8/5/11

GMOs are Monsanto and Syngenta scams

Genetically modified organisms are manufactured by industry not to stem hunger but to enrich stockholders. hipneck is on full tilt about it and passed this video to ip.



From John Robbins at HuffPo:
While Monsanto would like us to believe they are seeking to alleviate world hunger, there is actually a very dark side to the company's efforts. For countless centuries farmers have fed humanity by saving the seed from one years crop to plant the following year. But Monsanto, the company that claims its motives are to help feed the hungry, has developed what it calls a "Technology Protection System" that renders seeds sterile. Commonly known as "terminator technology" and developed with taxpayer funding by the USDA and Delta Pine Land Company (an affiliate of Monsanto), the process genetically alters seeds so that their offspring will be sterile for all time. If employed, this technology would ensure that farmers cannot save their own seeds, but would have to come back to Monsanto year after year to purchase new ones. Critics refer to these genetically engineered seeds as suicide seeds. Despite the PR, Monsanto's goal is not to make hunger history. It's to control the staple crops that feed the world.
From the NRDC Switchboard blog is evidence that organic food production can solve hunger throughout the planet:
Under the microscope, healthy soils are teaming with life, with bacteria, nematodes, tiny arthropods and mycorrhizal fungi that cycle nutrients back to the plant. It’s a living city beneath our feet. Soils doused in harmful chemicals, by contrast, are revealed under the scope to be lifeless and inert.
Matthew Koehler takes on Keystone XL at Left in the West:
A wonderful coalition of environmental groups has built a strong campaign across the continent -- from Cree and Dene indigenous leaders to Nebraska farmers, they've spoken out strongly against the destruction of their land. We need to join them, and to say even if our own homes won't be crossed by this pipeline, our joint home -- the earth -- will be wrecked by the carbon that pours down it. And we need to say something else, too: it's time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces. We will, each day through Labor Day, march on the White House, risking arrest with our trespass. We will do it in dignified fashion, demonstrating that in this case we are the conservatives, and that our foes -- who would change the composition of the atmosphere -- are dangerous radicals.

24 comments:

freegan said...

Thanks for posting video, here is some more info. In 2010, more than 365 million acres were planted worldwide with genetically engineered (GMO) seeds.
The U.S. leads the world with more than 165 million acres of GMO crops, mostly Roundup Ready® crops.
Monsanto owns patents on the genes of more than 93% of soybeans, 80% of corn, and 95% of sugar beets planted in the U.S. -- all genetically modified to be resistant to the weed killer Roundup.
In 2007, more than 185,000,000 lbs. of Roundup were applied to U.S. crops, the year the Bush administration halted reporting of the herbicide's application rates.
In 1992, U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle announced that GMO foods would not be "hampered by unnecessary regulation", freeing Monsanto of the burden of independent testing or labeling of GMO foods for the American public.
Are you eating GMOs?
Tell the Obama administration to stop the planting of GMO alfalfa & sugar beets

Real science said...

where is the scam

Steve Savage said...

"Saved Seed" is not quite the ideal you imagine. It just means that a farmer is not taking and control over the genetics of the crop he/she is growing. That works as a means of unintentional adaptation in subsistence farming, but for at least the last century, growers in the developed world have greatly improved their land-use-efficiency by intentional breeding and the use of improved varieties. Most "land-race" cropping systems that rely on saved seed are 4-5 times less productive. GMO seeds are only one in a series of historical improvements. You call those "scams." Well, those scams happen to feed us

freegan said...

We should actually be caring for the soil. Its the soil that takes care of us. The pesticides that you spay you gmo crops with is killing the living soil so then you must use a synthetic fertilizer that the plants only take in a small percent,the rest ends up creating dead zones in our waterways. It is a myth that gmos are providing more food, they do ,however do more for the economies because you must buy more product. Farmers get scammed into buying gm products and end up in debt because this type of farming is not sustainable. Someday the sheeple will awake! Conventional wisdom is not necessarily true. "Conventional wisdom is additionally often seen as an obstacle to the acceptance of newly acquired information, to introducing new theories and explanations, and therefore operates as an obstacle that must be overcome by legitimate revisionism."

freegan said...

I think you guys are so involved in doing the "right thing" that you are not accepting the feedback.

Steve Savage said...

Hipneck,
The idea that you can "kill soil" with a quart of anything sprayed on it surface is absurd. There are literally billions of organisms living in every cubic centimeter of soil and they can go up and down in population by factors of 100,000 easily, but not from something like a weed spray. The activity that does the most to kill of soil organisms is tillage - something that Organic growers have to do because they don't have herbicide options.

As for patents. They have long proven their utility as a way to encourage investment. This is nothing different. Actually, a great many of Monsanto's key patents are timing out.

Also, 185 million may sound like a big number to you, but that is probably on over 150 million acres of land - actually a very low use rate/area. Also, glyphosate is rapidly broken down to harmless things by soil microbes.

As for independent testing. Anyone who wants to pay for that can do so. All drugs and crop protection chemicals are tested in labs that are closely audited by outside authorities, but the cost is borne by the company. Did you want to pay millions of dollars out of your pocket? Who do you imagine would pay?

If you are still concerned, you are obviously free to "grow your food." Go for it

larry kurtz said...

glyphosate is just one ingredient: POEA is the killer. It disrupts umbical membrane in mammals and breaks down the blood brain barrier. My guess is that it is linked to white nose syndrome in bats.

Industrial agriculture kills soil, don't deny it.

larry kurtz said...

Btw: hipneck is not only growing his own food, he is leading an effort to build greenhouses with a 180 degree geothermal source that will feed a resort.

larry kurtz said...

umbilical

freegan said...

s.d.savage, herbicides are lethal to beneficial soil organisms like mycorrhizae and nitrogen-fixing bacteria.They are toxic to aquatic plants and animals.The use of herbicides has some negative effects on bird populations. Most observed effects are due to toxicity as well as habitat changes and decrease in food and shelter.
Spray in pesticides will also lead to a reduction of organic matter in the soil. If you think These oil based chemicals and GMOs are good for consumption keep eating them, we will continue to study the effects! Here is another point Henry Kissinger declared in the 1970’s, ‘If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.

larry kurtz said...

Here is a great article about fungi in TreeHugger. Check out the worm piece there, too.

freegan said...

We have 4 worm bins going.

freegan said...

genetic engineering was put into place in order to have patent on seed thus making seed collecting illegal! watch this great video. http://youtu.be/ioWjbIXqoPo

Steve Savage said...

Hipneck,
it has been possible to patent seed varieties for many decades prior to GMOs and it is widely practiced. Many crops have been hybrid since the 1930s so growers buy that seed every year. Farmers spend the money to get the best genetics and traits because it helps with their bottom line

freegan said...

"Biotech companies want more than anything is for the food revolution to be patented. Why is that? Because, unlike pharmaceuticals, patented genes will never go "generic" after some number of years. Monsanto and its biotech buddies can keep milking that transgenetic cow for decade after decade. But if you're a farmer, GMO seeds can literally blow in to your fields on the breeze or just the pollen from GMO crops can blow in (or buzz in via bees) and contaminate your organic or "conventional" fields. And if that happens, Monsanto or Syngenta or Bayer CropLife maintain the right to sue you as if you had illegally bought their seed and knowingly planted it. "SUSTAINABLE FOOD
Reversing roles, farmers sue Monsanto over GMO seeds 141

BY TOM LASKAWY

Steve Savage said...

Hipneck,
The quote from Tom is simply wrong. Biotech patents expire on the same timeline as any other. The original Roundup Ready soybean patent is already expiring. Many others are soon to follow.

If you look into the details of the lawsuits, they were not about any unintended "contamination" issues. They were about "brown bagging" and other fully intentional patent violations. In the famous Percy Schmeiser case, he was intentionally applying glyphosate and then collecting the seeds from the surviving plants to use the next year (again, intending to take advantage of the herbicide tolerance)

larry kurtz said...

More on Monsanto and Syngenta GMO scams: http://madvilletimes.com/2011/09/connections-monsanto-ethanol-and-nastier-rootworms/

freegan said...

Monsanto's insect-killing corn is toppling over in northwestern Illinois fields, a sign that rootworms outside of Iowa may have developed resistance to the genetically modified crop, according to one scientist.

larry kurtz said...

Good eye. NPR reported that these 'crops' are dying in the fields. The acreage committed to livestock fodder in this country borders on obscene.

freegan said...

nice video here http://www.linktv.org/programs/michael-pollan-deep-agriculture

freegan said...

By Mike Adams, NaturalNews Editor
June 13 - In this breaking news for the food-conscious community, the California Secretary of State has just announced that the GMO labeling ballot measure has met and exceeded the requirements to be placed on the November ballot. (http://www.sos.ca.gov/admin/press-releases/2012/db12..

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/Index.html#ixzz1xi4qj6ot

larry kurtz said...

Thanks for the update, bro: hope all is well out there.

See this?

freegan said...

Nice, I had not seen that yet.


http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2012/06/collapse-now-and-avoid-rush.html?spref=tw

freegan said...

http://permaculturenews.org/2012/09/21/first-ever-long-term-study-of-monsantos-roundup-and-roundup-resistant-maize-brings-shocking-results/