Monsanto

[Correction]

Whatever came of Monsanto engineering their profit margin into plant fertilization? Terminator genes, plants that required patented chemicals to go into their fertilization cycles, etc. Google isn't returning terribly unbiased sources on the matter.

That was really the only objection raised to GMO foods I remember growing up. The whole organics crap didn't enter my conversations till like 5 years ago.

[Avanarius]

As my friend once said, if you put "Death Crystal Free!" on a product, it might lead you to believe that the other products do contain death crystals.

Cue ridiculous cop out lawyer argument.

I realize you can't simply write that your product is free of anything you want, but with the sources of material claiming these GM agents are IN OUR FOODS, that is a ridiculous analogy in this situation.

[Priran]

As my friend once said, if you put "Death Crystal Free!" on a product, it might lead you to believe that the other products do contain death crystals.

that was a shampoo commercial

[ZarakiKujata]

Whatever came of Monsanto engineering their profit margin into plant fertilization? Terminator genes, plants that required patented chemicals to go into their fertilization cycles, etc. Google isn't returning terribly unbiased sources on the matter.

That was really the only objection raised to GMO foods I remember growing up. The whole organics crap didn't enter my conversations till like 5 years ago.

Supreme Court voted in favor of it, with Clarence Thomas (I know lol, but he was a lawyer for Monsanto back in the day) writing the majority opinion in favor of Monsanto and terminator genes and patent protection.

[Correction]

Supreme Court voted in favor of it, with Clarence Thomas (I know lol, but he was a lawyer for Monsanto back in the day) writing the majority opinion in favor of Monsanto and terminator genes and patent protection.

The real question is whether or not these are the crops being sold to starving nations. "Here's your year's supply of food, let us know when you need another hit, we've got more for sale."

[eunhye]

Former US Secretary of Agriculture Anne Veneman was on the Board of Directors of Monsanto's Calgene Corporation. Former US Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, received $50,000 in donations from Monsanto during his winning campaign for Wisconsin's governor. Monsanto's lawyer was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1991 by George H. W. Bush. That same appointee was one of the deciding votes that confirmed George W. Bush as president. That Justice was Clarence Thomas. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was president of Searle Pharmaceuticals, which was purchased by Monsanto.

scary

[ZarakiKujata]

The real question is whether or not these are the crops being sold to starving nations. "Here's your year's supply of food, let us know when you need another hit, we've got more for sale."

Well its more the seeds being sold to developing nations not the crops. But yeah Monsanto has actively pursued this during India's Green Revolution (green in agriculture doesn't mean environmental but rather the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other modern farming techniques). This leaves the farmers in every increasing debt as they need to drill deeper and deeper wells because this method of farming is very water intensive and because of needing to buy new seeds since the next generation of Monsanto seeds do not have reproductive vigor (forgetting exact term and can't find my agriculture class notes on this shit). Anyways this actually why the Gates Foundation and other charities that are trying to develop the agriculture in African nations are trying to stay away from Monsanto and their seeds since this kind of farming would only exacerbate problems with African farming and farm lands.

[kuronosan]

Well its more the seeds being sold to developing nations not the crops. But yeah Monsanto has actively pursued this during India's Green Revolution (green in agriculture doesn't mean environmental but rather the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and other modern farming techniques). This leaves the farmers in every increasing debt as they need to drill deeper and deeper wells because this method of farming is very water intensive and because of needing to buy new seeds since the next generation of Monsanto seeds do not have reproductive vigor (forgetting exact term and can't find my agriculture class notes on this shit). Anyways this actually why the Gates Foundation and other charities that are trying to develop the agriculture in African nations are trying to stay away from Monsanto and their seeds since this kind of farming would only exacerbate problems with African farming and farm lands.

Hybridized plants are sterile and cannot pollenate naturally, so they have to be reproduced genetically through artificial means. That's one of the reasons genetically modified crops are so dangerous... even changing one seemingly-harmless gene can seriously ruin the organic makeup of a crop.

Whoever mentioned corn is correct, though. Most everything you eat, vegetables and fruits alike, came from genetically tampered foods.

[archibaldcrane]

I could not be less concerned about genetically modified crops.

[guartz]

What I really like is how Monsanto sues farmers who use their seeds without buying the license.

Whats that farmer joe? Neighbor's seeds blew into your farm? Likely story, now pay us 200 million dollars.

[Ruiner]

There's about an equal amount of bullshit on both sides of this argument.

[Kaeko]

I remember Food Inc. went off on Monsanto pretty badly.

Food, Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The part of the story involving Monsanto in the documentary was about a seed cleaner (a guy that comes in, finds the best seeds from the previous year, and then sells them to farmers for next years' harvest). He gets stalked by Monsanto PIs, his clients blacklisted, and eventually gets sued into oblivion.

They remind me of Scientology in that they employ a "sue to bankrupt" strategy. They basically sue people they know cannot afford a lawyer for a prolonged legal battle, so they win simply by having more money and waiting for the person to settle.

There is also a very famous case I had to study back in college where Monsanto patented their genetically engineered seed. The seeds moved around naturally, and a farmer who did not buy Monsanto seeds was found to have some crops that were genetically engineered purely by accident (how can you prevent all your acres of land from cross pollenating?). He was sentenced to 8 months prison for copyright infringement.

Monsanto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have no comment on genetically engineered food over organic, etc., but the government backing of this company coupled with their well-know litigious nature makes them really scary. People here already cited other issues like the labeling thing.

[Nystul]

say what you will about large farms or monsanto as a company but the anti-GM argument is basically built on fear and ignorance and a healthy dose of "OMG FRANKENFOODS! RUN!"

Years ago there was a project- I have no clue if this ever went through eventually- where companies wanted to irradiate meat (chicken/beef/etc) to kill off the microbes that may be living on the surface. It would use low level radiation. People flipped shit because they thought they would end up glowing. Too bad they didn't have a clue about how radiation works. The project would have been 100% safe, and far safer for the consumer relative to what they have now.

Monsanto produced the rounup-resistant strains. Roundup as an herbicide is incredibly safe. You can drink a glass of it and get nothing worse than some stomach cramps, it degrades quickly, and doesn't end up in runoff like many other herbicides. We KNOW that other forms of plant control are harmful to the environment and ourselves and we are AFRAID that a GM plant MAY be harmful even though the evidence is pretty flimsy and it's mostly just propoganda by ant-large farm/anti-large company/pro-fearmongering groups.

If I told you that you were in a room with 2 doors and behind the red door was a man eating tiger and behind the blue door there was a 10% chance there was a tiger and a 90% chance it was simply the exit, which door are you going to open? Fkn Bush administration...science education in this country needs a damned boost so people can stop making fear based decisions and start making intelligent and rational decisions.

[volcanicweather]

Funny this is a thread on BG. One of our biggest clients at work is a direct competitor to Monsanto (can't say who due to confidentiality reasons).

I'll say this about Monsanto though - they're one of the leaders in the crop industry for sure. Not saying anyone here has done this, but I find the double standard of people saying "ew GM food" and then complaining about how much food costs extremely humorous.

Do you know why our generation has so much money to spend on random shit? Because we spend the least amount of money on food out of any generation in history. We've figured out ways to increase yields, decrease waste, and be more efficient so more people don't have to farm and we can have cushy desk jobs. I know several "organic only" people who have never even set foot on a farm before and do it just because it's a posh thing to do (at least where I live).

One of my most interesting moments on a farm was viewing an "organic" alfalfa farm that was completely ravaged by the potato leafhopper bug. It just blew me away how a little tiny green bug just totally wrecked havoc on acres and acres on crops. Almost all the crop was basically all unusable. What a waste.

[Correction]

I don't know that the argument for or against the proliferation of GM food is going to go anywhere on BG, I'm mostly seeing 'who cares what's in my food as long as it's not poison and keeps food on my table.' My chief concern with Monsanto as a business is their alleged predatory and litigious nature, which is completely separate from whether or not it's right to market GM food overseas. From the looks of things Monsanto is giving with one hand "here's some high-yield pest-resistant food, Africa!" while taking away with the other "Oh and don't you dare share the seeds with your starving neighbors."

Just seems like a dick move.

[volcanicweather]

I don't know that the argument for or against the proliferation of GM food is going to go anywhere on BG, I'm mostly seeing 'who cares what's in my food as long as it's not poison and keeps food on my table.' My chief concern with Monsanto as a business is their alleged predatory and litigious nature, which is completely separate from whether or not it's right to market GM food overseas. From the looks of things Monsanto is giving with one hand "here's some high-yield pest-resistant food, Africa!" while taking away with the other "Oh and don't you dare share the seeds with your starving neighbors."

Just seems like a dick move.

The reason why they're giving is because they overproduce due to the government paying them on how much they produce, not the quality of the crop.

This is honestly the root of the problem. If the government were to further restrict their crop payment methods to ONLY the mom and pop farms (which are decreasing by the minute), I don't think we would see nearly as much of this going on.

Also in regards to the "predatory" nature of Monsanto - if they didn't exist do you think DeKalb or Pioneer would take this role? Probably, but to a lesser degree. As long as there is money involved people will do what it takes to get paid.

[archibaldcrane]

A good friend of mine is a produce manager at a small specialty grocery in my hometown of Madison - it's in a very liberal crunchy-granola "walk to the grocery store every day to buy ingredients for dinner" type of place.

They have a ton of organic produce there.

He says he never buys organic, because he sees how the organic produce is littered with bugs when it comes off the trucks to a 10:1 ratio vs. the non-organic. All he does all day is deal with produce, I have a hard time not believing him.

Enjoy your expensive bugs, hippies.

[Beckwin]

what's wrong with bugs? you're supposed to rinse produce before eating it anyway.

[ozz]

plus, how else are you ever going to get protein from lettuce?

[archibaldcrane]

what's wrong with bugs?

They eat the food that you want to be eating.