Category: Organic Community

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Maine Legislature’s Ag Committee Approves Final GMO Label Bill Language 8-5

Late this afternoon the Legislature’s Maine Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (ACF) finalized wording and voted 8-5 in favor of L.D. 718, Maine’s historic Right to Know GMO Labeling bill. ACF sent what supporters hope will be the nation’s first GMO labeling law for a debate and vote in the Maine House Representatives. A controversial “Infant Formula” amendment which would have exempted a wide range of highly processed food products was defeated by the ACF committee.

Eight members of the ACF committee cast their votes in favor of LD 718: Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook), co-chair; Sen. Jim Boyle (D-Cumberland); Rep. Jim Dill (D-Old Town), co-chair; Rep. Craig Hickman (D-Winthrop); Rep. Bill Noon (D-Sanford); Rep. Bob Saucier (D-Presque Isle); Rep. Peter Kent (D-Woolwich); Rep. Brian Jones (D-Freedom).

Action in the Maine House could come as early as next week.

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MAINE FARMER NAMED ONE OF 25 VISIONARIES

 

 

 MAINE FARMER NAMED ONE OF 25 VISIONARIES

 

WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD BY UTNE READER

 


 

Long-time potato farmer selected for efforts to protect family farmers.

 

 

 

Bridgewater, Maine – Jim Gerritsen, a Maine organic potato farmer with a decades-long record of community involvement and activism, has been named by the editors of Utne Reader to the magazine’s 2011 list of 25 “People Who Are Changing the World.”

 

Gerritsen was selected for his ongoing work leading efforts by independent family farmers to protect themselves from the threat of Monsanto litigation related to the corporation’s patents on genetically modified seeds, an effort he sees as critical to the preservation of organic farming itself and organic foods as a choice for consumers and their families. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each year, Utne Reader selects 25 people “who possess an inspiring combination of imagination, determination and energy,” said Utne Reader‘s editor-in-chief David Schimke in a statement. “These are people who don’t just think out loud, but who walk their talk on a daily basis.”

 

Working with Other Family Farms for a Better Planet

 

Gerritsen, who grows organic seed potatoes on his family’s Wood Prairie Farm in northern Maine, is president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (www.osgata.org), the national membership trade organization of the organic seed community, lead plaintiff in the OSGATA et al v. Monsanto lawsuit.

 

OSGATA is joined in the lawsuit by 82 other family farmers, seed businesses and agricultural organizations.  The plaintiff organizations have over 270,000 members, including several thousand certified organic family farmers.

 

This landmark organic community lawsuit asserts that Monsanto’s patents on transgenic (gene-spliced) seed fail to meet the “social utility” requirement of patent law and are therefore invalid.

 

The suit also seeks court protection for innocent family farmers from Monsanto patent infringement lawsuits in the perverse situation where their farms are contaminated by Monsanto genes through unwanted genetic trespass, such as when wind-borne transgenic pollen is blown from one farm to another.

 

“Our lawyers asked Monsanto to provide a legal covenant not to sue our group of family farmers, and Monsanto refused.  We thus are forced to seek justice and protection in court,” said Gerritsen.

 

The lawsuit is currently in pre-trial procedural motions.

 

A Longstanding Commitment to Community

 

For 35 years, Gerritsen and his family have owned and operated the organic Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine.  Located in Aroostook County, which is the top potato producing county in the country, Wood Prairie Farm is a small Certified Organic family farm producing various types of seed and specialty potatoes, including the award-winning Prairie Blush variety discovered by the Gerritsens, plus vegetable and grain seed.

 

The farm’s modest scale allows Gerritsen and his family to focus on growing the highest quality seed potatoes for an ever-increasing number of committed catalog customers in all fifty states.

 

Gerritsen believes organic farming produces a superior result and is better for the land. “Northern Maine has been growing potatoes for 200 years, and some of the best potatoes anywhere in the world come from here,” says Gerritsen.  “And I like to think our hard work and commitment to our soil and  organic farming at Wood Prairie Farm produces some of the best potatoes in Aroostook County.”

 

Gerritsen is a tireless advocate for organic farming and family farms, regularly speaking at conferences and events, including the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Common Ground Country Fair and Farmer-to-Farmer Conference, The Organic Seed Growers Conference, the Slow Food Terra Madre Conference in Italy, and other conferences across the United States and Canada.

 

About the Utne Reader Visionary List

 

In addition to Gerritsen, others on the 2011 list include David Simon, creator of HBO’s The Wire and Treme; Azzam Alwash, Nature Iraq founder and marshland rehabilitator; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a congressman working to foster dialogue between Muslim and Christian interests; Gary Paul Nabhan, an author called “the father of the local food movement”; Debbie Sease, national campaign director of the Sierra Club; and Humira Saqeb, founder of a women’s magazine in Afghanistan.

 

The Utne Reader’s “People Who Are Changing the World” profile of Jim Gerritsen is available at www.utne.com/Environment/Utne-Reader-Visionaries-Jim-Gerritsen-Organic-Seed-Growers.aspx.

 

About Maine’s Wood Prairie Farm (www.woodprairie.com; 800-829-9765)

 

Wood Prairie Farm is located in Aroostook County, the largest county east of the Mississippi River and Maine’s historic center of potato farming.  For over 35 years, Jim Gerritsen, his wife Megan and their family have used organic farming techniques on the fertile land of Wood Prairie Farm to grow the finest potatoes, seed, vegetables and grain nature will produce.  Wood Prairie Farm is MOFGA Certified Organic, and its seed potatoes, kitchen potatoes, seeds and other products are available direct to the customer by mail order from its website and catalog.  Wood Prairie Farm is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/woodprairiefarm. 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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Update. Organic Family Farmers Defend Their Right to Protect Themselves From Monsanto Patents.

NEW YORK – August 11, 2011 – The eighty-three family farmers, small and family owned seed businesses, and agricultural organizations challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed filed papers in federal court today defending their right to seek legal protection from the threat of being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed.  The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) represents the plaintiffs in the suit, titled Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA), et al. v. Monsanto and pending in the Southern District of New York.  Today’s filings respond to a motion filed by Monsanto in mid-July to have the case dismissed…

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     “Rather than give a straight forward answer on whether they would sue our clients for patent infringement if they are ever contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed, Monsanto has instead chosen to try to deny our clients the right to receive legal protection from the courts,” said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT’s Executive Director.  “Today’s filings include sworn statements by several of the plaintiffs themselves explaining to the court how the risk of contamination by transgenic seed is real and why they cannot trust Monsanto to not use an occurrence of contamination as a basis to accuse them of patent infringement.”


     The legal brief filed by our lawyer asserts, “This case is about real farmers and real seed businesses who wish to use and distribute organic and conventional seed, but who are at substantial immediate risk of being contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed and then sued by Monsanto for patent infringement. It is no mere policy disagreement seeking an advisory opinion on hypothetical facts. Monsanto has undertaken one of the most aggressive patent assertion campaigns in history, including asserting its patents on transgenic seed against parties who, like Plaintiffs, never wanted to use or distribute such seed. As a result, each of the Plaintiffs is under constant fear of being contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed and then sued by Monsanto for patent infringement. This fear is so severe for some of the Plaintiffs that they are completely forgoing growing certain crops that they easily could grow and would like to grow…      

     “Viewing all the circumstances in this case in the light of the purpose of the Declaratory Judgment Act shows that Plaintiffs indeed have standing and that Defendants’ motion lacks merit. Monsanto could easily make this case disappear by providing Plaintiffs a simple covenant not to sue. It would take no more than a single sentence on a single piece of paper and a single stroke of the pen. Monsanto’s failure to do so speaks louder than any stack of papers ever could. As such, Plaintiffs respectfully request that Monsanto’s motion be denied.”

      Plaintiffs Bryce Stephens, who farms in Kansas, Frederick Kirschenmann, who farms in North Dakota, C.R. Lawn, who is founder and co-owner of Fedco Seeds in Maine, Don Patterson of Virginia, and Chuck Noble, who farms in South Dakota, each submitted declarations to the court describing their personal experiences with the risk of contamination by genetically modified seed and why those experiences have forced them to bring the current suit asking the court to declare that Monsanto could never sue them for patent infringement if they were ever contaminated by Monsanto’s GMO seed.  As summarized by the accompanying brief filed by PUBPAT on the plaintiffs’ behalf, “Monsanto’s acts of widespread patent assertion and plaintiffs’ ever growing risk of contamination create a real, immediate and substantial dispute between them.”

      Twelve agricultural organizations also filed a friend-of-the-court amici brief supporting the right of the plaintiffs to bring the case.  In their brief, the amici describe some of the harmful effects of genetically modified seed and how easily GMOs can contaminate an organic or conventional farmer’s land.  The organizations filing the amici brief were Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Ecological Farmers of Ontario, Fair Food Matters, International Organic Inspectors Association, Michigan Land Trustees, Natural Environment Ecological Management, Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, Organic Council of Ontario, Slow Food USA, and Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association.


     The excellent and powerful amicii brief begins, “This case presents several issues of first impression, and the outcome will have repercussions for almost every American. While the Plaintiffs are at the most immediate risk of suit for patent infringement by Monsanto, the legal principles involved in this Court’s decision will have even broader ramifications…. And, ultimately, almost every American consumer somehow makes use of products made from corn, soybeans, canola, sugar beets, or cotton, all of which may implicate the scope and enforceability of Monsanto’s patents. The entire food chain is impacted by the spread of Monsanto’s patented crops….

     “Given the difficulties in minimizing GM contamination, farmers must make numerous decisions about which steps are worthwhile for them and which steps are not. They are not able to make these decisions based on their own and their customers’ interests, but must instead make these decisions with the threat of litigation against a giant corporation looming over their heads. The constant threat of a patent infringement suit by Monsanto creates significant, unquantifiable costs for the Plaintiff farmers and similarly situated farmers. Unless this Court allows this case to proceed, the Plaintiff farmers will face the choice of abandoning growing such crops or risking prosecution whenever Monsanto chooses.

     “Monsanto’s motion to dismiss notes that its patented technology is self-replicating… Yet Monsanto wants the court to ignore the real-world repercussions of this fact. Monsanto seeks to reap all of the benefits of a patented seed – particularly the necessity for farmers to buy their products year after year indefinitely, since new seed is needed every single year – but to take no responsibility for the reality that its technology, by its very nature, induces others to infringe…

     “This problem is of Monsanto’s making. By developing a product that is self-replicating, and then marketing it to farmers across the country, Monsanto has ensured that no farmer can entirely avoid infringing. Monsanto has chosen to exploit this problem by an aggressive pattern of enforcement that has left farmers across the country in fear of an enforcement lawsuit even if they have no desire or intent to use the patented seeds. These farmers are placed in the position of abandoning growing valuable crops or investing significant time and effort in protective measures to try to minimize contamination. In the latter case, no matter what measures they take, the farmers still face the threat of a patent infringement lawsuit because of the impossibility of remaining completely GM-free. It is critical for both these farmers and for all the parties involved in the food chain, including the Amici, that this Court consider this case and provide a clear declaration of their rights.” 


     Jim is President of lead plaintiff Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association. Bryce Stephens is OSGATA Vice-President and Fedco Seeds is one of our OSGATA member companies. We have studied Monsanto’s litigation playbook and accordingly, their action which seeks to deny us our day in court comes as little surprise.  It is anticipated that the judge will rule on Monsanto’s motion to dismiss in September and we will certainly continue to keep you and the organic community informed about this monumental case.  Jim & Megan


The brief filed by the plaintiffs in opposition to Monsanto’s motion to dismiss is available here.

The amici brief filed in support of the plaintiffs is available here