pollen drift.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers have abandoned their legal right to use their property or grow certain crops, out of fear of contamination by Monsanto\u2019s patented seeds,\u201d explained Judith McGeary, counsel for the amici and Executive Director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance. \u201cNo matter how much a farmer doesn\u2019t want to use GMO seeds, he remains at risk of being sued simply because his neighbors plant Monsanto\u2019s crops.\u201d<\/p>\n
The brief notes that Monsanto has filed 144 lawsuits against farmers and settled approximately 700 others in just 13 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn dismissing the case, the district court erred by relying heavily on the [Monsanto\u2019s] unenforceable and vague \u2018pledge\u2019 not to sue for \u2018trace\u2019 levels of \u2018inadvertent\u2019 contamination, despite the lack competent evidence to support such claims,\u201d the brief noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what is \u2018trace\u2019? And who gets to decide?\u201d asked Ms. McGeary. \u201cThe district court essentially told the farmers that they had to simply trust this company that brags about its aggressive patent enforcement and, in the process, risk their farms and their livelihoods. We hope the Court of Appeals recognizes the fundamental unfairness of that position and reverses the district court\u2019s opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Amici organizations include: Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Food and Water Watch, International Organic Inspectors Association, Maine Alternative Agriculture Association, Michigan Land Trustees, Natural Environmental Ecological Management, Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, Organic Consumers Association, Slow Food USA, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, and Wisconsin Natural Food Associates.<\/p>\n
The brief is available online<\/p>\n
For more information, contact Judith McGeary, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Judith@FarmAndRanchFreedom.org or 512-484-8821<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourteen family farm and consumer organizations have filed a friend of the court (amici curiae) brief with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., in support of request by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association to overturn a lower court\u2019s ruling in favor of Monsanto Corporation in a case involving Monsanto\u2019s genetically engineered seed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8564,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions\/8564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}