Farmer's Supreme Court fight to limit seed patents looks bleak

In 1994, Monsanto patented a type of genetically modified soybean that was able to resist its Roundup herbicide. The company called the soybeans Roundup Ready, and the seeds grew wildly popular. Today, Roundup Ready soybeans account for more than 90 percent of soybeans sold in the US. The crop is "probably the most rapidly adopted technological advance in history," said Monsanto's lawyer, Seth Waxman, arguing the Bowman v. Monsanto case at the Supreme Court on 20 February.

Monsanto found itself before the court today because its control over subsequent generations of soybean crops is being challenged by a 75-year-old Indiana man who farms a relatively small plot of soybeans -- just 300 acres of soybeans, corn, and wheat in all. "I'm not even big enough to be called a farmer," he told theNew York Times, speaking for an interview in the run-up to his big day in court.