Mon$anto vs. Mother Earth

EscapeArtist

Power corrupts. Any organization that gets to a certain size becomes more concerned with serving and protecting itself at the expense of everything and everyone around it. Governments, corporations, unions, all of them and more. It doesn't always have a deleterious effect, or if the organization is small enough, the effect is contained to a small scope and doesn't really affect the lives surrounding it enough to cause concern.

The problem is serious when we have corporations that get so large they affect the stability of the world. A prime example is the banking/lending crisis of this decade. Given free reign, greed wins, and they seek to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing while simultaneously taking government money that comes from the very people hurt by the actions and greed of the massive corporation.

Monsanto is no different. They seek to protect themselves and, above all else, profit. Damage to people and the environment is the cost of doing business, it's factored in. The problem with Monsanto is the global span of their bad practices. Pesticide that contaminates the ground and (miraculously!) the only seeds that will grow in that ground are the ones owned by Monsanto. What a racket that is! Nevermind the effects of GMO plants spreading beyond their fields and terrible labor practices. Monsanto will do anything to control the people they need to, the ones that will tell us it's all OK. Go ahead and eat that. You don't need a peer-reviewed study. Just buy that corn-based cereal. Our study says it's just fine.

mics_54

Just a moment...

(skeptico.blogs.com)

India was on the brink of mass famine. Huge shipments of food aid from America were all that stood between its swelling population and a terrible fate.

...

Borlaug refused to be so pessimistic. He arrived in India in March 1963 and began testing three new varieties of Mexican wheat. The yields were four or five times better than Indian varieties. In 1965, after overcoming much bureaucratic opposition, Swaminathan persuaded his government to order 18,000 tonnes of Borlaug's seed.

…

Eager farmers took it up with astonishing results. By 1974, India wheat production had tripled and India was self-sufficient in food; it has never faced a famine since. In 1970 Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for firing the first shot in what came to be called the “green revolution”.

Today scientists use thermal neutrons, X-rays, or ethyl methane sulphonate, a harsh carcinogenic chemical—anything that will damage DNA—to generate mutant cereals. Virtually every variety of wheat and barley you see growing in the field was produced by this kind of “mutation breeding”. No safety tests are done; nobody protests. The irony is that genetic modification (GM) was invented in 1983 as a gentler, safer, more rational and more predictable alternative to mutation breeding—an organic technology, in fact. Instead of random mutations, scientists could now add the traits they wanted.

In 2004 200m acres of GM crops were grown worldwide with good effects on yield (up), pesticide use (down), biodiversity (up) and cost (down). There has not been a single human health problem. Yet, far from being welcomed as a greener green revolution, genetic modification soon ran into fierce opposition from the environmental movement.

srx

This is not about Americans, Europeans or any other.., this is about humans (Americans are first victims). Monsanto is using Divide et impera technique. The earliest proofs: http://rt.com/news/monsanto-rats-tumor-france-531/. What is interesting here is that nobody have done this experiments for more than, I think 4 months. French sciences done it for two years, and discovered that bad things started to happen after what do you think how long? The root of this evil is that you can buy anything with money, so Monsanto is buying.

mics_54

Farmers aren't forced to use Monsanto seeds.
Using GM seeds doesn't ruin the soil and make it only suitable for GM seeds.
Using GM seeds increases production..decreases fertilizer...increases resistance to insects and disease...
GM seeds makes food cheaper.

olishea

mics54 there are two sides to every argument, can you not see the negatives to GM crops? Or have you just skimmed over them?

We need to rethink structuring of food production, not the structure of a plant's genetics.

@mics_54 said:

Farmers aren't forced to use Monsanto seeds.
1)Using GM seeds doesn't ruin the soil and make it only suitable for GM seeds.
2)Using GM seeds increases production..decreases fertilizer...increases resistance to insects and disease...
3)GM seeds makes food cheaper.

But you can not control their cross pollination with other non GM-crops (or indeed the mutated outcome).
Disease mutates constantly into various new diseases. Your resilient GM crop could be useless tomorrow. There are also NATURAL ways to make plants more resistant to disease through intelligent and responsible breeding.
Really? Last time I checked food is getting more expensive! Never seen food ever become cheaper, ever!!! No issues before GM either.

Let's not forget many GM produced crops are only researched and produced within a couple of months, nature has spent millions of years getting the genetics right. Little bit arrogant for any "scientist" to even think they know what they are doing and especially in the long term!! Because we just don't know.

mics_54

does nobody here see or read what I post???????

olishea

no, quote your statements again so we can see them a third time.

solo

@mics_54 said:

does nobody here see or read what I post???????

If you mean this: http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/genetic_engineering/

I did and I posted a reply but later retracted it as it was really nasty.

So, let me challenge you to read the replies, one will destroy everything he said and send him into hiding.

Oh, by the by I never prefaced before but if you go to my Google profile (the one they used to introduce me to Base camp) I have a MSC , masters degree in food science (majored in organic sugars, worked confectionery for over a decade in Johannesburg for international companies), which does not make me a master but I do understand these issues (I assumed you knew this).

Feel free to disregard my opinion based on who I am and what I believe, but all I ask is to have an open mind to search the facts and truths, do not believe a source that has an agenda.

mics_54

what, no cheering for Boston?

EscapeArtist

@mics_54 said:

Farmers aren't forced to use Monsanto seeds.
Using GM seeds doesn't ruin the soil and make it only suitable for GM seeds.
Using GM seeds increases production..decreases fertilizer...increases resistance to insects and disease...
GM seeds makes food cheaper.

If you actually did some research you'd know that:

Monsanto makes roundup. The repeated use of roundup makes the soil toxic to "normal" seeds.
Monsanto makes seeds resistant to their own herbicide. Those seeds are patented, you can only get them from Monsanto.

Therefore you are correct that GM seeds do not ruin the soil.
Using GM seeds does do the things you say. But let's conveniently ignore cross-pollination and the fact that once nature adapts (and nature ALWAYS adapts)the bugs will ignore the modifications and weeds will overcome the herbicides, you will conveniently be forced to buy the next-gen Monstanto product. Or starve. Ignore the super-bugs and -weeds that start invading non-GMO fields too. Guess they can buy Monsanto's products too. Or starve.