Monsanto: Winning the Ground War - Businessweek


I love trotting this out, and making such people look stupid.


The 'scoop' on Monsanto is based on fear, and products that were discontinued years ago.

Exactly Suzanne!

And I think the people speaking out against it have gained a lot of ground. The all natural, no GMO, no MSG, no preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, corn syrup, etc. section has tripled in size within a year in my local grocery store!

Hurray!

It's about supply and demand and we are demanding untainted foods and being heard! It makes it much easier for me to grocery shop with my grain and chemical allergies and all.

The grocers are wising up and in their case, I don't even care if to them, it is all about the pocketbook. In my world, you want my money, give me what I want or I'll take it elsewhere. I'm going to spend it either way, your store or somewhere else!

Terra

Right now there's a group of several hundred (and rapidly growing) group of scientists and doctors calling for a global ban on glysophate. It kills soil microbes, it kills wildlife, it kills people, it's killing bees. Yet Monsanto is getting subsidies in the 9 and 8 figure range from the US gov - which it uses to pay for false advertising and the subsequent lawsuits.

Ask yourself - why does the world's largest poison manufacturer have a near monopoly on food production.

And watch it - Monsanto is acquiring Syngenta............and is going to change its name to throw off the global wide protest against the company. Kinda the same strategy a lot of major hated corps such as Blackwater (Now Xe) have done. Remember that research company a few years back that had conclusive proof that Monsanto is killing bees? You don't? Hummm..........maybe that's because as soon as that study was released, Monsanto swooped down, bought that company and silenced the report.

Anyone who supports Monsanto at this stage of the game is completely uninformed. The only studies that have ever shown this poison as safe - are Monsanto funded studies. Every single independent study says "Holy shyte".

Monsanto is about the largest piece of evidence on this planet that people have gone insane enough over power and money that they will allow complete and total destruction of everything for it.

Dan the thing with the bees is mostly because of Bayers neonicotinoid insecticides. The g.e. seeds (and many other vegetable seeds) are coated with the insecticide. As the seed germinates and sprouts the insecticide is absorbed into the plant basically turning the plant into a killing machine. Naturally because the insecticide is in the pollen it attacks bees just as readily as the insects it is suppose to kill. That and round-up are also mostly responsible for the Monarch Butterfly decline.
The link to Autism is being contributed to Round-up and active CryAb effecting our gut bacteria. CryAb is the toxin gene from B. thuringiensis. That bacteria has been used by farmers and nature for years to control insect populations. But the way it works in nature is very different from the way it acts in g.e. crops. In nature when an insect eats bT the toxin only activates if the stomach pH and other factors "tell" the bT. that it is the target insect. In other words the different subspecies of bT are insect specific. The bT toxin that is spliced into the gens of corn, soy, etc. goes through a process where it is "spliced" into the dna with the addition of an activator which turns the toxin on. This is done so they know if the process worked. The problem is that now that toxin will kill any insect that eats it (including bees). Studies are being down to see how it reacts with our gut bacteria. The theory is that it causes our bacteria to mutate and switch to the always on mode. Additionally scientist are thinking that when this happens the bacteria start eating through our intestinal walls causing leaky gut syndrome which then may lead to things like Autism and Alzheimer.

EDIT: Damn I'm forgetful today Here's the problem with the fertilizers. The primary fertilizer used is Nitrogen. It the healthy life cycle in soils nitrogen fixation is carries out by micro-organisms in the soil. This article explains it all in detail Biological Nitrogen Fixation | Learn Science at Scitable
The chemical fertilizers used are in a form that is readily available to the plants, bypassing the natural process. In turn the organisms responsible tend to get starved out and die leaving a soil that is incapable of fixating nitrogen. This also means that there is nothing in the soil to fixate or hold the nitrogen so whatever the plant doesn't grab gets washed out of the soil and ends up in our waters. Also because of this applying a nitrogen fertilizer is a hit or miss process. Because so little is used by the plants over fertilizing is often the norm. Also because it's impossible to know how much of an application will be used by the plant or leached from the root zone nitrogen toxicity can occur at any application.

That's why I don't sign petitions or contact my reps anymore.
G.M. and Kraft didn't remove artificial colors and flavors from their products because of petitions or polls. They removed them because they were hurting their bottom line. Boycotts can work.

Good it will give them good practice to go after Dow 's 2-4-D tolerant crops and Monsantos new Dicamba tolerant crops. Love or hate the idea of dicamba and 2,4-D tolerant crops, they are what
Weeds will build up a tolerance to a "one trick pony" type of weed control approach as this article about Pigweed (or amaranth to those that know the nutritional value of it) mentions. Pigweed in the Cotton: A 'Superweed' Invades Georgia - Modern Farmer
There's a couple good comments at the end of the article also.

I appreciate the reading material on both sides of the argument and understand that there is bias present on both sides. The more information, the better IMO.

EDIT: The main reason I linked to the article above is because I knew people could point me to other resources that may lead me to evaluate that piece more objectively. Like I said, the article I linked to was an interesting read, but seemed to lack substance.