News section
Planters take on Monsanto over seed fees -- and sometimes go to jail
September 26, 2004

Knight-Ridder Tribune
Jane Roberts, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee
via Agnet Sept. 28/04 - II

Four months in prison last year, according to this story, hardened Kem Ralph's will to beat agrichemical giant Monsanto in a fight that has made him a cause celebre among farmers who save seed.

The story explains that Monsanto won a $2.9 million patent infringement judgment against Ralph, who not only unlawfully saved the St. Louis-based company's genetically engineered seed but burned the evidence and lied about it in court.

A federal judge sentenced Ralph to prison on mail fraud charges connected to the seed he saved at a Missouri gin.

Ralph, 48, was cited as saying the behavior was warranted and that Monsanto has an illegal monopoly on seed that the USDA says now accounts for more than 80 percent of the soybeans and cotton grown in the United States, adding, "I'm a fighter. Monsanto has a lot of political power, but it's just a matter of time -- I'm going to beat Monsanto."

The story says that a handful of farmers across the region are in court with Monsanto, fighting for what they say is their inherent right to save seed.

Mitchell Scruggs, a Tupelo-area farmer who obtained genetically altered seed from an unauthorized source in 2000 and planted the seed, was quoted as saying, "What's happened is that Monsanto has teamed up with a handful of seed companies to charge whatever prices they want. It's destroying this country to let a big corporation control all the food and fiber through the seed. I'm concerned just like all the other farmers that Monsanto is a parasite, sucking all the money out of the community."

Tommy Dickerson, store manager at the Tate County Co-op in Senatobia, Miss., was quoted as saying 99 percent of his customers want genetically modified seed "because it's a whole lot easier. They don't have to make so many trips in the field putting on chemicals," adding that cotton farmers can expect to save $100 an acre with the modified seed and soybean producers can save $40.

The story says that Dickerson's customers pay about $6.25 in technology fees on one bag of soybeans, enough to plant about one acre, and that in cotton, the fee averages about $230, Dickerson said, nearly three times the cost of the seed.

The co-op keeps "less than 10 percent" of the fee for cottonseed, sending the rest to Monsanto in royalties, he said.

Dr. Bill Meredith, research geneticist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Stoneville, Miss., was quoted as saying, "I regularly hear from farmers who think they're having to pay too high a technology fee. What happens is they didn't save as much on insecticide costs in cotton because other insects have filled in the void. So, they're having to spray and pay a technology fee too. … They've given farmers these two genes, and they have some rights to get paid for them."

Meredith was cited as saying farmers argue that there are 50,000 other genes in the seed, giving them the right to save it, and that Monsanto has "essentially been the only player in gene-modified seed for the last seven years."

But Meredith expects Dow Chemical Co. and Syngenta will have genetically altered seed on the market next year.
The story adds that Monsanto gets about 500 tips a year from people who suspect their neighbors or customers are saving seed.

Julie Doane, Monsanto spokeswoman, was quoted as saying, "At the end of the day, hundreds of thousands of farmers are abiding by the contracts and see the value in these seeds. They ask Monsanto that we ensure others are doing the same," adding that Monsanto spends about $500 million a year in research, often spending eight to 10 years perfecting research so it can be introduced on the market.

Monsanto has 10 seed-saving cases in litigation now. Five have gone to court. Several hundred others have settled.

Monsanto puts the money from the settlements into a scholarship fund, and has given more than $1.5 million to students studying for careers in agriculture since the disputes arose. Seven students from the tri-state area received $1,500 scholarships this year.

The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee via Agnet Sept. 28/04 - II

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