
In this article from Infowars, the writer describes a two year old article on farmwars.info as "groundbreaking", when in fact all it is doing is blaming "chemtrails" for problems that have been around (and understood) for many decades.
http://www.infowars.com/is-there-a-gmo-chemtrail-connection/
http://farmwars.info/?p=7760
The next three items on the list (ozone increases, acid rain, pollution) are variants of a more modern problem - low altitude industrial air pollution. This is relatively new, but it's something that's not mysterious, or a symptom of covert geoengineering (which would result in relatively small increases in pollution in the upper atmosphere). Air pollution comes from vehicles, factories, and power stations (as well as some natural like forest fires and volcanoes). So again, having crops that can withstand these factors is a good thing.
The final three factors are salt stress, heavy metals, mineralized soils. Here we get to the one thing that gets Infowars the most excited: "heavy metals".
http://www.infowars.com/is-there-a-gmo-chemtrail-connection/
http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/bitstream/10150/192795/1/B053-1906.pdf

And here is an 1893 article discussing the problem of salt build up in irrigated land since ancient time in Egypt:
http://books.google.com/books?id=HotIAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA169&ots=6f-9wB4oD6&dq="Irrigation and agriculture in Egypt:"&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q&f=false


"Mineralized soils" is similar, but with more generality than just salt (the most common mineral problem). Some soils are higher in minerals than other. Some times minerals are useful plant nutrients, but as with everything if you have too much, then it becomes toxic.
Heavy metals occur in nature, but the more common problem for agriculture is industrial runoff into rivers that are used for irrigation, and also when treated waste-water is used directly for irrigation. This type of pollution has been around for many decades, and so, like with all the other factors here, it would be a good idea to have crops that could resist it.
Here's a 1974 paper on the heavy metal problem:
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/54/1/122.full.pdf

And another from 1979

So in summary - these patents are clearly useful for existing condition - condition that have been a problem in all cases for at least 50 years, and in some cases thousands of years. And in all cases, the causes of the plant stressors are known and understood. There's no need to invent a hypothetical reason (like "chemtrails") for developing plants that are more resistant to these stressors. It's obviously a highly desirable thing to do, and in fact something farmers have been trying to do for hundreds of years with selective breeding techniques. Monsanto has simple expanded upon that long heritage of dealing with these problems by adding the new technique of genetic modification.
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