I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about the ability of states to break patents, so I’ll have to take your word for it. Regardless, I don’t think the role of patents in technological innovation is diminshed.

Either way, I don’t think a state-run, patent-breaking agricultural operation is a goal worth pursuing.

That will be all.

1st, can I just be thankful for coming to the realization that just because I’m poor, that doesn’t mean I should feel guilty every time I buy a book for my son or a shirt for work?

2ndly, as someone who’s just qualified for Food Stamps I’m absolutely thrilled to be getting that extra $57 a month. I’m earning almost $1000 a month, net, now, and trying to take care of everything – me, baby, stay-at-home husband, gas, bills – on that amount is pretty crazy. While I earn a great wage, I only work part-time, splitting the full-time position with another mom (single, w/ 2 kids). My son is too young for me to work full time, but I’m lucky that my husband is willing to watch him while I’m at work (also, we live in a rural area w/no public transpo, we only have one care, he doesn’t drive). So anyway, you’ll all be amused to know that last year, when I was earning $450 a month – a month – I wasn’t eligible because of my husband’s saving account – which is in another country. So, thank you, Obama Administration, for doing away with that whole ‘saving’s accounts = income’ nonsense. That also made me ineligable for Fuel Assistance (thanks, Mom…I’m glad you get a pension, but it sucks that you spent $2800 of it on me).

Can I get a shout out for Vermont WIC? Seriously, you fucking rock. Getting Cabot cheese, milk, 3 different kinds of juice, heaps of beans, tuna, carrots (okay, 2lbs of carrots a month is just too many) 2 1/2 doz eggs, cereal, peanut butter – fuck me, you’ve even got options for vegetarians. And vouchers for the farmer’s markets in summer. I heart Vermont WIC.

So yeah, I’m going to spend that $57 buying meat at my local Coop, which means I won’t have to buy meat for that month, maybe even a little longer if I plan right. Which means I can try and pay down my credit card debt, which keeps expanding despite my best efforts.

And seriously, wtf is a Bronx grape?

The point is that “the government” is not a monolithic entity. It would not be legal for the [b]federal[/b] government to run a farm without paying the patent holder, but it is for a [b]state[/b] government. I’m not saying this is a good thing from an economic or theoretical perspective, I’m telling you what the actual current US law says (and it probably can’t realistically be changed without a constitutional amendment, either). States can and do violate patents all the time, and there is not one solitary thing a patent holder can do about it. This does not seem to undermine the value of patents in the US too radically now, so it’s not really “no different than if patents didn’t exist at all.”

Although I agree that people aren’t going to jump on enormous state-run farms, especially right out of the gate. If it started as a portion of state food assistance, though, I could actually see it getting started on a small scale and then growing.

The entire point of a patent is that it is enforced/protected by the government. If the government wantonly broke the patent, it would be no different than if patents didn’t exist at all.

Plus, I don’t think most people are going to jump on the idea of enormous, state-run farms. ;-)

As for myself, I buy – at me local Coop, which sources as much locally and in-state as it possibly can – organic meat in bulk. It’s not grass-fed or anything, but at least it’s hormone and anti-biotic free. And, as it turns out, it’s not only better for you but you get a hella lot more for your money. Frex, for $9 I can get 6lbs of bone in, free range, anti-biotic and hormone free chicken that will easily get me through 5-6 meals, more if I make lots soup from the bones and leftover flesh–ah baby up, gotta go.

As I already explained, I was not aiming at somebody specifically, I was trying to illustrate that Lume’s comment read very black-or-white to me, as if the only positions on genetic modifications were extreme ones. If my comment left you wanting to point out that there is a middle ground, that is exactly the point I wanted to make.

Interestingly, because of a quirk of our federal system, states cannot be sued for violating patent rights (except in some limited circumstances that are not relevant here). It would be entirely legal for the state of Iowa, say, to establish enormous state farms using RR seed, save some of the seed for subsequent years, and sell the corn. (They might not be able to sell the seed to farmers for subsequent use – there’s a sticky patent law question there that is not yet answered to my knowledge.)