Our
Mailbox: Legal Gardens, Illegal Trespass, Bintje & Birke.
Dear WPF.
Is
it true that there is a law, no home gardens? Can this be true? We are
just now learning to garden and I do not want all of this work to be
done for nothing. Do you have a simple plan to start?
TK
Belchertown MA
WPF Replies.
1. No, this
is not true. One or two years ago there were some wild and incorrect
rumors to
this effect floating around when the federal food safety bill was being
revised
and that rumor may go back to those days.
2.
Here's a nice little link to get you started. https://www.thegrowspot.com/index.php?pageid=tips
and here's the Organic Garden Seed part of our website. https://www.woodprairie.com/category/organic-vegetable-garden-seeds.
Jim.
Dear WPF.
Thank you
Jim and Megan for sending the text of the OSGATA v. Monsanto lawsuit.
Please continue to do so, as I would like to follow this case closely.
Years ago, we were plaintiffs in a class action suit against St. Regis
Paper Co. for spraying Tordon 101 (Agent Orange with a different name)
on timber, which then drifted over 5 towns and many water sources,
including sections of Cobscook Bay in Washington County, ME. It
affected our gardens, we all became very sick, and there was the threat
of birth defects for future children. Eventually we had to settle the
suit, but BEWARE!!
The following can happen at the end of your
suit as it did with us. Some of our plaintiffs did not accept the
settlement money for their children, based on the belief that the
children could sue later if their own children had birth defects.
However St. Regis sold the company to Champion Paper and the children's
future claims became moot. Don't let this happen to your group! You are
doing the right thing by suing Monsanto; just be sure to protect
yourselves AFTER the suit is over.
Very best regards.
SS
Dennysville ME
WPF Replies.
Yes I very
much remember your spray incident as
occurring back in the late 1970s. That year, I recall bringing
down
some organic vegetables to MOFGA's Common Ground Country Fair to donate
to folks in
your group over in Washington
County.
Back in
1979, despite having filed legal notification
and gaining official project exemption status from the State of Maine
our farm
was illegally sprayed in 1979 by the massive 'emergency' 4 million acre
Spruce
Budworm Suppression Project. Well, this 'emergency' had gone on for 23
consecutive years and by annually winking-an-eye and renewing the
'emergency'
status, the State of Maine - and the multinational paper companies
working
their puppet strings - evaded the legal requirement to file an
Environmental Impact
Statement. As a result of getting sprayed, we lost our organic
certification for three years.
So, we like
you are also very sensitive to the
matter of corporate misbehavior and illegal trespass. Those were
very
tense times and the spray abuses were so flagrant and commonplace that
angry
farmers were threatening to shoot at airplanes they found spraying
their land
against their wishes. You probably remember, as we do, the
Governor of
the State of Maine
holding an angry press conference and threatening that any Maine farmer
firing at a
plane which resulted in a death would be charged with first degree
murder.
We
appreciate your concern about our OSGATA v.
Monsanto lawsuit and thanks for the words of caution. I'm sorry that
some of
you folks Downeast were denied justice by a corporate shell game. In
the case
of our lawsuit, we are not seeking monetary compensation. Instead
we are
pre-emptively seeking court protection under the Declaratory Judgement
Act from patent
infringement lawsuits initiated by Monsanto should Monsanto seed
contaminate
our farms and then perversely claim we are in 'possession' of their
technology without having paid royalty on that 'possession'. In order
to gain
this needed court protection we will be presenting to the court four
self-standing
legal arguments of patent law which will prove that Monsanto's
transgenic/GMO patents were improperly granted by the US Patent Office
and are
therefore invalid. All we must do is win one of the arguments and we
win our
case. Monsanto has to beat us on all four arguments in order for
them to
win. We believe we have the law on our side and that we have a
strong
case. This explains, despite their public posturing, why Monsanto
is fighting
so hard to keep this important case from getting to trial.
Jim
Once More Dear WPF.
Hi
Jim,
It's
funny how we work together even though we might not be aware of it. You
brought potatoes for us in Washington County,
and I didn't know it. And I sent all our class action info to folks in Oregon who were
going to
sue another paper company for the same reasons. And now
there's Occupy!
Again,
good luck with your suit against Monsanto. Please
continue sending the important parts to me, so I can mentally join you
in the
fight.
Very
best regards.
SS
Dennysville ME
Again WPF Replies.
Yes,
for sure we'll keep you and everyone updated on this modern biotech
version of
corporate abuse and unwanted trespass.
If I
recall, back then, the trouble involved folks in the Alsea River
watershed, a
forested region of Oregon which was sprayed annually with 2,4,5-T (the
major
component in Monsanto's Agent Orange). Researchers eventually came to
make the
connection between the high rate of Spring miscarriages experienced by
local women and
the annual Spring spraying of 2,4,5-T. The federal government then
banned 2,4,5-T.
The dysfunctional
regulatory system, full of conflict-of-interest, which America
had
back then - where the manufacturer of a new product provides all the
information the 'regulators' (often revolving door individuals plucked
from
private industry) utilize in their product approval process.
'Regulator'
decisions are based upon superficial literature review - without any
independent testing. The dysfunctional system we had back then is the
same
dysfunctional system we have today for both chemicals and biotech
crops. It didn't work then and it doesn't work now.
USDA-APHIS, the 'regulator' of biotech crops is grossly biased in favor
of
biotech. Of all the many biotech crops that they have approved for
their
friends back in the biotech industry, only once has USDA-APHIS done an
Environmental Impact Statement, a thorough study which is required by
law. And that one time, in the case of Monsanto's transgenic/GMO
Roundup
Ready sugar beets, was only performed because the court ordered USDA to
stop
breaking the law and conduct an EIS. That court order which forced USDA
to
cease illegal activity came as a result of the lawsuit launched against
USDA-APHIS by Organic Seed Alliance (I was president of OSA at the
time) and
Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed, working with lawyers from our good
allies at
Center for Food Safety. Interestingly, Wild Garden Seed and
Center For
Food Safety are now two of our 83 plaintiffs in the landmark OSGATA v.
Monsanto, and OSA is a member of Organic Seed Growers and Trade
Association.
The sad
fact is we have a fraudulent regulatory system that serves the
corporations. It does not serve the people. It does not
serve the
environment. It is bald corporate collusion of our government and it
serves the
narrow interests of the 1%. The 99% need to unite, we need to
retake
the power from greedy irresponsible corporations and make sure that the
people
come first. We owe this to ourselves and to our children. The
machinery
of government must be re-aligned to serve the needs and interests of
the
American people.
Jim
Dear WPF.
Hi,
I just wanted to tell you how excited I am to have found you, and to
thank you for the work you're doing against Monsanto and GMO - it is
vital for us all. I'm looking forward to trying some of your wonderful
seed potatoes soon (Especially Bintje -I'm from Sweden and that was the
potato we always grew when I was growing up!)
ME
Brookline MA
WPF Replies.
Thanks so much for your support. We are all in this together and we
need to stand united to defend family farmers' right to farm and eaters
right to choice in the marketplace.
Unfortunately we no longer grow
Bintje - Carola would be the closet variety we have to Bintje. We also
have the fingerling known as Swedish Peanut, which you may know as
mandelpotatis or Almond potato.
Jim.
Dear WPF.
FYI in case you have not already seen it;
a friend sent this YouTube video
about a school girl's potato project.
AO
Keene NH
WPF Replies.
Yes this is great video and we've posted it
before. Here is another must watch YouTube video: 11 year old Birke
Baehr on the Food System.
Jim.
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