Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued their ruling on the Bowman v Monsanto case, siding unanimously in favor of Monsanto. The court rejected Bowman’s arguments that Monsanto’s patent “exhausted” when he purchased seeds from a grain elevator to plant on his farm, and affirmed that the act of growing a crop of seeds is “making” those seeds, and are still covered under patent law. It was a narrow ruling that applied only to seed patents, but it could have long-term implications for other self-replicating technologies.
KQED Quest, based in San Francisco, has just posted a half-hour special on GMOs called Next Meal: Engineering your Food, by Gabriela Quirós. In the wake of proposition 37 in California there has been a lot more public awareness of genetically engineered crops, but little public education about it. (Just think what those millions spent could have accomplished) So in this special KQED Quest takes a look at the science of plant breeding and genetic engineering, interviewing Peggy Lemaux from UC Berkeley, Eduardo Blumwald at UC Davis, along with a host of other farmers, writers, and activists. I have been
  News  BFI in the news, Food Politics, Genetic Engineering, Genetics, GMO, kqed, Media, Plant Breeding, Rice, science, tomatoes
This week, readers of the Biofortified Blog are in for a treat. The Journal Nature has a special feature on genetically engineered crops, complete with editorials, perspectives, and an article on the next generation of these crops featuring some people who you may find familiar. Here are a few snippets to give you a taste of it.
by Anastasia Bodnar on 18 February 2013 
Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will hear case 11-796, Vernon Hugh Bowman v. Monsanto Company. The question they are considering is as follows: Patent exhaustion delimits rights of patent holders by eliminating the right to control or prohibit use of the invention after an authorized sale. In this case, the Federal Circuit refused to find exhaustion where a farmer used seeds purchased in an authorized sale for their natural and foreseeable purpose-namely, for planting. The question presented is: Whether the Federal Circuit erred by (1) refusing to find patent exhaustion in patented seeds even after an authorized sale and by
by Karl Haro von Mogel on 8 January 2013 
Years ago, environmental activist and author Mark Lynas campaigned against genetically engineered crops, sometimes ripping them up with his own hands. But in a speech given at the 2013 Oxford Farming Conference on January 3rd, he apologized for these actions, and explained how his opinion has changed over time and has been turned completely around. This speech, the transcript of which you can find on his site, has been heard around the world. It has sparked many discussions in the news media, and in social media as well. He explains that part of his journey from being an anti-GE activist
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