(Black Listed Radio) The amounts allocated under official provisions to candidates in support of their House or Senate election campaign are by no means large. What is striking, however, is that the contributions are spread out and include a large number of both Republicans and Democrats. Whoever wins, Monsanto has the support of the White House, the Senate and the House, not to mention key appoints in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “While there are numerous points of overlap between Monsanto and the United States Government under the Obama administration, the three most important connections are that of Michael Taylor, Roger, Beachy, and Islam Siddiqui—all three of these Monsanto affiliates were appointed to high level citeste si comenteaza …

Agri-giant Monsanto, not satisfied with being one of the world’s largest agricultural corporations, is dragging hundreds of U.S. farmers into court over alleged copyright violations for repeated usage of the company’s patented seeds. In a case that has surprised a lot of observers, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear one of these complaints on Feb. 19. That case, Bowman v. Monsanto Co., was billed as a landmark battle pitting farmer Vernon Bowman against the international Ag-giant over the former’s repeated use of seeds he bought from Monsanto which the company says are only supposed to be used for one growing season. In advance of the case, The Huffington Post reported, the Center for Food Safety and the Save Our Seeds campaigning organizations released a report detailing similar cases. citeste si comenteaza …

The United States Supreme Court justices head arguments on Tuesday involving the case of a 75-year-old soybean farmer who is being sued for patent infringement by biotech giant Monsanto. Vernon Hugh Bowman of Indiana has been fighting a lawsuit from Monsanto for years, and on Tuesday it went all the way to the highest court in the United States. Monsanto, a billion-dollar biotechnology corporation perhaps best known for marketing cutting-edge agricultural products, says Mr. Bowman infringed on a patent it holds when he re-planted genetically modified “Roundup Ready” seeds manufactured by the copany. Those seeds have been created by Monsanto to be resistant to pesticides and are reported by the Associated Press to be on around 90 percent of soybean citeste si comenteaza …

IF YOU ARE THE KIND OF GARDENER who buys vegetable seeds or seedlings (including tomato plants) from a local garden center, as I sometimes do, beware the varieties you select. Otherwise, you could very well be putting money into the hands of the wretched Monsanto Corporation. Forewarned is forearmed, right? Here is the list of Seminis/Monsanto home-garden vegetable varieties, and yes, it even includes zucchini: I’m going to print out this list, and keep a copy in my wallet. This way I won’t be caught off-guard the next time I decide to impulse-shop at a big-box garden center:

Beans: Aliconte, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac(sic!), Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, citeste si comenteaza …