The company is willing to risk negative publicity by going after small farmers like Schmeiser because it spends hundreds of millions of dollars developing each high-tech seed product it brings to market. The contract states that farmers must buy new seeds from Monsanto for each growing season and allows the company to take samples of their plants for three years following each purchase. It has broadcast the names of violators in radio ads. Monsanto even ran a toll-free telephone line where growers were encouraged to call in and snitch on neighbors. But, for the most part, growers seem willing to put up with Monsanto's enforcement practices.
Most people see the value of the technology.
If they didn't see value they wouldn't buy it. And plenty of farmers are buying Monsanto's seeds along with the herbicides and pesticides it bundles with them. The company estimates that its genetically engineered seeds were used on nearly 94 million acres worldwide during the 2000 crop season, an increase of 9 percent from 86 million in 1999. Not bad, given the first genetically engineered seeds came on the market less than 10 years ago. While Schmeiser is often cast as David to Monsanto's Goliath, his innocence is anything but obvious.