Another GMO battle was recently lost. At the end of January, 55 farmers belonging to the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) traveled to Manhattan, New York to defend their lawsuit against Monsanto, as the biotech giant was trying to get it dismissed on the grounds of being "frivolous."

OSGATA's suit sought to invalidate Monsanto's seed patents. At the heart of this effort was the very real fact that Monsanto's genetically modified crops threaten to contaminate the fields of farmers who opt not to use their seeds. And these farmers are then at risk of being targeted for Monsanto's aggressive enforcement of their alleged patent rights.

Anyone who understands how nature works will know that Monsanto's tactics are profoundly unfair, because there's simply NO way to avoid contamination!

For example, American rice farmers recently lost $389 million in projected sales as a result of the contamination with Bayer's unapproved experimental GM rice. Some 3,000 lawsuits have been filed against Bayer in recent years over their GM crops contaminating American rice farms. What makes this such a potent example is that Bayer's GM rice, known as LibertyLink, was never approved for commercial planting; it's an experimental crop, meant to be sown for research purposes only. Yet once planted, it was impossible to contain it. And this is the kind of dangerous ripple-effect that is bound to occur whenever a GM crop is introduced.

Unfortunately, federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed OSGATA's case on February 27, stating that the organization "had no standing to bring such a suit, had not been harmed by the company, and had engaged in a transparent effort to create a controversy where none exists," the New York Times reportsii.

Two years ago, the Food Freedom blog reported that the Irish government accidentally planted Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM maize, which was, and still is, banned in Irelandiii. The contaminated seeds had been supplied by Pioneer Hi-Bred Northern Europe, a subsidiary of DuPont. To protect surrounding farmers and organic farms, the contaminated maize crops were destroyed before flowering, to prevent pollen drift. However, there's still no telling the full extent of the GM contamination. After all, it was only discovered through random testing. The seed had verified as "GM-free" by Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Last year, a Greenpeace report revealed Monsanto's GM corn had been discovered across 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) in seven German statesiv. Since GM corn is banned in Germany, the farmers had to destroy their crops and "eat" their losses, as the seed companies refused to accept liability for the contamination.

In 2007, pollen drift from GM maize (MON810) fields were also found to have contaminated hundreds of conventional and organic farmers in Spain; the only country in the EU that allows GM maize to be cultivated. A 2009 Greenpeace report documents the socioeconomic and human impacts of the contaminationv.

[link to articles.mercola.com]