The Original How-to Magazine of Alternative and Traditional Crops, Livestock, and Direct Marketing—Established 1984
Editorials...
From the Ridge:
Mar/Apr 2008: Water, Water...
Jan/Feb 2008: Keeping the Fire Going
Sep/Dec 2007: A Look Back, and Moving On
Jul/Oct 2007: The Truth: An Irate Editorial
May/Jun 2007: Carbon Credits
Mar/Apr 2007: A New Year
Jul-Oct 2006: Say No to NAIS
May/Jun 2006: Planning Ahead
Jan/Feb 2006: Reading This Magazine
Nov/Dec 2005: Show Lessons
Sep/Oct 2005: A Farm by any Other Name...
Jul/Aug 2005: Poor Planning: Patenting Life and Preemptive Laws
May/Jun 2005: The Best Show in the Country
Mar/Apr 2005: Our Connection to the Earth
Jan/Feb 2005: Pricing Your Product
Nov/Dec 2004: Better Than Ever
Sep/Oct 2004: A Risky Business
Jul/Aug 2004: Sustainable Ag in Danger in Missouri
May/Jun 2004: Spring Renewal
Mar/Apr 2004: A Mostly Happy Anniversary to Us
Jan/Feb 2004: What Are Your Plans?
Nov/Dec 2003: Ramblings From the Ridge
Sep/Oct 2003: Some Risks You Have to Take
Jul/Aug 2003: Problems with the Farm Problem—Technology is Not the Answer
May/Jun 2003: Planning for the Show
Mar/Apr 2003: Old Breeds and Old Seeds
Jan/Feb 2003: A New Year, A New Cycle
Dec 2002: Start Planning Now! The New Year Brings New Opportunities!
Sep/Oct/Nov 2002: The Show is Here! Ten Years and Still Growing!
Jul/Aug 2002: Saving Seeds Makes Your Farm More Sustainable
May/Jun 2002: 10,000 for the 10th Show
Mar/Apr 2002: Biotechnology is NOT Saving the World
Jan/Feb 2002: Farm Numbers Dwindling? They Don't Have To.
Nov/Dec 2001: The Farm Program. Yes or No? or Why?
Sep/Oct 2001: Nothing is Inevitable
Jul/Aug 2001: A Problem With Soybeans
May/Jun 2001: Changes in Current Farming (and an apology)
Mar/Apr 2001: Trade Show Talk
Jan/Feb 2001: Changing Our Thinking
Nov/Dec 2000: Good Life, Good Money
Sep/Oct 2000: The GM Blues
Jul/Aug 2000: Eurofarming
May/Jun 2000: Doom and Gloom and Optimism
Mar/Apr 2000: Opportunity Knocks
Jan/Feb 2000: 2000 and Beyond
Oct/Nov/Dec 1999: Choosing the Right Solutions
Aug/Sep 1999: Attitude for Success
Jun/Jul 1999: Sex in the Field–and in the Laboratory
Apr/May 1999: The More Things Change...
Feb/Mar 1999: Protecting the Future
Contents:
Home
About Us
Content / Subscriptions
Country Store Books™
Books / Back Issues
Advertising
Writers’ Guidelines
For the Farm
(new and used products
for your farm)
Calendar
Online Resources (links)
16th National Small Farm
Trade Show & Conference™
November 6-8, 2008
• Schedule of Events
• Audio tapes from past seminars & short courses
about Small Farm Today
3903 W Ridge Trail Rd
Clark MO 65243-9525
573-687-3525
(call for fax number)
800-633-2535
smallfarm@socket.net
www.smallfarmtoday.com
Rebecca DeCourley
ChaosDesignArt
Feedback on our web site
The GM Blues
Editorial from the September/October 2000 issue of Small Farm Today® magazine.
The Gene battles, or should I say, the Total Control battles, continue.
Monsanto, now a division of Pharmacia, has decided that the $5 billion crop seed market is not as good as the $10 billion grass seed market. Scotts Company, Rutgers University, and Monsanto hope to develop herbicide-tolerant grass strains that can withstand Monsanto weedkiller Roundup® (see "GMO Update" in About Agriculture for more details). They are also interested in developing a genetically-modified (GM) slow-growing grass.
Britain's top gardening writers are speaking out against GM crops, noting that cross-pollination from these crops pose a grave threat to garden plants like rose and carnations. They say that GM grass seeds will also prove destructive. I am sure farmers will love to have pollen from a nearby Monsanto/Scott grass golf course spreading over their farms, turning the grass weeds in their crops into Roundup-Ready® weeds. Or maybe pollen from the "mow-me-less" grass could help the grasses in their pasture grow more slowly. Fortunately, Monsanto/Scott may be able to solve these problems by incorporating some sort of Terminator gene into their GM grass, so it will merely prevent all your grasses from putting out seed. What a bright future is ahead!
To add insult to injury, the Rural Advancement Foundation International reports that Canadian courts have ruled that mammals can be a patented invention (the U.S. courts had already made this ruling many years ago). The decision marks another point in a 15-year battle with Harvard Medical School for the oncomouse–a mouse genetically engineered to carry a cancer-causing gene. The trial judge in an earlier decision has argued that although Harvard had invented a process for inserting a gene into a mouse, "they have not invented the mouse."
Previously, Canada had granted patents on single-cell life forms, including human cell lines, but not multicellular ones. The new patent extends to all non-human mammals, from a shrew to a whale. Presumably, any non-human life form can now be patented.
The question is, if they have already approved patenting human single cells, and now they have approved multicellular nonhuman life forms, will patenting of humans be next? The Canadian and U.S. courts have been careful to exclude this direction, but is the next domino in the chain. Crazy, you say? Let's look at GM companies' track records on ethics and safety. What is to stop them?
A more immediate danger, however, is corporate control of resources. Although the oncomouse patent is owned by Harvard Medical School, an earlier commercialization arrangement leaves DuPont, an international Gene Giant, as holder of the exclusive license on the patent. DuPont has claimed patent protection on any anticancer product ever derived from the oncomice.
As more and more patents are granted, Corporate America and Corporate World will gain more and more control over our livestock–the same control they are gaining over the plant world. Farmers who breed livestock will have to pay a royalty on any resulting offspring. They might be able to avoid this royalty, though, by working as contact laborers, breeding company-owned patented livestock for the company packers to sell in the company stores to the company employees. Maybe the companies will not have to patent humans–in a few years they may own them anyway.
Corporate and government decisions have far-reaching implications in our daily lives. Although individual decisions may sound rational the sum is that Corporate America is one step away from taking total and absolute control of what you eat, who you are, and how our society behaves.
It is not too late. Write your legislators; let them know your concerns. A society determines what its own laws are–make sure you are helping to shape yours. You have the chance to determine what you vote on and the right to vote. That right gives you the freedom–and the responsibility–to bring about change.
Happy and Profitable Farming,
Ron Macher
Publisher/Farmer