Patent Lawyers!

Rollan Lehman shared this piece on Facebook.  You need to watch it just to see the light being made of GMO versus non GMO seed.  If it weren't so true and so sad, it might be funny.  I don't see any funny in it but it is real life for too many farmers today.

Wherever business is transacted, there is going to be law involved.  That's the nature of human beings.  The farm was a pretty safe haven from lawyers until patented seeds got involved.  Do you use patented seed?  I doubt if anyone of us doesn't.

I can't find a seed someone doesn't have individual or company intellectual rights to.  Even the 20 year old Apex I planted is intellectual property of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center from the work of Dr. Cooper.

Farmers were busy across Ohio yesterday harvesting those intellectual properties.  I carry GMO test strips and haven't found much contamination in non GMO soybeans.  That is one of my jobs during the growing and harvest season is to check for contamination in non GMO soybeans.  A bigger problem has been the mixing of a non clear hilum soybean with a clear hilum soybean intended for food.  The consumers don't like little black dots in their soy food and I don't blame them.

Pioneer 93B82 soybean, as old as Apex, has great value as soy food.  I have met Asian taste testers and they compared the taste of non GMO soybeans to a paste made of 93B82.  That variety became the Asian favorite.

I was called to approve 300 more acres of them so I rushed to another County to inspect them.  Other than a lambsquarter breakout, they looked very good.  Purity is the key to inspection or all else is naught.  If they pass inspection, what weeds and blemishes can the buyer expect?  My job is to paint a clear picture of what to expect when the truck unloads.

It doesn't take a patent lawyer to be a seed scout but if we don't all do our job, the field in question could end up in court.

Ed Winkle