Wow. What a polarizing topic.

I think Monsanto is attempting to do what Disney managed to do quite successfully over the years:

Disney took the best of the Creative Commons and made movies about them. Stories we grew up with (Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, Winnie The Pooh, etc) was developed massively for sale. The public ate it up, the public bought the toys, the halloween costumes, the tv spin-off shows, everything. It was wonderful. The sticky side to the story is that Disney took ownership of the Creative Commons, and refuses to let go of it. Anyone who attempts to perform a derivative is sued into a smoking crater.

So, the stories told from parent to child, that have lasted generation after generation are now under perpetual ownership by a conglomerate who is only beholden to the shareholders.

I see Monsanto being a sort of "food version" of Disney. You can buy our seeds and you can buy our pesticides to go with them. You may not replant those seeds. Ever. And what happens to the farmer that tries it for a season, don't like it, and goes back to normal seeds? I'm pretty confident that there will be enough of Monsanto's "patented technology" in the DNA of the next growing season to turn that farmer into a smoking crater as well. DNA hops between plants like wildfire. What will Monsanto do, other than sue their way into owning the entire food chain?

Entertainment is easy. Stories are fun to make up, and playing guitar is an awesome hobby to have. We can always make new stories to tell our kids and grandkids and ignore how Disney desecrated the Creative Commons. But, when it comes to food, there is no 'we can do it better next time'. Monsanto's patented genes get unleashed into the wild (and it has), then it will open up the food supply to the danger of being owned by one company, by one conglomerate.

And they are not going to give it back.