Farmers Appealing “Pre-Emptive” Monsanto Lawsuit to Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Agconnection blog announces that the group of farmers who challenged Monsanto’s patents on genetically-modified seeds is appealing their case to the U.S. Supreme Court after a lower court ruled against them in June.

The Maine-based Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association has been joined in their case by a group of 73 organic and conventional family farmers, seed businesses and public advocacy groups.The plaintiffs initially went up against Monsanto in March 2011, filing what they said was a “pre-emptive” lawsuit against the biotech giant. They said they wanted to protect themselves from any patent infringement lawsuits brought by Monsanto should the farmers’ fields ever become “contaminated” with the company’s genetically engineered, patented seed.On June 10, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., sided with Monsanto.”The Court of Appeals ruled that we did have standing, contradicting the lower court judge,” said Jim Gerritsen, a potato-seed farmer from Bridgewater who is president of the Organic Seed Growers group.The group says the odds of the case reaching the nation’s highest court are slim. Every year the Supreme Court is asked to hear about 8,000 cases, but only accept a few.