Some of my colleagues and I have been following the discussion about how some Christians believe that (or have wondered if) Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ. While we think about putting together something on that story, in Other Anti-Christ News, the RNS reported this week on a farmer named Michael White who believes that rules restricting seed exchanges and replanting are not just bad agriculture, but a sign of the End of Days:

“The Anti-Christ will use seed to control nations and people,” White writes in the book he published in May, ‘The 666′s Are in the Seed.’ … “He will also use seed to create food shortages. Pantented seed will become the most prized possession of the Antichrist.” 

I first got angry about the rules governing seed patents while reading Barbara Kingsolver’s engrossing Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It’s a nerve-wrecking shame, and I number myself among those who are waking up to the problems of big agriculture and trying in myriad small ways to affect change. 

Farmer links seed patents to the Antichrist

By KAY CAMPBELL

c. 2008 Religion News Service

    DUTTON, Ala. — Michael White keeps a Mason jar full of wheat grains

next to his well-worn Bible.

    The jar was filled by his great-grandfather decades before anyone

dreamed of genetically altering plants or animals. The jar reminds him

of what he considers God’s first earthly gift to humanity: seeds.

    It’s a gift that is in danger of being eradicated, White says,

through increased genetic manipulation of plants, hybridization and the

patenting of genes by large corporations. God’s gift of seeds, given the

day after he separated dry land from water, according to Genesis, is not

something that should be taken away from a farmer. To forbid a farmer or

gardener from gathering his own seed to replant the next year is

something White sees as one of the signs of the end of time.

    “The Antichrist will use seed to control nations and people,” White

writes in the book he published in May, “The 666′s Are in the Seed,” a

title that refers to the traditional number of the Antichrist of

Revelation. “He will also use seed to create food shortages. Patented

seed will become the most prized possession of the Antichrist.”

    Like many Christians, White, who farms near Scottsboro, Ala.,

believes the years before Jesus returns to Earth will be a “time of

trouble,” filled with the chaos predicted in Matthew and Revelation:

war, famine, pestilence, plagues and a world-wide totalitarian

government. Many Christians believe a globally idolized figure, the

Antichrist, will rule the world.

    White has been through his own “time of trouble” over seeds. A few

years ago he and his father were sued by Monsanto for patent violation

– it is illegal to save seed from patented plants for re-planting. At

the time of the lawsuit, he said, his retired father hadn’t farmed in

years.

    The lawsuit against his 85-year-old father was dropped in the spring

of 2006, shortly before White agreed to settle out of court with

Monsanto. White will not comment on the details of that settlement. The

consent injunction and judgment in the case states that White had

planted, saved, cleaned and sold patented seed.

    Who won or lost in the legal tussles he had, White says, is

immaterial. What matters is that people understand that seed patents,

non-reproducing hybrids and plants engineered to produce seeds that

terminate a germinating seedling are part of what he considers an

immoral corporate and legal control of one of God’s first gifts to

humankind.

    Most seed scientists claim that genetically modified plants are the

key to future bounty. Monsanto and other agri-corporations argue that

protecting their patents through their Seed Stewardship programs enables

their scientists to make more discoveries and ultimately to benefit all.

    In fact, patents “facilitate technology innovation which benefits

all farmers, including the most resource-poor,” says John Combest, an

issues manager for Monsanto, who commented about criticism of seed

patents and genetic engineering by e-mail. Monsanto, he said, is helping

to develop seeds to produce plants that tolerate drought and increase

yields. Those seeds will be licensed to the African Agriculture

Technology Foundation for distribution without royalties to farmers,

Combest wrote.

    Many religious thinkers, however, have warned against the practical

and long-term effects of tinkering with a system God put into place at

creation. Statements of concern over genetic engineering and patenting

of seeds have been issued by Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics,

Baptists, Muslims, the National Council of Churches and others.

    One of the most recent was circulated by the International Catholic

Rural Association, signed by some 250 religious leaders and faith

groups, and presented to a United Nations’ meeting on food security in

June. The goal of these groups, says Jaydee Hanson, who worked on

bioethics issues for the United Methodist Church and now works at the

Center for Food Safety, is to make sure farmers are not restricted from

saving or exchanging seeds. That saving or exchanging is currently

prohibited by Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

    “TRIPS … hinder farmers’ innovations,” Hanson wrote in a recent

e-mail. “Plants, seeds and genes (should be) part of creation which

cannot be claimed by intellectual property rights.”

    Michael White sees a blessing in his own troubles, although, he

says, the three-year legal fight over seed patents cost him his

business, his first marriage, his health and nearly killed his father.

The shed at White’s seed-cleaning business was shuttered for four years

when his customers quit coming after they received query letters from

Monsanto’s lawyers, he said. The shed is now stacked with bags of the

foundation seed he bought from Auburn University.

    These seeds, he says, are like his great-grandfather’s wheat. They

will germinate plants that produce seeds that anyone can save and

replant for the next year’s harvest. 

    White is now getting orders for the heritage seed from farmers who

haven’t planted conventional seeds in eight or nine years.

    “I hope there’s some good news in this picture,” White said this

week. “It’s a monster, but people are waking up. The trend is finally

turning around and going back to conventional. I hope I can wake some

people up and get back to growing their own food.”

    Even more important, White says, he hopes his book points out one of

the ways people can see that the end of earthly time is at hand.

    “Unsaved reader, it’s altar call again,” White writes in his book’s

conclusion. “The food shortages have begun. … The 666′s are in the

seed.”