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Originally Posted by Jefferson Quote: |
Originally Posted by onlyoneplanet | Gotcha. And I pretty much knew you'd put up those links - or at least several like them.
I want to remind you that ALL of those sites use terms like "allege" and "fear" and "accuse". In addition, some of what they report is outright false. The article by Sonia Shah is blatantly false. The lady is an idiot!
I also want to remind you that my whole family is in agriculture and farming.
Here's the deal on these "scandalous" hybrids that American companies are SUPPOSEDLY using to starve third-world children to death: You CAN plant seed corn (or just about any other crop) right out of the bin. However, "bin-run seed" will NEVER produce more than about one-fourth the yield that hybrid seed produces. This past year, most of the farmers in my part of the country saw corn yields of OVER 200 bushels per acre (it was a great year). The few farmers who REFUSE to "support those corporations" and decided to plant bin-run seed got NO MORE THAN 50 bushels per acre. That is how hybrid genetics have ALWAYS worked. It is NOT a new development, and it is NOT some scandalous conspiracy.
So I ask you: Would poor farmers in India be better off planting corn that could yield them 5 bushels per acre, or 150 bushels per acre off the same ground? IF they are starving, this is a no-brainer!
In addition, the Monsanto Corporation developed what is known as "RoundUp Ready" Seed. You can plant it, then spray right over it with RoundUp - a herbicide that kills EVERYTHING - except crops that have been "genetically modified" to resist the RoundUp herbicide. This was one of the greatest developments, in recent times, for American farmers. However, before he can buy this RoundUp Ready Seed, a farmer MUST sign a contract agreeing that he will NOT plant "2nd Generation" or "bin-run" RoundUp Ready seed. Some farmers have been sued, by Monsanto, because after they signed the contract, they planted bin-run seed anyway.
My father - who is still farming even though he's 70 - has planted RoundUp Ready Seed for YEARS. He has had NO problems of any kind. In fact, it is an EXCELLENT resource.
The people that put up these blog-sites REALLY need to do more research into the genetics of all this before they post stuff that leads gullible people astray. | You're ignoring many points that those articles made, and aside from that, you basically just steered the argument in a different direction.
What we're talking about here is dependency on Monsanto's products. Since Monsanto is patenting native crops, third world farmers can't plant them without buying them from Monsanto. These patents are abstract, they mean absolutely nothing to farming, yet they're forcing farmers to pay for the seeds they used to plant for free.
Can you please prove to me that this is false?
In addition to that, Monsanto's terminator gene ensures the crops' sterility, so after one season, the farmers buying these self-terminating crops have to come back for more.
Can you please prove to me that this is false?
The law of demand will have farmers in the third world investing in Monsanto's GM crops, and this is the most economical choice since their local seed companies have been bought, and their native seeds have been patented.
So I ask you: Will poor farmers ever develope their own means of creating food stability using their own natural, native crops, or will their dependancy on Monsanto only grow? If they are starving, this is a no-brainer!
It's a catch 22.
Also consider that the problem of famine has more to do with distribution of food rather than how much food a crop produces. There's plenty of food to feed the world, but who's buying it? The real issue, when it comes to famine, is poverty.
Also, if all the land used to grow animal feed, or graze animals was used to grow food for people, we could grow three times as much food. Unfortunately, that's all wasted to feed slaughter-bound cows, pigs, and poultry--half of which is wasted anyway since meat putrefies so quickly. \"Are we justified in using articles, no matter how convenient it may be for us to use them, that we know were produced in conditions which bored and even stultified the human beings who had to make them?\"
-John Seymour |