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That said, it should surprise NOBODY that Monsanto spends millions every year lobbying Congress. It is, after all, a huge corporation. And frankly, its lobbying of Congress is little different than Warren Buffet "contributing" millions to Obama, then finding out that the railroad he owns "just happens" to stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars by Obama nixing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
So you dispute this because of the site? This was one example of many, many sites and the same names come up. I didn't want to be redundant. Corporate cronyism is all over the place, Buffet to Solyndra, but this thread is about Monsanto.
So you dispute this because of the site? This was one example of many, many sites and the same names come up. I didn't want to be redundant. Corporate cronyism is all over the place, Buffet to Solyndra, but this thread is about Monsanto.
I'm simply saying that the highly biased, political agenda-driven website you linked is CRAP. It is the epitome of what is wrong with the internet (despite all the good things about the internet). One highly biased, overly opinionated, IGNORANT person blogs something, then thousands of equally ignorant people take it as fact, cite it and quote it, as though it's gospel truth.
It wasn't very long ago that a story, "Monsanto has patented the pig, and is going to force every farmer in the world $10 per pig royalties" went viral. Thousands of people believed it to be true, without bothering to see if it actually was. And, of course, it WASN'T. But the paranoid conspiracy theorist didn't learn any lessons. They just moved on to the next crazy story.
The fact is that FARMERS grow the seed corn for ALL of these seed corn companies. Years ago, my family used to grow seed for DeKalb Seeds. I do not personally know any farmers who grow for Monsanto, but SOMEBODY is growing for them, because this seed corn is not somehow cloned in a lab. It's grown on farms.
Personally, I'm not thrilled about Monsanto having a "larger than I'm comfortable with" share in the seed industry. But it's not because Monsanto is inherently evil. It's because I don't like to see ANY corporation get too much market share of ANY industry.
The bottom line is that all this hype and paranoia about Monsanto, and their RoundUp Ready Seeds, is pretty stupid. 5% fact, 95% hype.
By the way, do you know that RoundUp has been around for nearly 50 years, and that Monsanto has long-since lost exclusive patent rights to the active ingredient in it?
It's nice to see a voice of reason on this thread. The noise from the tinfoil hat crowd is overwhelming.
I'm simply saying that the highly biased, political agenda-driven website you linked is CRAP. It is the epitome of what is wrong with the internet (despite all the good things about the internet). One highly biased, overly opinionated, IGNORANT person blogs something, then thousands of equally ignorant people take it as fact, cite it and quote it, as though it's gospel truth.
It wasn't very long ago that a story, "Monsanto has patented the pig, and is going to force every farmer in the world $10 per pig royalties" went viral. Thousands of people believed it to be true, without bothering to see if it actually was. And, of course, it WASN'T. But the paranoid conspiracy theorist didn't learn any lessons. They just moved on to the next crazy story.
can't rep ya again yet, unfortunately. battling the 'cult of the amateur' is a full time job around here.
Quote:
The cult of the amateur
The Cult of the Amateur, a book authored by Keen [19], is
particularly applicable to agriculture. His concern is the
blurring of the distinction between the qualified and
informed professional and the uninformed and unqualified
amateur that results from instant internet access. He
correctly observed that: ‘We are facing the law of digital
darwinism, the survival of the loudest and most opinionated’
and ‘In a world where everyone has a say, the
words of a wise man count for no more than the mutterings
of a fool’ [19]. He states that societies create structures
of authority that aim to provide reliable expert
knowledge to a public otherwise unable to discriminate
between the foolish, the fundamentalist, the vociferous
or the wise. The cult of the amateur in agriculture threatens food security
See now, here's the one main problem with all this hype: No farmer, in his right mind, collects seed out of the corn bin and plants it! NONE!
Would you like to know why? It's simple. ECONOMICS! Bin-run corn seed will yield 40-50 bushels per acre. Top quality hybrid seed corn will yield closer to 200 bushels per acre.
So let's do the math, using corn at $7 per bushel: Bin Run Corn Seed yields $280-$350 per acre. Hybrid Seed Corn yields $1400 per acre. Let's say a farmer plants 500 acres of corn. What kind of idiot farmer would settle for a gross of $175,000 when he could just as easily gross $700,000?
Add to that the fact that farmers MUST SIGN A NO RE-PLANT CONTRACT before they can buy RoundUp Ready Hybrids, and this is a no-brainer.
The ONLY farmers that are EVER saving back seed and replanting it are doing so with ulterior motives. There is ALWAYS more to the story!
That may be so for biofuel and high fructose corn varieties, but in the sweet corn world. We save our seed and replant, and it's delicious.
GMO pollen will and has infested the sweet corn in this country, and will continue to harm the food growers ability to keep seed.
The Grange organizations in this country were formed primarily to be seed banks for the community. They knew the importance of saving and planting their own seed crops.
The Monsanto's of the world, don't like that kind of independence or freedom.
That said, it should surprise NOBODY that Monsanto spends millions every year lobbying Congress. It is, after all, a huge corporation. And frankly, its lobbying of Congress is little different than Warren Buffet "contributing" millions to Obama, then finding out that the railroad he owns "just happens" to stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars by Obama nixing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Buffett clinched the deal by giving BofA 5 billion.
It was payola to guarantee an O'bama veto of the pipeline.
That may be so for biofuel and high fructose corn varieties, but in the sweet corn world. We save our seed and replant, and it's delicious.
If you have not bought RounUp Ready Seed, your point is moot. You are not under contract to not plant back seed you never signed a contract to not plant. Period.
O.K., when you plant your corn, do not buy the Monsanto product. Make sure that you buy someone's heirloom seeds only. And grow and eat only that.
In case you tell me that you live in a concrete jungle, then get your priorities straight and go back to living the good life on top of my good, old friend-----the earth.
Not that simple. Monsanto is infamous for suing farmers who have their GMO crops on their fields even though the seeds blew in the wind, through no fault of the farmer. Also, these seeds interact with non-GMO corn crops, and then hybrids are born.
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