How can something be a government agency AND a "corporation" at the same time? How can a government agency claim to protect and serve the "interests of all " while making profits off a private patent?
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1998/04/broydo.html
By Leora Broydo
April 7, 1998
It's a practice as old as farming itself: As sure as the rooster crows at dawn, farmers save seeds from one growing season and plant them in the next. In South America, poor farmers use knowledge passed down over centuries to select seeds best suited to the local climate and soil.
A new genetic technology, patented in March, will make it possible for companies to sell seeds that will only work for one growing season, so farmers have to buy each time they plant. Crops will grow as usual, but their seeds in turn will be duds, unable to germinate. Seeds of this kind are expected to come to market by 2004.
Who will challenge this affront to the age-old practice of seed saving? The USDA? "Not on American soil, bucko!" Unlikely. USDA is the inventor.
Using taxpayer money, about $229,000, USDA created the new "technology protection system" with Delta and Pine Land Company, the nation's largest producer of cotton seeds with a 73 percent market share. Together they hold the patent. Public-private partnerships are not at all unusual at USDA—two recent USDA inventions, a spray to prevent salmonella in chickens and a feed that will reduce water-polluting phosphorous content in animal waste, were both developed using private funds—but this one stands out because it was not done to improve food safety, the environment, crop viability, or consumer choice. The research was done, according to the USDA inventor himself, to improve the bottom lines of American corporations
Seed saving may be good for farmers, but it's not good for the chemical and seed companies. Biotech seed companies have managed to control the "problem" of seed saving in this country by policing farmers. Monsanto requires that buyers of its Roundup Ready seeds agree to use them only once, and hires Pinkerton investigators to root out violators.
What's it called when the government owns corporations? Funds them? Is finacially entertwined with them?
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1998/04/broydo.html
By Leora Broydo
April 7, 1998
It's a practice as old as farming itself: As sure as the rooster crows at dawn, farmers save seeds from one growing season and plant them in the next. In South America, poor farmers use knowledge passed down over centuries to select seeds best suited to the local climate and soil.
A new genetic technology, patented in March, will make it possible for companies to sell seeds that will only work for one growing season, so farmers have to buy each time they plant. Crops will grow as usual, but their seeds in turn will be duds, unable to germinate. Seeds of this kind are expected to come to market by 2004.
Who will challenge this affront to the age-old practice of seed saving? The USDA? "Not on American soil, bucko!" Unlikely. USDA is the inventor.
Using taxpayer money, about $229,000, USDA created the new "technology protection system" with Delta and Pine Land Company, the nation's largest producer of cotton seeds with a 73 percent market share. Together they hold the patent. Public-private partnerships are not at all unusual at USDA—two recent USDA inventions, a spray to prevent salmonella in chickens and a feed that will reduce water-polluting phosphorous content in animal waste, were both developed using private funds—but this one stands out because it was not done to improve food safety, the environment, crop viability, or consumer choice. The research was done, according to the USDA inventor himself, to improve the bottom lines of American corporations
Seed saving may be good for farmers, but it's not good for the chemical and seed companies. Biotech seed companies have managed to control the "problem" of seed saving in this country by policing farmers. Monsanto requires that buyers of its Roundup Ready seeds agree to use them only once, and hires Pinkerton investigators to root out violators.
What's it called when the government owns corporations? Funds them? Is finacially entertwined with them?
