[dionidium]

Clearly we're off topic now, but if you actually look at what farmers have to say about Monsanto almost all the complaints boil down to, "Monsanto has some rules we don't like, but what can we do? Their seeds produce the greatest yields, so we're forced to buy them!"

Obviously farmers wish they could get a better deal on their seeds, but nobody is forcing them to use Monsanto. They use Monsanto crops because the technology works.

[Gordonjcp]

You've got it backwards. Farmers want to make more money from what they grow, but supermarkets push the price down. Look at milk, for example - big supermarket chains pay farmers just barely above cost for milk at the farm gate and sell it at barely above cost as a kind of loss leader. What option do farmers have but to sell it, make fuck all off it, and try to work as cost-effectively as possible?

If you buy food from the supermarket, you're contributing to the decline of the planet's ecology, because it's the profitable thing to do.

[kragen]

This is a fully general criticism of competitive markets and is not limited to supermarkets. It applies with equal force to farmers, grain elevators, shippers, fertilizer makers, and (as you do note) the supermarkets' customers. You might argue that it applies with greater force to Monsanto (because they have government-granted monopolies on particular seeds) and to supermarket consumers (because they are not buying supplies for a product they are selling and can therefore choose to pay more).