The case gets CONSIDERABLY more complicated if you are not a farmer to begin with. When you buy gmo seed you sign an agreement*, which is the basis they have been winning suits against those who retain seeds. Or they’ve won suits against people who replant retained seeds as propagation. I really can’t understand how you would apply current law to prevent a random individual with no binding agreements in place from buying seed for one purpose and planting it, unless that was in the terms of sale for the feed.
*at least theoretically sign even if it’s a shrink wrap agreement
You are right that farmers that buy the seed and sign the technology agreement have a lot of specific terms they have to abide by. However, general patent law applies to GMO just like everything else. You cannot benefit from using technology that is protected by patent without licensing it. You can certainly buy GMO seed and plant it as an individual. However when you apply glyphosate to it to control weeds, you are using the patented technology in the seed without a license. Technically, you are violating the law. In practical terms, you are very unlikely to be sued for patent infringement. If you are selling the resulting crop, you are much more likely to see litigation. I’m sure Monsanto was not worried about loosing a couple thousand dollars from the seed that farmer didn’t buy for his replant. They were worried about the many millions of dollars they would lose if a precedent was set and others followed in his path.
I wish they would use the technology to save species in danger, increase nutritional values, and to increase yield and taste. They do use it for the reasons mentioned, just not enough.
For example here in Michigan our soils have very little selenium in the soil. Farm animals often develop white muscle disease as farmers tend to feed with stuff they grow. Mostly new farmers do this as old ones already lost a number of animals to white muscle disease here, and now supplement feeding regiment. Now developing a strain of grain that can extract the minutest amounts from the soil would be a welcome feed grain here. It would save millions of dollars in vet fees, and lost animals.
I watch the show The Incredible Dr Pol. I had no idea about this problem, but once every 3 episodes or so, he is seeing white muscle in his client’s animals. It kills animals quickly!
It’s a super cool show if you ask me! My dog loves watching it! No, I’m not kidding. If I say to Jesse “Do you want to watch Dr. Pol?” he will run to the TV.
@Drew51 since selenium is needed in such small amounts I would think that it would be far more cost effective to add it as a soil amendment or foliar spray on crops, than to pay for expensive specialized seed.
Your situation sounds similar to NZ’s problem with lack of cobalt in their soils, which made sheep farming hard until they started adding it.
With few exceptions, micro nutrients are fairly cost effective to add, either to the soil or as a foliar spray on the crops. GMO seed, where you can’t save the seed from year to year would likely cost many times the other ways of solving this (unless some gov’t or charity gave away the rights to the seed).
Micronutrient deficiencies in livestock are part of what I deal with on a daily basis; not all are directly fatal, like white muscle disease, but often have far-reaching effects on reproduction, immune function, etc. In my area, copper and selenium are both deficient in soils, and forages/grains are then deficient - though some are better at extracting the existing minerals from the soil than others. But dietary supplementation for health and optimum productivity are necessary - but mineral supplementation is local… what we need here in KY is very different from what’s required in CO, CA, etc.
Dr. Pol is an embarrassingly poor representation of veterinary medicine. His methods harken back to the 1940s-1950s… stuff that I see him do was outdated even when I entered the profession back in the 1980s.
Sure, he seems like a friendly fellow, and there’s ‘homespun’ stuff on that show, but on the rare instances when I’ve forced myself to watch it, I can understand why he and his colleagues have been frequently sanctioned by the board of veterinary examiners for negligence/not practicing to the accepted standard of care…approaching gross malpractice.
The vast majority of veterinarians in this country are appalled at his archaic antics and there’s been a concerted effort for some time to get NatGeo to remove the show and replace with one showcasing veterinary medicine as it’s properly practiced in the 21st century, but, alas, it’s not yet happened. Here’s hoping your dog never has to receive treatment at the hands of Dr. Pol.