NPR’s The Salt:

This week, the Supreme Court will take up a classic David-and-Goliath case. On one side, there’s a 75-year-old farmer in Indiana named Vernon Hugh Bowman; on the other, the agribusiness giant Monsanto.

The farmer is fighting the long reach of Monsanto’s patent on seeds — but he’s up against more than just Monsanto. The biotech and computer software industries are taking Monsanto’s side.

Bowman also is battling a historic shift that’s transformed the nation’s seed business over the past 20 years.

Read the full story…

Michigan State University Extension:

Each year, the Michigan State University Horticulture Demonstration Gardensevaluates hundreds of new annuals grown from seed or cuttings. Trial selections are supplied by private breeding companies and the plants are grown in MSUgreenhouses and transplanted into either ground beds or containers after the last frost has passed which is late May or early June.