Categorical Aperitif

You wouldn't think that a guy named Percy Schmeiser—a Canadian, no less—could be such a badass, but check out last week's Democracy Now! segment on this mild-mannered farmer and his mild-mannered wife and their long battle with Monsanto, the corporation that messed up the Schmeisers' crops and then made the mistake of giving them sh*t about it, from lawsuits all the way down to brute physical harassment. And all over crap like this:

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what you mean by a terminator seed.

PERCY SCHMEISER: A terminator gene basically, quite simply, is a gene that’s put into a seed. And when the seed becomes a plant, all seeds from that plant are sterile. And so, it cannot be used the following year for seed. But the danger also of the terminator gene, it can cross-pollinate into indigenous crops, heirloom crops, and render those seeds from those plants also sterile. So it’s a termination of the future of life.

AMY GOODMAN: So it forces farmers to buy seeds every year, rather than to conserve seeds so that they can be used every year.

PERCY SCHMEISER: Exactly. And that’s why we say it’s the greatest assault of life we’ve ever seen on this planet, where you terminate the future of life. Farmers would be forced to buy the seed each year, whether you’re a gardener, a tree planter or a grain producer.

Man, genius doesn't get much more evil than that. Before long they'll be using chemicals to render us impotent and then charging us for the privilege of f*cking.

Hey, wait a minute....