Last week, a coalition of organic farmers took the floor to defend their livelihoods against the world’s largest producer of commercial seeds and well-known evil corporation, Monsanto. The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, OSGATA, descended on the Southern District Court on Pearl Street in Brooklyn on Tuesday, along with hundreds of other activists representing the 300,000 plaintiffs that are raising an enormous case against the seed behemoth.

The hearing [full document here] was part of an ongoing case by OSGATA aimed at preventing Monsanto from suing small farmers when strains of their genetically-modified and legally-patented seeds are found in their fields, blown in from nearby farms. Because Monsanto has patented their strain, the chemical giant could sue these organic farmers for patent infringement if this happens, a power which OSGATA claims in unfair, and that any contamination would be inadvertent on the farmer’s part. 

The hearing was held to give the organic farmers an opportunity to refute the motion to dismiss the case, proposed by Monsanto back in July, on the grounds that the charges were hypothetical and abstract. The entire issue has stemmed from Monsanto’s refusal to sign a contract promising not to sue if trace amounts of their seeds’ genetics were found in other farmers’ crops, leading many to believe that their patent laws would be enforced. For farmers who would never use Monsanto seeds intentionally, but who would be susceptible to seeds blown over from nearby farms, this is a terrifying prospect.

Not only is Monsanto reserving the right to sue over something the farmers can’t control, the corporation’s omnipresence is also weakening organic crops. Many organic farmers worry that if their seeds are contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) seeds, which are resistant to the company’s toxic herbicide Roundup, they will no longer test as genetically organic, leading to the loss of buyers, and potential bankruptcy. They fear that the GMO seeds will out-compete their own organic seeds, and that these crops are unsafe for people to eat. And that fear is not unfounded: a 2010 study in the International Journal of Biological Sciences found that Monsanto’s genetically modified corn was linked to organ failure in mammals.

On the company website, Monsanto has pledged not to exercise its patent rights when trace amounts of their patented seed are present in farmers’ fields as a result of inadvertent means. But CBS News’ Armen Keteyian reported last January that Monsanto investigators often trespass onto farmers’ land and harass them, threatening to sue for patent infringement.

Organic farmers cite Monsanto’s history of producing dangerous chemicals as evidence to the potency of its products. During the Vietnam War, Monsanto produced the 20 million gallons of extremely toxic Agent Orange, contaminating 3 million people, including US soldiers. Half a million people died and cancers, genetic deformities, and miscarriages have increases enormously, even generations later.

The Washington Post also led an investigation in 2002 which found that Monsanto had dumped millions of pounds of toxic PCBs in landfills in Alabama, causing a cancer cluster and an incredible amount of chemical pollution.

For the group gathered on Pearl Street last week, the case against Monsanto seems like David versus Goliath. Monsanto has undertaken one of the most aggressive patent assertion campaigns in history, said Dan Ravicher, the Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation, in a press release.

“We have farmers who have stopped growing organic corn, organic canola and organic soybeans because they can’t risk being sued by Monsanto,” said the president of OSGATA, Jim Gerritsen. “It’s not fair and it’s not right.”

[Image via]