bioengineered life (food) and Supreme Ct ruling on patenting such life

In 1980 a gentleman working for General Electric developed/created a bacterium capable of breaking down crude oil he thought could be used to clean up oil spills. And so he applied for a patent, but was denied on the basis that living things were not patentable. After a few legal proceeding the case went to the Supreme Court and it was decided on June 16 1980 that he could in fact patent his 'creation'. The court reasoned (in 5/4 ruling) that Congress had intended "anything under the sun made by man" to be patentable, and that the scientist's claim was to a "non-naturally occurring manufacture or composition of matter - a product of human ingenuity". Multinational seed company Monsanto (for one) has taken this concept and ran with it. They have created many bioengineered plant seeds crossed with other organisms they would never be crossed in natural life with the aims of helping farmers produce more output and retard against pests. Monsanto is the worlds largest seller of seeds and has all but (if not) cornered the market in corn and soy plants that farmers buy and plant. In order for a farmer to buy these seeds he has to sign legal agreements to not save his seeds (hence buying again the next year) and sometimes to as well use special pesticides designed by Monsanto. Also par tof the contract the farm can be inspected at any time to check for breach of contract. A number of lawsuits have ensued with even non-Monsanto affiliated farmers being sued for evidently not digging out crops that have grown on their land from seeds blowing over property lines. It has been the case that these farmers have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and eventually out of court settlements. I look forward to the upcoming release of a book by John Park called The Last Farmer : How One Man Took on Monsanto for the Future of Food, for a closer look.