I never understood the hate toward GMOs themselves, considering that genetic modification is practically the definition of agriculture as it's existed for thousands of years. Granted, we relied on artificial selection instead of, say, CRISPR, but still.
I do understand the hate toward companies like Monsanto, however. Hating all GMOs because of some unethical company peddling them seems heavy-handed and broad-stroked to me, though.
I'm always interested in people's perceptions of Monsanto considering that to me they seem like an entirely pedestrian and boring GM crops company with a couple of cool products. Perhaps you could explain why you dislike them and think they're unethical?
I don't like their intellectual property policies. Suing small farmers because their crops were inadvertently exposed to patent-encumbered Monsanto pollen is, suffice it to say, a dick move.
Monsanto is basically to agriculture as Oracle is to IT.
Perhaps you could link me to an example where that happened? Probably the most famous cases of Monsanto suing farmers were Bowman v. Monsanto and Monsanto v. Schmeiser. In both cases the infringement was entirely purposeful.
Schmesier's case is one where the seeds were initially blown onto his property so that may be what you're referring to. From Wikipedia:
As established in the original Federal Court trial decision, Percy Schmeiser, a canola breeder and grower in Bruno, Saskatchewan, first discovered Roundup-resistant canola in his crops in 1997. He had used Roundup herbicide to clear weeds around power poles and in ditches adjacent to a public road running beside one of his fields, and noticed that some of the canola which had been sprayed had survived. Schmeiser then performed a test by applying Roundup to an additional 3 acres (12,000 m2) to 4 acres (16,000 m2) of the same field. He found that 60% of the canola plants survived. At harvest time, Schmeiser instructed a farmhand to harvest the test field. That seed was stored separately from the rest of the harvest, and used the next year to seed approximately 1,000 acres (4 km²) of canola.
Regardless, to me that's a distinction without a difference. Suing a farmer because he used seeds that blew into his property is still a dick move. Too bad the Canadian courts don't seem to agree (though considering that the Supreme Court decision was a 5-4 split, I'd argue that the legality of contaminating someone's field with genetically-modified seeds and then suing farmers for using those seeds or the products thereof is still very contestable, and for good reason).
I do understand the hate toward companies like Monsanto, however. Hating all GMOs because of some unethical company peddling them seems heavy-handed and broad-stroked to me, though.