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Dupont complains that Monsanto is running a seed market monopoly
Natural News ^ | May 23, 2010 | David Gutierrez

Posted on 05/24/2010 11:53:59 AM PDT by Eagles2003

(NaturalNews) Chemical and agricultural giant DuPont has accused rival Monsanto of maintaining a seed monopoly, in a complaint filed with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Agriculture.

"Monsanto has engaged in numerous practices that improperly seek to expand the scope of intellectual property rights at the expense of competition, innovation, and choice," the 18-page DuPont report reads.

DuPont, which owns the genetically modified seed company Pioneer Hi-Bred International, is Monsanto's main competitor in the agricultural biotech field. The two companies are already in court over a failed licensing deal.

The complaint alleges that Monsanto controls 98 percent of the U.S. market in soybeans, 79 percent of the market in corn and 60 percent of the market in patented soy and corn genetics. It accuses the company of using coercive tactics to rope farmers and seed dealers into agreements that make them dependent on its patented and expensive products.

"The ag biotech trait market is firmly in the grip of a single supplier, acting as a bottleneck to competition and choice... it also threatens the global goals for agriculture in the 21st Century doubling the world's food supply by 2050," the report reads.

Monsanto has been accused of many of the same practices by biotechnology critics, who allege that Monsanto's herbicide-resistant crops increase reliance on Monsanto chemicals and point to the company's aggressive prosecution of farmers who save and replant Monsanto seed. The company has also been known to sue farmers whose crops become genetically contaminated through cross-pollination with Monsanto-modified crops.

Although biotech critics tend to single out Monsanto as the world's largest supplier of genetically modified seed, they also level many of the same criticisms at DuPont, Bayer, and other biotech companies. Big seed companies in general have come under fire for encouraging farmers to plant expensive modern hybrids over native varieties, thus reducing seed diversity and exposing the world to a greater risk of food shortage.

The DuPont complaint comes ahead of five planned Department of Justice and Agriculture hearings into concerns about competition and monopoly in the agricultural marketing sector.


TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Delaware; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: economy; foodsupply; monsanto
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1 posted on 05/24/2010 11:53:59 AM PDT by Eagles2003
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To: Eagles2003

Ag sector is reaching for their checkbooks now.


2 posted on 05/24/2010 11:56:14 AM PDT by griswold3
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To: Eagles2003; Eagles6

Just found this one, Monsanto’s problems are only starting.

They are also the a**clowns who dropped aspartame on the market. Turns into formaldehyde in the bloodstream.

I hope they haven’t doomed the food supply for years. Yields are already down.


3 posted on 05/24/2010 11:57:37 AM PDT by Eagles2003
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To: Eagles2003

Seems only fair , Dupont spinners have had no real competition for fishing in years .

4 posted on 05/24/2010 12:00:04 PM PDT by kbennkc (For those who have fought for it , freedom has a flavor the protected will never know F Trp 8th Cav)
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To: Eagles2003

Dupont demanding the R&D of its competitors?

Never forgave dupont for the freon debacle.


5 posted on 05/24/2010 12:00:21 PM PDT by edcoil (I cannot fix stupid.)
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To: Eagles2003

I’m sure, like all enormo-conglomerates, they only have our best interests at heart.


6 posted on 05/24/2010 12:01:10 PM PDT by Wolfie
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: Eagles2003
I think the solution is obvious --

We must give the federal government sole control of all food production. It is unseemly for any corporation to make profits from something as essential as food.

8 posted on 05/24/2010 12:03:52 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Eagles2003

Monsanto is worse than the mafia or the Federal government - they should be prosecuted for RICO.

The fundamental problem is with their product - patented seed. It spreads and crosspollinates with other farms using non-Monsanto seed - Monsanto then sues the farmers for “infringement” even though it’s the Monsanto stock that is tainting the other feedstocks.

Two things happen when Monsanto attacks these farmers 1) the farmer decides to fight it and loses everything as the court process is in essence a piling up of legal bills until someone goes broke, or 2) the farmer decides to settle by going out of business, paying excessive settlement charges, and/or they convert to Monsanto customers.

It’s an ugly group and an ugly business more worthy of a third-world state that the USA.


9 posted on 05/24/2010 12:05:10 PM PDT by sbMKE
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To: Eagles2003

this very issue is handled in Food Inc (the movie) - fascinating issue with cross pollination -i would think that if the farmer can prove he planted an open pollinated variety and not a crossed monsanto product, his ability to deflect this nonsense should be assured

as for reusing monsanto seed - thats just asking for problems


10 posted on 05/24/2010 12:05:52 PM PDT by Revelation 911 (How many 100's of 1000's of our servicemen died so we would never bow to a king?" -freeper pnh102)
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To: edcoil

R-12 freon is heavier than air. I falls to the ground and dissipates in 2-3 days.

What are you talking about? EPA mandated switching to the newer less efficient R-432?

R-12 worked just fine. So did Kevlar and it’s superior Spectra from the old Allied Corp.


11 posted on 05/24/2010 12:06:04 PM PDT by Eagles2003
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To: Eagles2003

Monsanto wound up selling off aspartame to another company a few years ago. They’d be suing that company now, not Monsanto.

You can sprinkle aspartame on top of an ant hill and it will kill off that colony. That’s what it was originally destined for, the scientist who worked on it originally was trying to develop a better insect killer. As a neurotoxin, it works.


12 posted on 05/24/2010 12:06:10 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Eagles2003

so I guess those Survival Seed Bank people were on to something?


13 posted on 05/24/2010 12:06:58 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: edcoil

Dupont demanding the R&D of its competitors?

Now that you mention it, this is a bit like watching Godzilla vs. Mothra. Hard to know who to root for.


14 posted on 05/24/2010 12:07:55 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: sbMKE; Revelation 911

I’ve been catching those videos as well and they are scarier than the impersonator in the WH.

And more and more often people are “speculating” the bee problem is tied to the Monsanto soy crop.


15 posted on 05/24/2010 12:08:49 PM PDT by Eagles2003
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To: Eagles2003

Yes, they do have a monopoly.

They knew these gmo crops would wind up cross-pollinating other farmers’ crops naturally via air and insect. They would test nearby farms they knew weren’t using their seeds (basically using their own seeds from existing crops) and when they found evidence of it, they started lawsuits against those farms for ‘stealing’ monsanto’s seed. They have forced farmers to take their stuff. They are brutal.


16 posted on 05/24/2010 12:09:31 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

mine are in a secret vault in the Arctic Circle.


17 posted on 05/24/2010 12:10:05 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB ("The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants"-Albert Camus)
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To: Eagles2003

I wouldn’t just put it at monsanto, but it could be on more than one kind of gmo crop or flower.


18 posted on 05/24/2010 12:10:17 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: Eagles2003

How can a green company complain?

I visted Wilmington Deleware last year and passed by some DuPont facilities.

One had a wind turbine( not turning) and another had a bank of solar collector panels. DuPont is a hypocritical green wannabe.

Let em bitch and moan.


19 posted on 05/24/2010 12:10:24 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Ostracize Democrats. There can be no Democrat friends.)
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To: Revelation 911

“as for reusing monsanto seed - thats just asking for problems.”

What do they mean by “reusing seed”? Leftovers from last year? How can that be wrong?


20 posted on 05/24/2010 12:10:31 PM PDT by Pessimist
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