Monsanto Responds to Organic Lawsuit

Cindy Zimmerman

Monsanto is facing a legal challenge from organic farmers over genetically modified seed.

monsantoThe Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed suit this week on behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, against Monsanto Company as a preemptive measure “to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.”

“This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto’s transgenic seed should land on their property,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. “It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients.”

Monsanto calls the organization’s allegations “false, misleading and deceptive.”

The plaintiffs’ approach is a publicity stunt designed to confuse the facts about American agriculture. These efforts seek to reduce private and public investment in the development of new higher-yielding seed technologies. This attack comes at a time when the world needs every agricultural tool available to meet the needs of a growing population, expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. While we respect the opinion of organic farmers as it relates to the products they choose to grow, we don’t believe that American agriculture faces an all-or-nothing approach. Rather we believe that farmers should have the ability to choose the best agricultural tools to farm their own land and serve their own end-market customers. We are confident that these multiple approaches can coexist side-by-side and sustainably meet the world’s food needs over next 40 years.

Biotech, Organic, Seed

First Certified Biobased Labels Announced

Chuck Zimmerman

The United Soybean Board held a Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Workshop today at Hoover, Inc. Our featured speaker was Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan who announced the first 11 companies whose products have been certified to feature USDA’s new BioPreferred Label. “The USDA BioPreferred label assures the consumer that a product or package contains a verified amount of renewable biological ingredients.” You can hear her comments below as well as a short interview I conducted with her.

We also had soybean farmer representatives with us as well as representatives from a variety of companies that are now certified or working on it. I’ll be posting interviews with them later on.

One of the reasons this event was held in Ohio was the fact that three of the eleven companies are based here. Companies receiving the certification include:

Nutek Green, a division of Hoover, Inc., (Glenwillow, Ohio); Seventh Generation (Burlington, Vermont); Betco Corp. (Toledo, Ohio); Clear Lam Packaging, Inc. (Elk Grove Village, Illinois); DuPont Corporation (Wilmington, Delaware); ElastiKote (Akron, Ohio); Green Earth Technologies (Celebration, Florida); National Industries for the Blind Agencies (Lighthouse for the Blind, St. Louis, Missouri and Travis Association for the Blind, Austin, Texas); NatureWorks LLC (Minnetonka, Minnesota); Rochester Midland Corporation (Rochester, New York); Bio-Lub Canada (Quebec, Canada).

Deputy Ag Secretary Merrigan told us, “When consumers see the BioPreferred label in a store, they’ll know that the product or its packaging is made from renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials.” She also told me how happy she was that this program will help our farmers since it will continue to open up and develop new markets for their commodities.

You can listen to or download her comments here: Dep. Ag Secretary Merrigan's Remarks

You can listen to or download my interview with her here: Interview with Dep. Ag Secretary Merrigan

You can find photos from the event here: USB Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, USB, USDA

BASF Weeds to Watch Reports on Brownfield

Cindy Zimmerman

BASF has some new resources for farmers this growing season for weed resistance management.

basf kixorOne is the Kixor Weed Resistance Management Guide that offers growers strategies for managing glyphosate resistant weeds as well as information about the benefits of using Kixor as a burndown and/or residual herbicide to fight resistance.

In addition, growers can tune into their local Brownfield Network affiliate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week to hear a localized report on the spread of weed resistance throughout the season. The “Weeds to Watch” Farm Report will feature weed scientists from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska and provide an “eye in the sky” report of weeds growers are dealing with and tips for managing the problem.

BASF

USB Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop

Chuck Zimmerman

Hello from “I wish it was warm and sunny” Cleveland, OH. Today the United Soybean Board is holding a Biobased Stakeholders’ Workshop and I’m on the scene to capture it in photos and interviews. I’m primarily posting onto the USB Biobased Solutions Blog and will also post some items here.

This morning we’ll have Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan with us. She will announce the first 11 companies to receive USDA’s Certified Biobased Product label including several soy products. Deputy Merrigan will then try-out some of these certified products.

We’ll also have USB Director Dale Profit talk about what Biopreferred products mean for his farming operation and representatives from companies receiving the biobased label will discuss their newly certified products.

So, we’re on location at Hoover, Inc. Yes, that’s the vacuum cleaner company. It’s very interesting seeing some of the original advertising for their products. The company is now much larger and diversified and we’ll learn more about that during a morning tour with the Deputy Secretary.

Soybean, USB

Putting Down Roots

Melissa Sandfort

These are my beloved pepper seeds. They represent more than just the possibility of having salsa at the end of this growing season. For a couple of weeks now, I have kept them in paper towels and each day, made sure they had adequate moisture. In response, they sprouted roots. This weekend, we put 30 seeds in soil, hoping to have thriving vines to transplant into our garden once any threat of cold weather is gone.

These seeds represent a sort of emotional connection I feel to being “back home.” I’ve put down roots, and continue to feed that relationship with a community and family that have given so much to me. The people around me gave me a firm foundation – the beginning of a good root system – and continued to feed and sustain me over the years, no matter how many miles were between us.

Planting a garden this year represents the fact that I’m staying here for good, and oh it feels wonderful to take root where I belong.

I know. They’re just seeds.

Until we walk again …

Uncategorized

USDA Releases 2011 Prospective Plantings Report

Cindy Zimmerman

USDAUSDA expects more corn, wheat and cotton to be planted this year, but slightly less soybeans, according to the Prospective Plantings report released this morning.

Corn growers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn for all purposes this year, up 5 percent from last year and 7 percent higher than in 2009. If realized, this will be the second highest planted acreage in the United States since 1944, behind only the 93.5 million acres planted in 2007. Soybean planted area for 2011 is estimated at 76.6 million acres, down 1 percent from last year. If realized, the United States planted area will be the third largest on record. All wheat planted area is estimated at 58.0 million acres, up 8 percent from last year. All cotton plantings for 2011 are expected to total 12.6 million acres, 15 percent above last year.

Read the whole report here.

*POST UPDATE*
Listen to commentary about the report from Brian Hoops on Midwest Market Solutions who participated in this morning’s Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) Crop Report Conference Call.

MGEX Commentary with Brian Hoops
Audio, Corn, Cotton, Soybean, USDA, Wheat

Join us at InfoAg 2011

Melissa Sandfort

InfoAg 2009 was a terrific success. Over 650 participants shared in presentations on a wide range of topics on technology applications and data management and interpretation. As with previous InfoAg Conferences, the networking among participants was again a highlight of the experience. New relationships formed at InfoAg will lead to greater benefits and opportunities for those involved.

InfoAg 2011 will be held July 12-14 in Springfield, Ill.

Coverage of the event will be sponsored by Ag Leader.

Ag Leader, Events

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • AdFarm has hired Brandon Souza, an individual with a strong background in California agriculture and communications, to enhance the company’s credentials in its Sacramento office.
  • CRYSTALYX has launched their newly designed, reorganized website.
  • With the current issue, Drovers becomes Drovers/CattleNetwork.
  • Blount International, Inc., announced that David A. Willmott has been elected to the newly created position of President and Chief Operating Officer.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Japan Disaster May Benefit U.S. Exports

    Chuck Zimmerman

    The earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan has repercussions in a variety of industries. Agriculture is no exception. Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “How will Japan disaster affect US exports?” 61% said it will increase exports while 23% said decrease and 17% said no impact. So how has this disaster affected agriculture in Japan? You can learn more in this week’s ZimmCast.

    It’s mid term for the current administration in Washington, so we thought it would be interesting to get your take on how you think our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is doing. Here’s your chance to grade him. The new poll is now live and asks the question, “What mid-term grade would you give Ag Sec. Tom Vilsack?” Let us know what you think and thank you for participating.

    ZimmPoll is sponsored by Rhea+Kaiser, a full-service advertising/public relations agency.

    ZimmPoll

    Corn Growers Challenge Nestle Exec Comments

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has taken issue with comments made last week by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the billionaire chairman of Nestle, during a “CEO Speaker Series” moderated by Time editor Michael J. Elliott at the Council on Foreign Relations.

    It’s an interesting conversation in which Brabeck-Letmathe comes off as insufferably arrogant, discussing how he and a bunch of other wealthy do-gooders like Charles Schwab, Angelina Jolie, Sharon Stone and Bono gathered for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to decide how they are going to “give back to society.” After spouting a bunch of philanthropic gobbledy-gook he gets to the issue of child labor, something Nestle has faced criticism about. Brabeck-Letmathe calls it a “very bad issue” which is “not very easy to tackle.” In fact, he calls it “almost natural” and “almost impossible” to stop.

    While Brabeck-Letmathe considers child labor on African cocoa plantations “natural,” he calls the biofuels policy of Europe and the United States “immoral.” He says that biofuels policy is using too much water and driving food prices up. “I think it is absolutely immoral to push hundreds of million(s) of people into hunger, into extreme poverty because of such a policy,” he stated. “And therefore I think — I insist no food for fuel.”

    Needless to say, corn growers were not pleased with those remarks. “Perhaps if Nestle is so concerned about food prices, its board will consider putting more of their $35.7 billion in 2010 profits back into poor communities,” said NCGA President Bart Schott. “Just their profits alone represent more than half the entire farm value of the 2010 U.S. corn crop.”

    In an interview with Chuck at the St. Louis Agribusiness Club meeting on Monday, NCGA CEO Rick Tolman called Brabeck-Letmathe that “crazy guy who’s chairman of Nestle” who got headlines by saying that biofuels are killing people. “Now he has no facts to back it up and the facts don’t support what he says, but that gets headlines,” Rick said.

    Rick noted that he just recently returned from a trip to South Africa where they have a 200 million bushel surplus of corn. “We had much higher levels of poverty and starvation between 2000 and 2005 when we had $2 corn and we were accused then of driving farmers off their farms because our prices were too low,” he said.

    You can listen to or download the interview with Rick here: NCGA's Rick Tolman

    Audio, Corn, Ethanol, Food