Letters to the Editor
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It won't just be Monsanto
It won't just be Monsanto pressuring the government to shrink the size of refuges. Keep in mind, in the short run, these refuges will be less productive. Farmers themselves have all kinds of incentive to hope their neighbor will plant those refuges, but that they themselves get to plant the BT-plants. If it were your farm, why would you want to plant anything other than the most productive, most resistant plants? Many farmers are on the edge, gambling with their livelihood. Every. Single. Year. (Full disclosure: I'm the son of farmers, and many of my cousins still farm). If you're gambling that way, wouldn't you want to stack the deck with the most productive plants?
The government always has to take the collective's best interests to heart, rather than individuals. It's true for farming. It's true for fishing. It's too bad that more often than not the government takes the loudest voices to heart, not the collective.