Varma reports: "Five million Brazilian farmers have taken on US-based biotech company Monsanto through a lawsuit demanding return of about 6.2 billion euros taken as royalties from them."
About 85 percent of Brazil's massive soyabean crop output is produced from genetically engineered seeds. (photo: Celsias.com)
Monsanto Loses $2 Billion Judgment to Brazilian Farmers
12 June 12
ive million Brazilian farmers have taken on US based biotech company Monsanto through a lawsuit demanding return of about 6.2 billion euros taken as royalties from them. The farmers are claiming that the powerful company has unfairly extracted these royalties from poor farmers because they were using seeds produced from crops grown from Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds, reports Merco Press.
In April this year, a judge in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, ruled in favor of the farmers and ordered Monsanto to return royalties paid since 2004 or a minimum of $2 billion. The ruling said that the business practices of seed multinational Monsanto violate the rules of the Brazilian Cultivars Act (No. 9.456/97).
Monsanto has appealed against the order and a federal court ruling on the case is now expected by 2014.
About 85% of Brazil’s massive soyabean crop output is produced from genetically engineered seeds. Brazil exports about $24.1 billion worth of soyabeans annually, more than a quarter of its total agri-exports.
Farmers say that they are using seeds produced many generations after the initial crops from the genetically modified Monsanto seeds were grown. Farmers claim that Monsanto unfairly collects exorbitant profits every year worldwide on royalties from “renewal” seed harvests. Renewal crops are those that have been planted using seed from the previous year’s harvest. Monsanto disagrees, demanding royalties from any crop generation produced from its genetically-engineered seed. Because the engineered seed is patented, Monsanto not only charges an initial royalty on the sale of the crop produced, but a continuing two per cent royalty on every subsequent crop, even if the farmer is using a later generation of seed.
The first transgenic soy seeds were illegally smuggled into Brazil from neighboring Argentina in 1998 and their use was banned and subject to prosecution until the last decade, according to the state-owned Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA).The ban has since been lifted and now 85 percent of the country’s soybean crop (25 million hectares or 62 million acres) is genetically modified, Alexandre Cattelan, an EMBRAPA researcher told Merco Press. Brazil is the world’s second largest producer and exporter of soyabean. China is one of its biggest buyers.
“Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production,” Jane Berwanger, lawyer for the farmers told the media agencies.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
 18 May 2013
|
 19 May 2013
|
 20 May 2013
|
 18 May 2013
|
 19 May 2013
|
 18 May 2013
|
 18 May 2013
|
 20 May 2013
|
 19 May 2013
|
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Down with Monsanto.
When is the US going to do something? when every seed in this country is contaminated?
And when those who need or want organic food are %$##@ out of luck?
Zipster
What part of this is related to justice? Two more years dragging this out to do what with the truth, exactly?
A skull and crossbones with a POISON label is called for on GMO. And fluoride tap water, for that matter. Cellphones, 'smart' meters..
Bravo, Brazil! Hang on in there! The Monsanto you crush today will be the world's food you save tomorrow!
DOWN WITH MONSANTO AND ALL THE REST OF THE EVIL DOERS!!!
The US farmers need to stand up to the Monsanto Menace as well. Too bad the best government money can buy won't help them.
Are you paying attention????
Hey, Barack:
See, it CAN be done! So, how about giving Eric the "green light" to go after these [and, other A**Holes]?
And, if you're REALLY paying attention, it'll also be a virtual Freebie for your re-election campaign!!!
NOTE: It was the Brazilian farmers that did this not the Brazilian politicians. It will be the people of America who make this happen not anyone in Washington.
The goal of this monstrous corp. is nothing less than global control of the food supply. It should be destroyed.
Not only has Monsanto deprived the Brazilians of their royalties, Monsanto also screwed India when it sold them rice seed that had only one growing season. Many Indians committed suicide over this.
And Monsanto was responsible in large part for the mass migration of Mexicans into this country because they also sold one-season-only corn seed into Mexico that destroyed their corn economy, put Mexico in the hands of Right-wing Conservatives and has had starving Mexican people dying in the desert trying to get into the US to work the lettuce and tomato fields for slave wages, no Social Security, no health benefits, no proper housing and all of the other laundry list of abuses that we all have come to know by rote.
Monsanto is also behind our US Patent office patenting living material; something the founders of this country strictly forbade when they set up the Patent Office, but Big Agra greased enough palms. This is a real danger. Stop and think about it; they have the right to patent human DNA. Think about that...
What boggles my mind is how any court, even faux judges with their ersatz Liberty U. etal. law degrees can hold the WIND as co-defendant with the hapless farmer. Corp.'s are not held liable for "acts of god"...unless they don't like what god did with the wind, I guess is the answer.
"Respect for the law" indeed.
Barbara,
I think you do understand how they do it. You just don't understand how they get away with doing it, and you're right; it just seems so unfair. I think it's a generational thing also. Some of us remember when things were at least FAIR to some extent. Now it just seems totally UNFAIR, everywhere one turns.
Lord Acton said that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Jefferson said that there should be a revolution every 33 years.
Our nation is really very young as nations go, and we will naturally be subject to growing pains.
The American experiment in participatory democracy has been going through a sort of 'mid-life' crisis for many years now. It sounds like we might have to scrape this 'experiment,' learn from it and start another experiment and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes. If we do repeat then we can rightfully be labeled INSANE! Insanity is defined as doing the same exact thing over and over again and expecting different results.
BTW, Monsanto does not mean anything, but it is in fact the maiden name of the founder's wife. Check out Wikipedia...kno w thy enemy!
Barbara,
I think you do understand how they do it. You just don't understand how they get away with doing it, and you're right; it just seems so unfair. I think it's a generational thing also. Some of us remember when things were at least FAIR to some extent. Now it just seems totally UNFAIR, everywhere one turns.
Lord Acton said that power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Jefferson said that there should be a revolution every 33 years.
Our nation is really very young as nations go, and we will naturally be subject to growing pains.
The American experiment in participatory democracy has been going through a sort of 'mid-life' crisis for many years now. It sounds like we might have to scrape this 'experiment,' learn from it and start another experiment and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes. If we do repeat then we can rightfully be labeled INSANE! Insanity is defined as doing the same exact thing over and over again and expeof nongmo beans or other crop by cross polination court and not takeing resposiblty when they lower the value of other people nongmo crops cting
monsanto is takeing many farmer to
I'ts basically the same as they are doing all over the world. When the pollen, from a neihboring Monsanto farm, blows across the field and cross pollinates the seeds of the small farmer, then Monsanto takes them to court for copywrite infringment and they WIN. Because the U.S. courts do nothing. One farmer tried to fight Monsanto, but when you have a barage of lawyers on hand, it is too costly for the small farmer to fight. This one farmer lost everything trying to fight them...his story is in FOOD,INC. I feel a petition needs to be developed for sending to the Justice Department demanding an investigation. GOOD FOR THE BRAZILIANS. It looks like all Governments are the same...I bet Monsanto paid off the Brazilian government so that they would lift the ban on the seeds and now look what they have started...what a mess. Our government is the same, except ours has never said a word about genetically engineered seeds, even though most Americans have petitioned against or have expressed their concerns. But I guess Monsanto has too many of our politicians in their pocket.
The fines should be far higher, at least 10 times the total amount they've gotten from the sales to make sure they stop doing it permanently. And they should be fined for corrupting the crops of farmers who didn't buy their product.
so-called intellectual property rights declared null and void!
JH Gordon
We have nothing to offer Brazil, we have spit in So America's face when it came to oil, trades. Nope I believe USA is going to learn it cannot step on everyone's feet. I hope the Farmers get Court date changed, and So America tells Monsanto where to go. Europe is already doing so. Now we must help Africa say NO before it starts....
a petition to try to oppose monsanto ,they have to be stopped somehow !
I think gmo's should be banned and Mosanto be put out of business
Still, "about 85 percent of Brazil's massive soyabean crop output is produced from genetically engineered seeds." And poisoning the world! With or without royalties...
RSS feed for comments to this post