Apparently, agribusiness won't be satisfied with anything less than world domination of the agricultural seed trade. A few days ago, I wrote about their influence in enacting laws in Iraq that will prevent farmers from saving and re-using their own seed. Well, a similar situation is now playing out in Canada.
In Common Ground, "Farming Threatened" discusses
"...the current push by the big, bad biotech companies to have the laws guarding Canada’s seed system to be changed in such a way that farmers would lose many of their inherent rights regarding seed use and have those rights turned over to large corporations."
The proposals they are pushing are disturbingly one-sided, and it's hard to believe that the government could be influenced by such a blatant drive for control by private interests. However, if the courts can rule against Percy Schmeiser (a Saskatchewan farmer who was forced to pay Monsanto royalties for genetically modified seed that blew in and grew on his land without his knowledge), anything is possible.
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