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| Authored by: 351-4V on Wednesday, February 20 2013 @ 10:44 PM EST |
Warning: Many years ago I worked for Asgrow, when they were owned by
Upjohn, before the Monsanto purchase. I did not work in research or with
soybeans, I detassled corn, a lowly job at best. I now own farmland but I am
not a farmer. Another person (my younger brother) pays me rent to use my land
and he makes these types of decisions, not I. But I think he would answer the
question as follows:
In short, for economic reasons. Using
the previous seasons crop (bin-run) for seed has only 2 advantages, convenience
and price, but a big drawback in terms of yield. Using Roundup Ready (RR) seed
will increase the yield just enough to cover the increased cost of using that
patented seed.
Trust me, Monsanto has researched this
thoroughly and found the exact price point at which farmers will pay for the
patented seed as opposed to using bin-run or another competing commercial
product. Monsanto execs are not dummies, they've done their market research.
The farmers have done their research as well. They've planted all kinds of
seeds in similar circumstances and painstakingly recorded the growing results in
order to allow other farmers to evaluate the efficacy of one seed type over
another.
As far as "supporting the evil Monopolist" goes, it's not
really a consideration. Sure, one must agree to the Monsanto contract but it's
perceived as just another TOS contract like all the other TOS contracts we
"agree" to these days. Little more than the common shrink-wrap license we are
all used to ignoring. Most farmers willingly enter into the agreement, they
have no intention of using the patented seed in any way contradictory to the
agreement.
I think it is also useful to know that both Asgrow and
Monsanto have long histories of being friendly to the farming community.
Monsanto used to have local stores operated by local residents, which earned
them all kinds of goodwill in the community. Over the years, Asgrow has dumped
huge amounts of money into research which has produced drought-resistant strains
and shorter-season strains of soybeans that will grow in conditions previously
unthinkable.
It is only rather recently that Monsanto and hence Asgrow,
due to the purchase, has morphed from Lt. Commander Data into Evil Brother Lor.
But make no mistake, Evil Brother Lor they are today, not to be trusted under
any circumstances.
over time, there has to be an economic
effect, deleterious to you, the farmer...
Oh there is. But it is
ill-defined and vague. And after all it is "over time". That deleterious effect
is very difficult to quantify in terms of today's dollars and thus not very
amenable to being used as a basis for objective management decisions that are
unassailable from stockholders wishing to maximize their investments or
landlords seeking to maximize their rental income.
Besides,
the patent runs out soon which means even bin-run seed will be RR and
unencumbered by patents in a few years anyway. So why fight
it?
And that's what you are going to hear from the farmers that
actually use this seed.
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