patenting seeds?

Good overview article by Carey Gilliam in Reuters about an upcoming court case regarding seed patents.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/10/us-monsanto-lawsuit-idUSBRE8B917T20121210

I'm all for protecting innovation, but I'm not so much for using the patent system to leverage innovation protection into non-competitive market dominance or oppression. There are real policy issues: food policy, farm policy, food safety, as well as intellectual property policy.  I hope the path forward incorporates all the considerations that affect the economic health of society, and not just considerations of intellectual property maximization designed to benefit the incumbent biggest corporations.  Just sayin'

Thanks to the interwebs for a photo of seeds.