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Question

You say that your companies are helping farmers with your GMO seeds, however everyday in the news there is court cases of the big corporations
suing small family owned farmers for patent infringement. How is that helping farmers? Or suing because a farmers crop has been contaminated with GMO pollen. The farmer can not control the wind, or the birds and bees, and yet you who play God think he should.

Submitted by: BadCatPottery


Answer

Expert response from André Roef

Head of Law, Patents & Compliance Seeds, Bayer Crop Science

Wednesday, 28/08/2013 17:55

Thank you for this question. Biotech companies are indeed helping farmers by providing them with seeds and technologies, which will enable them to generate higher yields for their crops (e.g., protection against weeds, insects and diseases and tolerance to extreme conditions like drought, heat and salinity). In regard to your question about farmers being sued for patent infringement, legal claims have been pursued only against farmers who are believed to have intentionally infringed on intellectual property rights of a biotech company.