Monsanto is Evil (gallon, statistics, gasoline, suspect)

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by bluepacific

I can't fault the farmers, then like all of us, including myself are prisoner to a system. As has been pointed out, you either play the game or you lose.

It's the weirdest thing...

My wife & I finished planting our garden yesterday. We went where we wanted to go to buy our seeds & nursery plants. We bought which seeds we wanted to buy. We bought the plants we wanted to buy. We had the choice of organic or non-organic seeds, heirloom or hybrid seeds. We were able to select from seeds produced by any number of growers and companies.

Nobody forced us to do anything. We never saw that !%^!@$! Monsanto guy, with his gun, forcing people to buy Monsanto seeds (I must assume he was around, but I managed to slip by out without his coercion).


Funny how that worked. One would think, based on they hysterical rhetoric of the alarmists here, that wouldn't have been able to do that.

[Greatday]

Monsanto is not, IMHO, a bad company at all.

Frankly, and again IMO, those who are raving against Monsanto are yelling just to hear themselves yell

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

It's the weirdest thing...

My wife & I finished planting our garden yesterday. We went where we wanted to go to buy our seeds & nursery plants. We bought which seeds we wanted to buy. We bought the plants we wanted to buy. We had the choice of organic or non-organic seeds, heirloom or hybrid seeds. We were able to select from seeds produced by any number of growers and companies.

Nobody forced us to do anything. We never saw that !%^!@$! Monsanto guy, with his gun, forcing people to buy Monsanto seeds (I must assume he was around, but I managed to slip by out without his coercion).

Funny how that worked. One would think, based on they hysterical rhetoric of the alarmists here, that wouldn't have been able to do that.

My wife and I should have never got married. She is kind of crunchy while I am just a good ole boy agricultural american...PC for redneck. Anyway she is forever ranting about GM crops and has two degrees in Environmental Science to back it up.

Anyway she comes home yesterday with some grass seed for our lawn. She was so proud of herself and then became dejected when I said that it was GM grass seed. She was like, "but it says it takes a lot less water to germinate." It does, but it is still GM seed. It simply takes GM seed to really get the traits you want...traits that can really help in conservation.

Less water
No Till
Disease resistant
Livestock Paletability

The point is, I don't think many people really know what GM seed is...they just here the people ranting and think its got to be bad. My wife bought grass seed based on how it performs. Yep the same reason I buy GM corn seed for my cows/sheep.

[Rock Hard]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

The point is, I don't think many people really know what GM seed is...they just here the people ranting and think its got to be bad. My wife bought grass seed based on how it performs. Yep the same reason I buy GM corn seed for my cows/sheep.

This is very true.

All hybrid seed is genetically modified. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Why would a farmer, whose land cost him $5,000 per acre, not plant seed that would give him the biggest yield possible? Why willingly settle for settle for 30 bushel per acre when, by simply using a hybrid, you can get 200 bushel per acre?

[subsound]

Originally Posted by Rock Hard

This is very true.

All hybrid seed is genetically modified. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Why would a farmer, whose land cost him $5,000 per acre, not plant seed that would give him the biggest yield possible? Why willingly settle for settle for 30 bushel per acre when, by simply using a hybrid, you can get 200 bushel per acre?

Makes sense to me, the difference in yield is money right out of his bank account.

[Rock Hard]

Originally Posted by subsound

Makes sense to me, the difference in yield is money right out of his bank account.

What do you mean?

[jtur88]

Monsanto, in some cases, I believe, has refused to publish data to support their claim of increased yield.

[Rock Hard]

Originally Posted by jtur88

Monsanto, in some cases, I believe, has refused to publish data to support their claim of increased yield.

I don't think anybody would care what Monsanto claims about yields.

Farmers throughout the country do "test plots" and "field comparisons." That's what I'd be interested in seeing. Every company claims that their product is the best, but that doesn't necessarily make it so.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

My wife and I should have never got married. She is kind of crunchy while I am just a good ole boy agricultural american...PC for redneck. Anyway she is forever ranting about GM crops and has two degrees in Environmental Science to back it up.

Anyway she comes home yesterday with some grass seed for our lawn. She was so proud of herself and then became dejected when I said that it was GM grass seed. She was like, "but it says it takes a lot less water to germinate." It does, but it is still GM seed. It simply takes GM seed to really get the traits you want...traits that can really help in conservation.

Less water
No Till
Disease resistant
Livestock Paletability

The point is, I don't think many people really know what GM seed is...they just here the people ranting and think its got to be bad. My wife bought grass seed based on how it performs. Yep the same reason I buy GM corn seed for my cows/sheep.

You're absolutely right. Some people just want something to get alarmed over. And I guess that's their right.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Rock Hard

I don't think anybody would care what Monsanto claims about yields.

Farmers throughout the country do "test plots" and "field comparisons." That's what I'd be interested in seeing. Every company claims that their product is the best, but that doesn't necessarily make it so.

Yields have generally tripled over the past 40-50 years. As such commodity prices have typically decreased when adjusted for inflation. The exception would be in very recent years where the whole ethanol push has driven up corn and by cause\effect other commodity prices.