MONSANTO IS EVIL
Monsanto can legally patent crops like Roundup Ready soybeans because the
plants are basically creations of the company -- there is no way they could
possibly exist naturally. They contain genes from bacteria or other
organisms spliced together in laboratories. The engineered beans are immune
to Monsanto's Roundup pesticide, which kills almost everything that is green.
When farmers buy the seed, they have to sign a contract that outlines the
rules of use. For example, they are not allowed to save any of the seed
from their crop to plant the next season. Saving seed is a common practice
used for thousands of years, but Monsanto forbids it, requiring farmers to
buy new seed from the company every year.
Court documents show that one of Monsanto's detectives searched the
Mayfields' farm in 1998, taking samples from 1,261 acres of soybeans. All
the beans were determined to contain the Roundup Ready gene. According to
Monsanto, the Mayfields had signed a contract in 1998 stating that they
only planted about 800 acres of Roundup Ready. All those extra acres of
beans were grown from saved seed, the company charges.