why would you like to defend Monsanto
― locally sourced stabbage (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, January 11, 2012 5:03 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
yeah i had this exact question....
― tyga mother (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 11 January 2012 22:25 (twelve years ago) link
For fun and profit.
― Jeff, Wednesday, 11 January 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
Monsanto sucks in a lot of ways but the "tinkering with nature" hysteria is really tiresome. Most of the (non-GMO) plants and animals we eat have already been aberrations to "nature" for hundreds or thousands of years thanks to selective breeding.
― Oh shit, that's my bone! (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 11 January 2012 22:56 (twelve years ago) link
Even if I didn't mind tampering with my food, Monsanto would be the last entity I'd want touching it.
― *tera, Wednesday, 11 January 2012 22:56 (twelve years ago) link
amonsanto
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 11 January 2012 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
Some argue that deregulation is the best way to combat this, because the little guys just can't deal with it (I know wacky idea, and not one I entirely agree with).
Monsanto doesn't think it's a wacky idea!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 12 January 2012 00:27 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24644.cfm
Not only was it exposed that the U.S. is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto with military-style trade wars, but that many U.S. diplomats actually work directly for Monsanto.
In 2007 it was requested that specific nations inside the European Union be punished for not supporting the expansion of Monsanto's GMO crops. The request for such measures to be taken was made by Craig Stapleton, the United States ambassador to France and partner to George W. Bush. Despite mounting evidence linking Monsanto's GM corn to organ damage and environmental devastation, the ambassador plainly calls for 'target retaliation' against those not supporting the GM crop. In the leaked documents, Stapleton states:
"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices."
― Milton Parker, Monday, 23 January 2012 19:49 (twelve years ago) link
I know it's not the main problem being addressed in this article, but I've seen the organ damage study referenced a lot. Just to refute that, here is one scientist's take on the problems with the study and conclusions reached: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/01/15/gm-corn-organ-failure-lots-of-sensationalism-few-facts/
Trade wars, government corrupt, environmental devastation, sure, I wouldn't put it past them. But organ damage from GMO corn, not likely.
― Jeff, Monday, 23 January 2012 20:43 (twelve years ago) link
Not that this is a totally reassuring thought, but if there was a food product introduced into the mainstream food supply -- one that, in fact, was found in almost EVERYTHING we eat -- and it caused organ failure, wouldn't you see a sudden and alarming rise in organ failure?
― frogBaSeball (Hurting 2), Monday, 23 January 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/01/15/gm-corn-organ-failure-lots-of-sensationalism-few-facts/
interesting
though the last three paragraphs are hardly reassuring
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 01:05 (twelve years ago) link
there was an essay i remember reading in one of those alt-collections from the 90s (i think) - either Apocalypse Culture or Amok Journal or something like that - about how the invention of agriculture ruined human society. does anyone else know of this?
this was prob Jared Diamond?
― i love pinfold cricket (gbx), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 01:31 (twelve years ago) link
it's a common anti-civ talking point, see Derrick Jensen, John Zerzan, Chellis Glendinning, etc. Diamond would fit in there as well.
― sleeve, Tuesday, 24 January 2012 01:34 (twelve years ago) link
I mean he wrote a lil piece that had exactly that as its thesis.
― i love pinfold cricket (gbx), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 01:35 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.ditext.com/diamond/mistake.html
boop
― i love pinfold cricket (gbx), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 01:37 (twelve years ago) link
http://m.examiner.com/green-living-in-national/monsanto-lobbyist-uses-power-as-fda-food-czar-to-target-amish
― Milton Parker, Sunday, 5 February 2012 23:01 (twelve years ago) link
I'm sure this guy is an evil tool head but it's hard to defend raw milk. Seriously.
― Jeff, Sunday, 5 February 2012 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
I'm trying to be careful with what I post to this thread, because for whatever reason the anti-Monsanto sentiment is already at fever pitch right now; countless FB posts with a lot of false information (Monsanto owns Blackwater), old information or hyperbole (whole foods)
But cracking down on the Amish with armed raids for selling their own milk seems a little extreme?
― Milton Parker, Sunday, 5 February 2012 23:17 (twelve years ago) link
Actually I'll back down on this one a bit, reading up on the raw milk craze of the last ten years. I don't suspect these kinds of raids as base acts of removing the competition, but if they really are pulling guns on the Amish, that does seem like an overreaction
― Milton Parker, Sunday, 5 February 2012 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
True, agree. Just ask them nicely to hand it over.
― Jeff, Sunday, 5 February 2012 23:48 (twelve years ago) link
my 4-5 facebook friends who occasionally post about chemtrails are all about the Mansato hate right now
― Big Mr. Guess U.S.A. Champion (crüt), Thursday, 1 March 2012 08:03 (twelve years ago) link
also Monsanto
― Big Mr. Guess U.S.A. Champion (crüt), Thursday, 1 March 2012 08:05 (twelve years ago) link
Gus Mansanto
― I have one thing to say: "Roxanne Shanté" (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 1 March 2012 14:13 (twelve years ago) link
http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-bee-collapse-buys-bee-research-firm/#ixzz1sUCsUIfh
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland with one of the primary reasons being that the company’s genetically modified corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of the vital insects. It is therefore quite apparent why Monsanto bought one of the largest bee research firms on the planet.
― Milton Parker, Monday, 23 April 2012 21:57 (eleven years ago) link
The most recent Harvard study linked Bee Colony Collapse Disorder to imidacloprid - a pesticide. Not corn or corn syrup. The pesticide can be transmitted via corn syrup or pollen the report said. Nothing to do with genetically modified corn. This story got changed somewhat to "Pesticide-laden corn syrup lead to CCD" which not what the study demonstrated.
I don't know of a credible report that links CCD to genetically modified corn. Anyone?
― everything, Monday, 23 April 2012 22:37 (eleven years ago) link
By the way, when I said "this got changed somewhat" I mean some websites who report on environmental issues reported it that way and it got passed around Facebook etc like that.
― everything, Monday, 23 April 2012 22:39 (eleven years ago) link
what is the deal with the "Monsanto Protection Act"? Seeing this phrase on facebook, but
http://www.travelerstoday.com/articles/5497/20130327/monsanto-protection-act-snuck-through-passage-congress.htm
http://www.ibtimes.com/monsanto-protection-act-5-terriying-things-know-about-hr-933-provision-1156079#
SEC. 735. In the event that a determination of non-regulatedstatus made pursuant to section 411 of the Plant Protection Actis or has been invalidated or vacated, the Secretary of Agricultureshall, notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon requestby a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately granttemporary permit(s) or temporary deregulation in part, subject tonecessary and appropriate conditions consistent with section 411(a)or 412(c) of the Plant Protection Act, which interim conditionsshall authorize the movement, introduction, continued cultivation,commercialization and other specifically enumerated activities andrequirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimizepotential adverse environmental effects, if any, relevant to theSecretary’s evaluation of the petition for non-regulated status, whileensuring that growers or other users are able to move, plant,cultivate, introduce into commerce and carry out other authorizedactivities in a timely manner: Provided, That all such conditionsshall be applicable only for the interim period necessary for theSecretary to complete any required analyses or consultations relatedto the petition for non-regulated status: Provided further, Thatnothing in this section shall be construed as limiting the Secretary’sauthority under section 411, 412 and 414 of the Plant ProtectionAct.
― how's life, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 19:50 (eleven years ago) link
what are barack obama's flaws?
― THIZZ VAN LEER @_@ (lpz), Thursday, 28 March 2013 04:47 (eleven years ago) link
he's so perfect that he intimidates everyone else
― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Thursday, 28 March 2013 23:20 (eleven years ago) link
it's possible that he cares TOO much. also, sometimes he may be a little too good at doing things, which can discourage those around him who feel that they cannot "keep up". sometimes, arguably, he works too hard - again, intimidating his co-workers.
― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Thursday, 28 March 2013 23:22 (eleven years ago) link
I can't form a rational opinion about this issue because I find the anti-GMO crowd to be obscenely obnoxious
― Heyman (crüt), Thursday, 28 March 2013 23:36 (eleven years ago) link
yeah there's something about the GMO panic crowd that seems just like two notches more sane than the anti-vaccine crowd (and there's obvious overlap) and that prejudices me. I'm mistrustful of monsanto, but I also feel kind of like "Ok, make a case for me WHY it would be dangerous to take a gene from one species and put it in a different species." Like "we don't know all the potential effects" isn't a good enough argument. I have no fucking idea what will happen if I mix my dish soap with some tomato juice, baking soda and pepto bismol and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, but that doesn't mean I have a good reason to believe it would be dangerous.
― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:54 (ten years ago) link
p sure that the reason monsanto is bad has more to do with hugeness.
big farming:gmo panic::big pharma:vaccine panic
― well if it isn't old 11 cameras simon (gbx), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:55 (ten years ago) link
yeah I am on board with the antitrust and IP concerns, but the "Monsanto Protection Act" seems to be more about food safety fears that don't strike me as warranted.
I found this:
http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/03/28/monsanto-protection-act-anti-gmo-conspiracy-theorists-lose-it-over-minor-deregulation/
very sorry for linking to anything called "skeptical libertarian" but it's the first site I've found that actually gets into the details of what the legislation actually does, and their analysis mostly sounds convincing
― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Friday, 29 March 2013 01:05 (ten years ago) link
― Heyman (crüt), Thursday, March 28, 2013 11:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
otm, otm for everything tbh
― mister borges (darraghmac), Friday, 29 March 2013 01:08 (ten years ago) link
just wanted to belatedly respond to the above post
― everything, Monday, April 23, 2012 10:37 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
If it wasn't clear, I was not trying to link CCD directly to genetically modified corn. Of course, use of imidacloprid has increased dramatically with the global marketing of Monsanto's Roundup + Roundup Ready GMO product chain over the last ~15 years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The European Union has proposed to ban their use on crops frequented by bees. Some researchers have concluded that neonicotinoids caused extensive die-offs in Germany and France.
Neonicotinoids are hardly the beekeepers’ only concern. Herbicide use has grown as farmers have adopted crop varieties, from corn to sunflowers, that are genetically modified to survive spraying with weedkillers. Experts say some fungicides have been laced with regulators that keep insects from maturing, a problem some beekeepers have reported.
Eric Mussen, an apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, said analysts had documented about 150 chemical residues in pollen and wax gathered from beehives.
“Where do you start?” Dr. Mussen said. “When you have all these chemicals at a sublethal level, how do they react with each other? What are the consequences?”
Experts say nobody knows. But Mr. Adee, who said he had long scorned environmentalists’ hand-wringing about such issues, said he was starting to wonder whether they had a point.
Of the “environmentalist” label, Mr. Adee said: “I would have been insulted if you had called me that a few years ago. But what you would have called extreme — a light comes on, and you think, ‘These guys really have something. Maybe they were just ahead of the bell curve.’”
― Milton Parker, Friday, 29 March 2013 18:28 (ten years ago) link
Of course, use of imidacloprid has increased dramatically with the global marketing of Monsanto's Roundup + Roundup Ready GMO product chain over the last ~15 years.
I had to read a few articles to double-check, but you're talking about a seed treatment as a pesticide and a seed product that has resistance to a herbicide. The two may have both become popular in the same timeframe, but they're not otherwise related?
― ☠ ☃ ☠ (mh), Friday, 29 March 2013 18:39 (ten years ago) link
Hurting 2, that article you linked referred to "GMO expert Gregory Conko." Google tells me that Conko is better known as a right-wing thinktank guy who writes predictable articles
Gregory Conko is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.Henry I. Miller, a physician and fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, was the founding director of the FDA's Office of Biotechnology.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 29 March 2013 18:53 (ten years ago) link
they became popular in the same timeframe because they are being marketed by Monsanto as an integrated line of products
Roundup = their herbicide, patented in the 70'sRoundup Ready = their line of GM seeds which somehow does not die when you spray Roundup on it, 1996
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate#Monsanto.27s_Roundup
if a company is good at making poison, and at making food, why not combine those two into one irresistible product?
― Milton Parker, Friday, 29 March 2013 18:57 (ten years ago) link
Milton, imidacloprid is an insecticide and Roundup (glyphosate) is an herbicide
― ☠ ☃ ☠ (mh), Friday, 29 March 2013 18:58 (ten years ago) link
apologies for my conflation, I hear your point clearly now. Admittedly a bit emotional after reading that ny times article.
imidacloprid is apparently not Monsanto, it is Bayer?
― Milton Parker, Friday, 29 March 2013 19:11 (ten years ago) link
that changes everything. I love asprin.
mon petit santo
― buzza, Friday, 29 March 2013 19:13 (ten years ago) link
x-post
so we have the published anti-GMO cliches on one side and the conservative thinktank and libertarian ones on the other...
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 30 March 2013 18:51 (ten years ago) link
ah dammit didn't think of searching for a thread with this title
― quite strangly im attracted to the lass (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 30 March 2013 18:54 (ten years ago) link
When it became law that corporations could patent organisms, we saw one of the most breathtaking power grabs ever devised. The difficulty with putting all this power to fuck with the foundations of life on earth into the hands of mega corporations is that mega corporations are greedy, short-sighted, profit-driven entitities which will predictably act to fuck over everyone on earth if it will enrich their corporate officers and shareholders and bury the competition. If the Chief Executive Lizard of Monsanto (or Bayer) could with impugnity become the new Pharoah, it would not blink twice before it reached for that crown and scepter.
― Aimless, Saturday, 30 March 2013 19:01 (ten years ago) link
http://www.monsanto.com/investors/Pages/stock-performance.aspx
― Milton Parker, Saturday, 30 March 2013 19:42 (ten years ago) link
Yeah this "Monsanto Protection Act" thing I'm like 90% sure after reading it that it's pretty minor. It basically prevents federal courts from IMMEDIATELY, during an interim period, halting the use/planting/sale of GMO foods in the event of some kind of adverse finding. But federal courts are not typically the avenue by which food safety is regulated anyway -- in fact as far as I can tell the only reason this provision even exists is that certain GMO foods have been given a special regulated status that other foods don't have, so the provision only comes into play if a regulatory body decides to deregulate them and then a court tries to stop them from doing that.
In any case, this certainly does not in any way "protect Monsanto from litigation" as some people are claiming.
― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Monday, 1 April 2013 16:04 (ten years ago) link
Like, farmers can still sue Monsanto, individual consumers can still sue Monsanto, the Government can still sue Monsanto.
― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Monday, 1 April 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
but I also feel kind of like "Ok, make a case for me WHY it would be dangerous to take a gene from one species and put it in a different species." Like "we don't know all the potential effects" isn't a good enough argument.
fyi we have been cross-breeding for over 100 years, which is a form of genetic modification, except with traditional cross-breeding you introduce all of the traits/genes of one plant into another instead of just the aspects that you want (whereas w/ science lab-y genetic modification you can isolate just the traits/genes that you want to introduce into the new strain); in a lot of ways sciencey genetic modification can be *safer* than traditional cross-breeding, which the anti-GMO crowd seems to have v little qualms with. Like, at this point, iirc virtually everything has been genetically modified at some point due to cross-breeding.
All that is from my friend who is pursuing a PhD in genetics at Yale.
― Room 227 (Stevie D(eux)), Thursday, 4 April 2013 14:36 (ten years ago) link
The difficulty with comparing traditional cross-breeding with genetic modification is that there is no traditional way to cross-breed cats with jellyfish, or corn with sequoias. Traditional cross-breeding is a method whereby humans select modifications that were theoretically possible without human intervention. This is not true of direct genetic modification as it is practised in the lab.
― Aimless, Thursday, 4 April 2013 15:38 (ten years ago) link
corn farming is so fucking weird these days. there's a yearly show called the "f4rm progress show" that bounces between Iowa and Illinois and the weirdest moment, attending it probably six or so years ago, was seeing a machine that was planting seed in a field at a precise depth that varied by that square foot's soil conditions, ground temperature, etc. followed by a FFA kid in high school with messed up teeth asking me if I could grab a free sample of chaw for him from this chewing tobacco booth
― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, 22 May 2015 22:18 (eight years ago) link
I think Monsanto will even sue farmers who have genetically modified seeds blow into their land without even planting it on purpose
― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Friday, 22 May 2015 22:27 (eight years ago) link
uh we just went over that case
― Οὖτις, Friday, 22 May 2015 22:29 (eight years ago) link
They haven't, iirc, although people will constantly claim they have
― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, 22 May 2015 22:31 (eight years ago) link
there has been at least one high-profile misunderstanding of that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc_v_Schmeiser
All claims relating to Roundup Ready canola in Schmeiser's 1997 canola crop were dropped prior to trial and the court only considered the canola in Schmeiser's 1998 fields. Regarding his 1998 crop, Schmeiser did not put forward any defence of accidental contamination.
however, the Oregon wheat case referred to above seems to have been the result of accidental contamination - but afaik nobody is being sued there.
― sleeve, Friday, 22 May 2015 22:31 (eight years ago) link
If you're curious and/or a complete masochist, page 32 of this pdf appears to be the 2015 technology use agreement:http://www.monsanto.com/sitecollectiondocuments/technology-use-guide.pdf
― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, 22 May 2015 22:37 (eight years ago) link
yes, definitely, my issue is with the patenting and the lawsuits
― sleeve, Friday, May 22, 2015 4:51 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
right and i won't begrudge that, but this revive was about a food company ditching GMO ingredients. different issue
― k3vin k., Friday, 22 May 2015 23:42 (eight years ago) link
chipotle is full of shit, I go into there and wear a little towel over my eyes as if I was eating an ortolan, so as to not see the "gmo free" banner
― ultimate american sock (mh), Friday, 22 May 2015 23:44 (eight years ago) link
I know a few beekeepers, and most of the concern I see about Monsanto/GMOs is about the effect on bee populations from using additional pesticide. Can anyone point to a good, solid article that defends against this?
― cause baby, now we got dad bod (how's life), Friday, 22 May 2015 23:50 (eight years ago) link
The bee issue is complex and most likely related to insecticides, if there is a link. I know a single study was about honeybee confusion in presence of glyphosate (a herbicide), but that was in isolation and was fairly circumstantial. There's a stronger case for neonicotinoids (a seed treatment, which a seed is coated in, in order to avoid predation of the seed and seedlings) being toxic to bees, but I am not aware of any evidence that it happens when used as intended.
There is a case in Europe where a field was planted with a neonicotinoid treatment that was powdered, it was windy, and it blew on to a neighboring field that was pollinating. Pretty atypical, not how that pesticide is recommended to be used.
The "articles that defend against" policy is kind of one of those "can you show an article saying you didn't beat your wife?" things. I think there might be something messing with honeybees, but every agriculture chemical-based argument I've read is usually a petition saying "ban neonicotinoids and glyphosate and save the bees!"
― ultimate american sock (mh), Saturday, 23 May 2015 00:06 (eight years ago) link
also worth noting that people throw neonicotinoids under the weird GMO umbrella (and under the Monsanto thread!) when it's just a nicotine-like chemical
fwiw original Roundup (glyphosate) isn't under patent anymore and you can buy it generically.
also, the glyphosate tolerance gene? for soybeans, it's no longer under patent. it's expired elsewhere, but as of this year, it's open in the US
― ultimate american sock (mh), Saturday, 23 May 2015 00:13 (eight years ago) link
yeah it is my understanding that a lot of nicotine-based pesticides actually qualify for organic certification.
I will try to look up some good links for the neonicotinoid/bee issue, it's been talked about a lot in the Willamette valley lately.
― sleeve, Saturday, 23 May 2015 00:41 (eight years ago) link