NY Times, November 2, 2003 Saving Seeds Subjects Farmers to Suits Over Patent By ADAM LIPTAK
TUPELO, Miss., Oct. 30 — Homan McFarling has been farming here all his life, growing mostly soybeans along with a little corn. After each harvest, he puts some seed aside.
"Every farmer that ever farmed has saved some of his seed to plant again," he said.
In 1998, Mr. McFarling bought 1,000 bags of genetically altered soybean seeds, and he did what he had always done. But the seeds, called Roundup Ready, are patented. When Monsanto, which holds the patent, learned what Mr. McFarling had sown, it sued him in federal court in St. Louis for patent infringement and was awarded $780,000.
The company calls the planting of saved seed piracy, and it says it has won millions of dollars from farmers in lawsuits and settlements in such cases. Mr. McFarling's is the first to reach a federal appeals court, which will consider how the law should reconcile patented food with a practice as old as farming itself.
If the appeals court rules against him, said Mr. McFarling, 61, he will be forced into bankruptcy and early retirement.
"It doesn't look right for them to have a patent on something that you can grow yourself," he said.
Janice Armstrong, a Monsanto spokeswoman, said the company invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the seed. "We need to protect our intellectual property so that we can continue to develop the next wave of products," she said.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/02/national/02SEED.html
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