New York State legislators pass bill to protect farmers from biotech industry lawsuits
- By David Gutierrez - March 14, 2015
On February 11, the New York State Assembly passed a bill that would protect farmers from being sued by biotechnology companies in the case of genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified organisms (GMO) crops accidentally growing in their fields.
In contrast with conventionally bred crops, GE crops are typically held under a patent which prohibits anyone from planting them without the express permission of the patent-holding company. They are also usually sold with a license that prohibits saving seeds for re-planting. Instead, the seeds must be re-purchased each year.
On many occasions, biotech companies have sued farmers for planting GE crops without the appropriate license. Yet, in many such cases, the farmers claimed that their fields were naturally colonized by the GE crops via normal seed dispersal mechanisms. Farmers have also expressed concern that they could be sued in the event of natural cross-pollination between their fields and those of GE crops.
"If passed by the state Senate, the law would protect such farmers against frivolous lawsuits", New York Assemblyman Tom Abinati said. He especially noted the importance of protecting organic farmers, who might lose their certification if their fields are contaminated with GE, or genetically modified organisms (GMO) strains.
Supreme Court rules for biotech giants
The New York Assembly's action comes in light of a January 2014 Supreme Court ruling upholding the rights of biotech companies to pursue such lawsuits. Originally, more than 80 plaintiffs, including the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA), had sought to stop biotech giant Monsanto from suing anyone whose field is unintentionally contaminated by the company's GE seeds.
In June 2013, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC, dismissed the lawsuit. Although the court agreed that it was inevitable that some fields would be unintentionally contaminated by Monsanto's products, it trusted the company's promise not to sue in such cases.
They came to this conclusion, "because Monsanto has made binding assurances that it will not 'take legal action against growers whose crops might inadvertently contain traces of Monsanto biotech genes (because, for example, some transgenic seed or pollen blew onto the grower's land),'" the 2013 decision read. The 2014 Supreme Court decision upheld this ruling.
Monsanto has already filed more than 140 lawsuits alleging planting of its patented seeds without permission and settled another 700 cases. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were concerned that Monsanto's promise not to sue over "inadvertent" contamination was not strong enough.
"The Supreme Court failed to grasp the extreme predicament family farmers find themselves in," said Jim Gerritsen, an organic seed farmer and president of OSGATA. "The Court of Appeals agreed our case had merit. However... safeguards they ordered are insufficient to protect our farms and our families."
"Monsanto has effectively gotten away with stealing the world's seed heritage and abusing farmers for the flawed nature of their patented seed technology," said Dave Murphy, executive director of Food Democracy Now! "This is an outrage of historic proportions and will not stand."
Farmers left without protection
Because of the Supreme Court decision, farmers remain concerned that, at any time, Monsanto -- or another biotech company that has not made any promises -- could change course and begin suing farmers
In such a case, farmers would have no legal protection. The New York bill is designed to prevent such scenarios.
"If Monsanto can patent seeds for financial gain, they should be forced to pay for contaminating a farmer's field, not be allowed to sue them," Murphy said in response to the Supreme Court decision. "Once again, America's farmers have been denied justice, while Monsanto's reign of intimidation is allowed to continue in rural America."
A bill requiring the labeling of GE foods is also pending in the legislature.
Sources for this article include:
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FCC Rules Designed to Stifle Internet Political Speech
Net neutrality is a classic Trojan horse
by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com | March 13, 2015
On Thursday the Federal Communications Commission made public a document detailing its so-called net neutrality rules that were approved two weeks ago on a 3-2 vote.
A PDF version of the document can be downloaded here.
The rules impose heavy regulations on what is currently a free and open internet and will ultimately result in federal government micromanagement.
The rules will also accelerate and finalize a long term government objective of censoring political enemies and limiting their use of the internet. Serious political opposition to the establishment has flourished on the internet and the federal government has stumbled in previous efforts to regulate speech its considers politically threatening.
Control of the internet is the primary motivation behind the FCC rule-making agenda, not net neutrality and the fallacious call to regulate corporations and enforce the principle that all data is equal.
This was made clear by opponents to the FCC report and order on remand.
“Americans love the free and open Internet. We relish our freedom to speak, to post, to rally, to learn, to listen, to watch, and to connect online. The Internet has become a powerful force for freedom, both at home and abroad. So it is sad to witness the FCC’s unprecedented attempt to replace that freedom with government control,” writes FCC commissioner Ajit Pai.
The desire to assert that control became obvious in February, 2014, when the FCC terminated a study that threatened the First Amendment right to freedom of the press. The study on “critical information needs” would have asked journalists about their “news philosophy” and raised the specter of an underhanded attempt to revive the Fairness Doctrine.
“The Commission’s decision to adopt President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet. It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works. It’s an overreach that will let a Washington bureaucracy, and not the American people, decide the future of the online world,” Pai continues.
“Let’s leave the power where it belongs — with the American people. When it comes to Americans’ ability to access online content or offer political speech online, there isn’t anything broken for the government to ‘fix,’” Pai wrote in a Politico op-ed in February.
“It is difficult to imagine where we would be today had the government micromanaged the Internet for the past two decades as it does Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service. Neither of us wants to find out where the Internet will be two decades from now if the federal government tightens its regulatory grip. We don’t need to shift control of the Internet to bureaucracies in Washington.”
Concerted Effort to Neutralize Political Speech on the Internet
The entire rubric of cyberespionage and cybersecurity is designed for state control over the individual, not for protection from Anonymous and hackers in China or Russia.
“Some argue that heightened surveillance, restrictions on Internet freedom and even censorship are necessary to protect intellectual property rights, prevent cyberespionage, fight child pornography, and protect national interests such as nuclear power plants from hackers,” Fox News noted last February.
“Consequently, lawmakers — even President Obama in his State of the Union address — have been motivated to take steps to stem the hacking tide. However, the road to better security could also stifle free speech.”
In fact, the drastically overblown and often fictional threat of cyber security is engineered specifically to curtail speech, not harm from child pornographers but from political opposition to the state.
Recently refurbished cyber security legislation, having failed to become law in the recent past, is now being dusted off in congressional committees. Once enacted, cybersecurity measures will run concurrent to FCC rules and will impose a matrix of control over the internet.
The FCC and the corporate media continue to prortray the latest effort to regulate the internet as a win for the little guy, when in fact regulation will not diminish corporate control of the internet.
As Infowars.com noted in February:
Obama and the federal government have bent over backwards to portray net neutrality as a win for the little guy. In fact, despite all the siren warnings about socialism and the FCC by Obama’s opponents, the agency is in the pocket of the telecommunications industry and always has been.
Its current appointed boss, Tom Wheeler, is a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, with positions including President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
“Net neutrality is a classic Trojan horse,” I argued. “It will be used not only to censor speech and marginalize opposition to the political class, but will also deliver the internet to large and forever consolidating media corporations.”
As the NSA and the behavior of corporations in league with the intelligence community reveals, the internet will, after the FCC rules take hold and cybersecurity laws are implemented, finally be sanitized of meaningful political opposition and, as well, serve as a surveillance platform and a tool for corporate advertisers to categorize and target individuals.
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Bill H.R.2466 - Iran Freedom and Democracy Support Act
Introduced in House - 108th Congress (2003-2004)
| Sponsor: | Rep. Sherman, Brad [D-CA-27] (Introduced 06/12/2003) |
|---|---|
| Committees: | House - International Relations; Ways and Means |
| Latest Action: | 06/19/2003 Referred to the Subcommittee on Trade. |
Introduced in House (06/12/2003)
Iran Freedom and Democracy Support Act - Declares it to be U.S. policy to: (1) support democracy and freedom in Iran; (2) support an internationally-monitored referendum by which the Iranian people can peacefully change the system of government in Iran; and (3) help the Iranian people achieve a free press and a free, democratic society.
Directs the Broadcasting Board of Governors to: (1) require the head of Radio Farda to develop programming in consultation with Iranian exiles who support such a referendum and with the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the Department of State; and (2) ensure that a significant percentage of Radio Farda programming discusses democratic change in Iran.
Requires the MEPI and ECA to provide grants for the translation and distribution of materials on democracy for the Iranian people.
Authorizes the MEPI and ECA to award grants to fund programs and activities to promote a democratic referendum in Iran.
Prohibits the importation of any textile or food article from Iran until the President certifies that Iran has shown substantial progress in respecting human rights, ceased its support for international terrorism, and terminated its nuclear weapons program.
Authorizes the reduction in amounts available for U.S. contributions to international financial institutions that provide assistance to Iran in an amount equal to such assistance, and the reallocation of such contributions to the U.S. Agency for International Development for child survival and HIV/AIDS programs, until the President provides the certification referenced above.
Requires the President to report to Congress on the presence of Al-Qaeda elements in Iran.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-bill/2466/all-info
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