How can you order a farmer to destroy their trees? I hope he fights in a higher court. Wish I’d heard about the nectarine giveaway. I’d have gone to pick some.

  • settxy@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Uh… pretty much the entire agriculture industry works this way… Monsanto forces farmers to sign licenses that they won’t use the seeds produced by their crops to grow more crops.

    • mesa@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      **It does and it doesn’t. **

      I worked in the industry for many years. Theres more spit and handshake agreements than people are aware of. Definitely in the Central Valley. Its a whole industry full of legal loopholes. Licensing crops can be as easy as a written signature with one page to whole multi-company rights etc…etc…

      Also growers/transportation/storage/etc… are sometimes all the same multi-conglomerate and with the same owner. But have a different business license/business. That way, if one gets sued only one goes down. Also one can have a huge tax related issue and have “losses”. Lots of creative work there.

      So yeah its not black and white as most people think. Significant amounts of your food is both licensed with a huge agreement…and others are “unlicensed” but licensed as a spit/handshake. Mellons are a perfect example.

      Dont get me started on the commodities markets…and onions.