"The antitrust litigation currently in the federal courts in the U.S. against Monsanto will be the test case in the life sciences, just as the Microsoft case was the test case in the information sciences."

--Jeremy Rifkin

Summary: Monsanto's relationship with (and similarity to) Microsoft

Monsanto is a notorious company which is funded and promoted by the Gates Foundation. We wrote about it in:

• Bill Gates Takes His GMO Patent Investments/Experiments to India
• How the Gates Foundation Privatises Africa
• Reader's Article: The Gates Foundation and Genetically-Modified Foods

A fairly recent investigative report looks at what Monsanto is doing and it looks eerily familiar: [via Glyn Moody]

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

Glyn Moody describes this as "worrying", citing claims that "not content with trying to own all plant seed, Monsanto is now going after milk..."

Think along the lines of, "not content with trying to own all computers, Microsoft is now going after banking, media players, phones, and Internet services." ⬆

"The 10 largest antitrust law firms in the United States have gone into the federal courts charging Monsanto with creating a global conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws, to control the global market in seeds. Jeremy Rifkin"

--Jeremy Rifkin

"The insurance companies aren't covering that. Should Monsanto be liable for these losses? Should the state government? Who's going to cover the losses? The fact is, here's an industry with no long-term liability in place."

--Jeremy Rifkin