Dean Hoffman wrote:
On Aug 17, 9:33 am, bud-- wrote:
The problem is if you are growing "ordinary" corn, not protected by
patents, and you want to save some seeds from your corn for the next
year. You corn crop is likely to have been 'polluted' by the pollen from
neighboring fields that grow a "patented" corn. Saving seeds from your
own corn will include patented genetic material that you do not want and
can not prevent from being there. The big guys will prosecute you, or
the people that run machines for separating seed corn, for infringement
with big penalties.

IMHO it is somewhere between a gross injustice and a scam.


That actually wouldn't apply to corn. Farmers have planted
hybrid seed for as long as I can remember.
Hybrid seed corn started to take hold back in the 1930s from what I
read once. A farmer friend tried to use some corn out of the bin
once. He had just a little left to plant and was too cheap to buy
seed. He said he could tell to the row where the boughten seed
ended.

I remember my dad and his neighbors would sow wheat from their own
seed. Oats, too, I think. I don't remember
if they used their own soybeans for seed.

It was on one of the TV news magazines (60 min?). Included interviews
with some farmers and a guy that had a machine to make seed corn. They
had all been sued - don't remember if it was Monsanto. The specific crop
was corn.

bud-- wrote:
Dean Hoffman wrote:
On Aug 17, 9:33 am, bud-- wrote:
The problem is if you are growing "ordinary" corn, not protected by
patents, and you want to save some seeds from your corn for the next
year. You corn crop is likely to have been 'polluted' by the pollen
from neighboring fields that grow a "patented" corn. Saving seeds
from your own corn will include patented genetic material that you
do not want and can not prevent from being there. The big guys will
prosecute you, or the people that run machines for separating seed
corn, for infringement with big penalties.

IMHO it is somewhere between a gross injustice and a scam.


That actually wouldn't apply to corn. Farmers have planted
hybrid seed for as long as I can remember.
Hybrid seed corn started to take hold back in the 1930s from what I
read once. A farmer friend tried to use some corn out of the bin
once. He had just a little left to plant and was too cheap to buy
seed. He said he could tell to the row where the boughten seed
ended.

I remember my dad and his neighbors would sow wheat from their own
seed. Oats, too, I think. I don't remember
if they used their own soybeans for seed.

It was on one of the TV news magazines (60 min?). Included interviews
with some farmers and a guy that had a machine to make seed corn. They
had all been sued - don't remember if it was Monsanto. The specific
crop was corn.

Well, let's see....if it was a patented seed, and he was producing
additional seed in violation of his terms of use, and as a violation of the
patent. Then why shouldn't he be sued?

If he wants to grow corn that allows him to produce his own seed stock there
are massive number of "public domain" corn stocks out there for him to use.

Scout wrote:
bud-- wrote:
Dean Hoffman wrote:
On Aug 17, 9:33 am, bud-- wrote:
The problem is if you are growing "ordinary" corn, not protected by
patents, and you want to save some seeds from your corn for the next
year. You corn crop is likely to have been 'polluted' by the pollen
from neighboring fields that grow a "patented" corn. Saving seeds
from your own corn will include patented genetic material that you
do not want and can not prevent from being there. The big guys will
prosecute you, or the people that run machines for separating seed
corn, for infringement with big penalties.

IMHO it is somewhere between a gross injustice and a scam.

That actually wouldn't apply to corn. Farmers have planted
hybrid seed for as long as I can remember.
Hybrid seed corn started to take hold back in the 1930s from what I
read once. A farmer friend tried to use some corn out of the bin
once. He had just a little left to plant and was too cheap to buy
seed. He said he could tell to the row where the boughten seed
ended.

I remember my dad and his neighbors would sow wheat from their own
seed. Oats, too, I think. I don't remember
if they used their own soybeans for seed.
It was on one of the TV news magazines (60 min?). Included interviews
with some farmers and a guy that had a machine to make seed corn. They
had all been sued - don't remember if it was Monsanto. The specific
crop was corn.

Well, let's see....if it was a patented seed, and he was producing
additional seed in violation of his terms of use, and as a violation of the
patent. Then why shouldn't he be sued?

If you read my original post, the farmers were "growing ordinary corn,
not protected by patents", and their corn was "polluted" by pollen from
neighboring corn that was patented. Some of their corn then had patented
genetic material, which they did not want, and had no way of keeping
out. That allowed the big guys to sue them for using seed corn from
their original ordinary corn. Also sued were contract companies that go
to the farm and separate seed corn from the crop.


If he wants to grow corn that allows him to produce his own seed stock there
are massive number of "public domain" corn stocks out there for him to use.

Which is what the farmers were doing. It was unwanted and uncontrollable
"pollution" from neighboring patented corn that allowed the big guys to
sue. Maybe if the farmers could sue for uncontrollable pollination from
other fields....

Would seem like "public domain" would eventually become nonexistent.