North Carolina Tar Heels

[hedge]

Yeah, there are a few of them. They tend to stick to the grain-specific ones when it comes to seed piracy, although they will hit up a regional mag in the perp's region that is about farming in general...

[hedge]

This guy wasn't busted for seed piracy, but this is the type of picture they run when they do bust somebody, with the caption "John Brown agrees to pay fine, apologizes to Monsanto"...

[eCat]

Yeah, there are a few of them. They tend to stick to the grain-specific ones when it comes to seed piracy, although they will hit up a regional mag in the perp's region that is about farming in general...

I guess farmers are mostly an honest lot and that works.

[hedge]

"I guess farmers are mostly an honest lot "

It's a mixed bag...

[eCat]

knowing what I know about Monsanto, I figured they'd run a picture like this

[AlabamAlum]

So, farmers cannot use the seeds from the produce that they grew from bought seeds? I did not know that.

[hedge]

Most farmers love Monsanto. They develop seeds that produce higher yields and plants that are resistant to poison, so instead of having to plow the field 10 times to get rid of weeds, you just scorch the whole field a couple of times with Roundup (made by Monsanto! What a coincidence!) and everything dies except the plant you are going to harvest. Yeah, it fucks up the planet, but if the farmers can squeeze out an extra $5000, they don't give a shit. And Monsanto certainly doesn't give a shit...

[hedge]

"So, farmers cannot use the seeds from the produce that they grew from bought seeds? I did not know that."

Not if they are using patented seeds, like, e.g., Roundup ready soybeans. Not until the patent runs out. But if it's not a patented seed, you can do whatever you want with what you produce...

[AlabamAlum]

I never knew there were patents on any seeds. Interesting.

[eCat]

every time you eat organic, its like giving Monsanto the finger

[hedge]

"I never knew there were patents on any seeds. Interesting."

GMO (genetically modified) seed/food is a huge business. Those guys aren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts...

[AlabamAlum]

Yes, I'm sure. I just wrongly assumed that they would profit from the original sale and not generations later. It makes sense. It's just 'seed piracy' isn't something I was aware of.

[aTm]

It's like software, you license one crop. They just haven't figured out a way to get the next generation of seeds not to germinate until you enter the new serial number.

[hedge]

Most animals are also GMO. These days there's no genetic difference in 95% of the pork, chicken or turkey you buy. They can time it almost to hour exactly when a pig or chicken will be a certain size and weight. It's an ugly business, really. It's good to have cold, mathematical efficiencies when you're making cars or machinery or whatever, and I guess it's just natural that people would apply the same thinking to farming animals, but it just feels wrong...

[hedge]

"I just wrongly assumed that they would profit from the original sale and not generations later."

Nope, it's more like a pharmaceutical patent...

[AlabamAlum]

There is no chick or piglet piracy on the offspring of a GMO chicken or pig, though, I would assume.

[hedge]

There's no piracy b/c you have to buy the chicks and piglets from the man. Smithfield and Perdue control the growing and sale of all the product. They have farmers contracted to grow the piglets and chicks, then they ship them to other farmers who grow them up to harvest weight, then they come pick them up and ship them to their own slaughterhouses. They also provide the all the feed. The farmer provides the growing houses and the labor (mostly mexican). I guess they provide the water, too, but I'm sure Perdue and Smithfield would love to figure out a way to charge for that, too...

[AlabamAlum]

So, you buy the chick and piglet, let them grow up and produce their own offspring. Or is that illegal?

[hedge]

Hardly any farmers grow their own animals, the only ones who do are in extreme niche markets like organic or grass fed/pasture raised or free range. But 98% of the animals are owned by Smithfield or Perdue, from the minute they are born until it hits the meat section in the grocery store. Completely vertical integration. The farmers are merely contracted to perform certain duties, they don't own the animals. Used to be that pretty much every farmer raised a few pigs and chickens (and therefor there was alot of genetic variety) and they marketed them the same as all their other crops. Those days are gone. Every pig and chicken now is virtually a genetic twin of every other one, bred to produce the most meat (and in the case of chickens and turkeys, the most breast meat, b/c that's what people want to eat) in the shortest amount of time. Again, it's an ugly business, but nobody cares. All they care about is big ass chicken breast and the tenderest of pork cutlets. Somebody from the 1800's would barely recognize the flavor of pork or chicken of today. Same with most food crops. There used to be lots of genetic variety, which today we refer to as "heirloom", now it's all about what will grow the biggest and fastest and be resistant to disease...

[hedge]

"So, you buy the chick and piglet, let them grow up and produce their own offspring. Or is that illegal?"

If you're growing them for somebody, it's illegal. They are not your animals, you are working for somebody else. If you buy them and put them out in a pasture, you can do whatever you want, but hardly anybody does that. The housing that they're in when you are contract growing doesn't allow for breeding. It's just for growing them as quickly as possible. It's more profitable for the farmer to do it that way. Perdue and Smithfield got that shit figured out...