It's a classic struggle of free market proponents vs. democracy of for and by the people.
The farmers in North Dakota decided they would use a democratic process to decide what was best for their farms, rather than letting corporations or their political lackeys do it for them.
It's good reading regardless of whether you ever think about where a loaf of bread comes from or not.
North Dakota has a history of cooperative economics and populist political movements beginning with the Nonpartisan League, a populist party formed in N.D. in 1915.
North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party Blog
North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party
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The term "Roundup-ready" means a plant that has been genetically modified to be resistant to the weed killer Roundup made by Monsanto. One of the concerns ND farmers had was the adverse economic impact if G.M. wheat caused them to lose trading partners outside of the U.S. The E.U. and Japan have instituted bans on G.M. products.
One of the seemingly obvious effects of "Roundup-ready" plants is the appearance of Superweeds as weeds crossbreed with the genetically modified Roundup-ready plants, or by a process of unnatural selection where only the weed most resistent to Roundup survives. It's sort of like the deal with antibiotics and the advent of superbugs. We now have super weeds that can't be killed by Roundup so we have to create some other pesticide. At some point we may accidently create the unkillable superweed...not unlike the ;-)
Sorry - I couldn't help myself from putting that silly movie reference in here. I imagine the cotton farmers in Georgia don't think the appearance of Roundup-resistant pigweed is such a big joke.
