Occupy vs. Monsanto: Activists, Farmers Fight the Corporation They Fear Will Take Over All America's Crops

Monsanto, if you will, is the 1 percent of Big Agriculture--the scourge of small farmers everywhere. But now those farmers are fighting back, backed by activists from Occupy Wall Street.

First, some history. In 1982, Monsanto scientists were the first to genetically modify a plant cell. Three years later, the US Patent Office ruled that plants were a patentable subject matter. 

By 1985, Monsanto had already become a corporate giant by creating RoundUp, the most popular herbicide in the world. Now that it had the legal protection of seed patents in addition to the biotechnology to genetically manipulate its seeds, Monsanto scientists engineered a specific brand of Monsanto seeds that were RoundUp-resistant—unlike organic, natural seeds, these seeds are sterile and have to be re-planted each year, ensuring that customers return year after year to replenish their supply.  

In order to achieve a monopoly over the market, and keep farmers from saving their own seed as they have done for centuries, Monsanto begin to purchase as many seeds as possible—spending $8 billion and acquiring over 20 seed companies over the past decade alone. Today, Monsanto controls 93 percent of soybean crops, 86 percent of corn crops, 93 percent of cotton crops, and 93 percent of canola seed crops in the United States alone. 

Monsanto is far from finished. To continue its corporate monopoly and push more seeds off the market, Monsanto specifically targets organic farmers, often testing their crops without permission. If the crops are resistant to RoundUp, Monsanto’s signature pesticide, Monsanto sues the farmer for patent infringement.

In many instances, pollen from a neighboring farm growing Monsanto’s genetically modified crops can migrate to an organic farm, contaminating its crops. In addition to losing these crops and losing important organic buyers due to this genetic trespass, many organic farmers face undeserved, crippling lawsuits from Monsanto that force them into debt, bankruptcy, and often out of business entirely.  

“Family scale farmers are the most in danger; all of us are hanging on by our fingertips,” Jim Gerritsen, an organic potato farmer from Northern Maine and president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA), told me. “The thought of having to fight off a monster like Monsanto under false charges—and in this country, as wonderful as it is, anybody can sue anybody for anything—having to defend ourselves from a frivolous lawsuit could bankrupt any of us.”

In March 2011, Jim Gerritsen turned the tide, filing a lawsuit on behalf of OSGATA, this time against Monsanto. Since March, 82 other plaintiffs representing over 300,000 organic farmers, seed companies and food associations have joined the case. 

“The trajectory from the past fifteen years, which been increasing in recent years, is that organic farmers will be forced out of business because the extended contamination will become so extensive because of its increasing acreage,” Gerritsen said when I asked what inspired him to file a lawsuit. “So either we stand up and fight now, or we’re going to lose our options.”

This past Tuesday, Gerritsen and over 50 plaintiff representatives came to New York City from across North America as Public Patent Foundation lawyer Dan Ravicher presented their case to Judge Naomi Buchwald at the Manhattan Federal District Court. 

Outside the courthouse in Folely Square, over 200 activists, organized by the Occupy Wall Street Food Justice working group, waited to meet and welcome the plaintiffs when they emerged from the courthouse. “We want to show farmers who are coming in from around the country that people in cities care about these issues. We want to stand in solidarity and connect rural and urban issues,” said Corbin Laedlein, an organizer with the group.