Mango
SoWal Insider
I appreciate a difference of opinion, that is what makes this country great. I think you are greatly misunderstanding the role of this company and what they are trying to do. To say biotech break farmers and make them poor and we force them to buy seeds is crazy talk. First this is a free country and nobody forces anyone to do anything. Farmers like anyone else have more options than ever before. They choose Monsanto's products because they are superior and it makes them more profitable, end of point.
Case in point, Monsanto held pricing on branded Roundup last year, even as generics prices bottomed. Guess what? Nobody bought it, thus Monsanto laid off 2000 workers and cut the price 50%. Man if we would just let the free market do its job, everyones life would be better.
They complain about the pricing because it is something they need not something they want. They cannot make enough money doing it as grandpa did. Yes seed costs are higher but so are yields, productivity, and efficiency and other inputs they would have had to put in are now gone. Not to mention the time it saves. Altough they have that option and no one is forcing them to choose otherwise. As a matter of fact there are more seed companies now than there were 20 years ago. The reason Monsanto is penalized so severly is that they are the leader in biotech arena and while every other company was making fun of them in the 80s and 90s as they almost went broke while investing into biotech, now they are years ahead of the competition.
To someone else's point of GMO seed does not germinate the year after you harvest it. Yes it does. How do you think Monsanto has product to sell the next year, it doesn't just magically appear.
Lastly to the retards that say biotech does not increase yield. I challenge you to call 10 farmers randomly and ask would they rather plant the hybrids that were around 10 years ago. I bet 30 bushels of corn they say no........Next.....
I would venture to guess that Monsato knew that Roundup was causing weed resistance and thus farmers had to use much more to keep up with the weeds. I am sure neighboring farmers, who may not have used GM seeds were complaining when resistance weed seeds blew onto their farms. So, that market was increasing becoming a dying one, but before that, Monsato was laughing all the way to the Bank. Not to mention the mutant bugs that were and will adapt to the pesticides in GM seeds. Monsato decided to invest more in GM seeds likes Genuity SmartStax presented this year which will incorporate even more weed control directly into the seeds.
And, if GM seeds are so safe, then why did the the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) in 2009, called on ?Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks?
Also, Scientists at the FDA had warned about potential dangers of GM seeds in the early 1990s. The scientific consensus at the agency was that GM foods were inherently dangerous, and might create hard-to-detect allergies, poisons, gene transfer to gut bacteria, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged their superiors to require rigorous long-term tests, but, the White House had ordered the agency to promote biotechnology and the FDA responded by recruiting Michael Taylor, Monsanto?s former attorney, to head up the formation of GMO policy. That policy, which is in effect today, denies knowledge of scientists? concerns and declares that no safety studies on GMOs are required. It is up to Monsanto and the other biotech companies to determine if their foods are safe. Mr. Taylor later became Monsanto?s vice president.

Now there is currently a Bill drafted by McCain that wants to put restrictions on supplements and put control of the supplement industry into the hands of the FDA.
Do you not see a pattern here? Many supplements work as strong antioxidants and toxin removal, and if we are being poisoned by our food supply, then do not have access to supplements that might help us, health care expenses will go through the roof.
I'll bet anyone in the know in government and probably most top Monsato executives are all walking around with an app you can download off of Itunes for the IPOD and Itouch of where and what products are not genetically modified.
In case anyone is interested....
ShopNoGMO, a new iPhone and iPod lifestyle application that identifies healthier alternatives for hundreds of unlabeled genetically modified (GM) food products, is available for free from the iTunes store, available Feb 22, 2010.
you!