George Kimbrell and Debbie Barker: Sowing The Seeds Of Dissent: Court takes on patents on life forms

In response, farmers resort to more soil-eroding tillage operations to combat the weeds, and they turn to more toxic chemicals. Based on data from the USDA, as much as 26 percent more pesticides per acre were used on genetically engineered crops than on conventional crops.

And what is the industry's response? Monsanto is planning to seek approval

for dicamba-resistant soybeans, corn and cotton. Dow AgroSciences is seeking USDA approval of soybeans and corn

resistant to 2, 4-D, an active ingredient in Agent Orange.

It is difficult to understand how such innovation is enhancing the environment.

Finally, the agrochemical industry claims that its seed innovation has provided farmers more choices. Yet the market concentration of 10 agrochemical companies owning about two-thirds of global commercial seed for major crops has narrowed the choice of seeds for farmers and resulted in higher seed prices. Over an 11-year period, the cost per acre of planting soybeans has risen a dramatic 325 percent.

Our organizations interviewed hundreds of farmers across the nation for a recent report, "Seed Giants v. U.S. Farmers." They explained that the high adoption rate of genetically engineered seed is largely because the companies have stopped offering conventional seed. One way to recoup the high investment that Monsanto and others say is spent on genetic engineering is to ensure that farmers have few other purchasing options.

When arguments from both sides have been presented, the Supreme Court justices will have to thoroughly consider the many complexities of patent law as it pertains to self-replicating organisms. But taking a few steps back from the microscope and the law books, they may find that there is a discussion to be had about a much deeper question: the appropriate role of ownership and control over the very elements of life.

Kimbrell is the senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety and Barker is the program director of Save Our Seeds and the international director of the Center for Food Safety.

LOS ANGELES TIMES