Born again pharma seed conglomerates Syngenta and Monsanto have declined to make good on a promise to participate in a $10 million project for research and development of food systems in hunger challenged third world nations. Even the anti-GMO crowd is shocked at the callousness of the seed owners, who refuse to participate because they feel that their patented life forms aren’t getting credit for being super-food. They also may not be getting patent royalties. Developing nations could decide that money for food and seed is better spent where the world of gene ownership remains in nature’s realm, rather than the more ambiguous world of US patent law where identifying a gene makes it yours for profit. Even in Argentina where GMOs are common, one study concluded that modified genes and the companies who sell them do not solve hunger problems.  

But then, occasionally, someone with less corporate punch beats the Bigs to a valuable find, such as dicamba resistance in soybeans. At times like that it’s best to simply buy the life form for 20 years of guaranteed profit. That’s what happened when Monsanto bought the University of Nebraska’s dicamba resistant gene; no word on whether dicamba is the herbicide that will stop poor peoples stomachs from rumbling. I suspect that industry financed research will reveal it does so through higher yields.

 
There are some who would disagree.  http://www.newfarm.org/features/0904/soybeans

 
Of course, not all cash cows use genetic patents. Some rely on the secret use of Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). Monsanto has objected to an effort by producers to label their milk as being hormone free. This brings the practice of force feeding to a new level. Big M feels that consumers should buy milk regardless of how it is derived, at least to the extent of not being able to make an informed choice between, ‘with’ or ‘without’ the synthetic pituitary hormone. FDA did allow rBGH free milk to be labeled as being from cows not treated with rBST. Monsanto, however, did not agree.  

 
Shame on FDA for thinking of the consumer for once.

 
It is good to know that the folks who bring us gene-manipulation-and-artificial-hormones-for-profit aren’t getting off Scot-free thanks to lax regulation. A court recently set Solutia’s (the pollution liability limiting Monsanto spin-off from its Pharmacia days) liability for a $5 billion Superfund dioxin cleanup at $3 million. That’s a little more than 1% of Monsanto’s reported first quarter profit, and about .0006 of the total cost.

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