I know, I’ve been citing the likes of Democracy Now! a lot here recently, I haven’t had much time as of late to consume much of anything else, and what I’m about to draw attention to is hardly the exception. On today’s broadcast Amy spoke with a Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, a Right Livelihood Award Laureate, and an individual “who has battled the biotech giant Monsanto for years.” Monsanto accused Mr. Schmeiser of illegally planting their seeds, after they blew onto his property and pollinated with his crops. And they took him to court, more than once, over it, too.
As outrageous as I, personally, think this is — a Corporation holding any individual responsible for something that is well out of the realm of anyone’s control, all while destroying 50 years of a Farmer’s life’s work, yet managing to avoid, themselves, being held responsible — it was the end piece of their talk that most caught my attention;
I think that we feel that we have to stand up for the rights of farmers around the world. All my life I’ve been in agriculture and worked for agricultural policies and laws. And we feel that a farmer should never, ever lose the rights to his seeds or plants [referencing Terminator Seeds], because if we do, we’re going to be back to a serf system, we’re going to be back to a feudal system, that our forefathers, our grandfathers, left countries in Europe many years ago to get away from. Now, in less than — or 100 years, we’ve come full circle, where the control is not by kings or lords or barons, but now it’s corporations…
It wasn’t so much the words he spoke or their meaning, Corporate Power is probably the greatest threat we face as a planet, but rather it was the context he so neatly provided his argument. I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry about being so sad.
For it is the expectation of Corporations, in a system such as ours, to continue to draw profits by any and all means necessary. The pot on which we have to draw our “sustenance” is quickly emptying. We can’t escape it. We won’t escape it…