Ok, what's so evil about Monsanto?

[Sawin]

I posted my thoughts about GMO's and Monsanto in another thread a few weeks ago. I don't remember where... but in short, my two-part grief with them is their manipulation of the seeds and having a government/court backed stranglehold on the agricultural industry, not the supposed effects of GMO's on health. Are you not aware that the seeds they manufacture grow produce that bare infertile seeds? They are a single-generation seed that cannot grow produce in to perpetuity. See the problem yet?

IMHO, if someone wants to buy a cucumber seed, grow the plant, harvest the produce, and process the seeds in order to continue to grow more produce in years to come, they should be able to do that.... Monsanto says no. They MUST buy THEIR seeds, every single year until the end of time.

[roberth]

I posted my thoughts about GMO's and Monsanto in another thread a few weeks ago. I don't remember where... but in short, my two-part grief with them is their manipulation of the seeds and having a government/court backed stranglehold on the agricultural industry, not the supposed effects of GMO's on health. Are you not aware that the seeds they manufacture grow produce that bare infertile seeds? They are a single-generation seed that cannot grow produce in to perpetuity. See the problem yet?

IMHO, if someone wants to buy a cucumber seed, grow the plant, harvest the produce, and process the seeds in order to continue to grow more produce in years to come, they should be able to do that.... Monsanto says no. They MUST buy THEIR seeds, every single year until the end of time.

We can buy seed elsewhere but we're just little guys, are you saying the big farms are being coerced into buying Monsanto seed products?

[Scogin]

We can buy seed elsewhere but we're just little guys, are you saying the big farms are being coerced into buying Monsanto seed products?

Monsanto and a few other major companies like them are the main money contributors to almost all agriculture programs in colleges throughout the U.S. Because of this they have been able to "educate" the current and future major farmers that their way is the best way. There is a slow movement trying to turn this around because the Monsanto way of farming is destroying our number one resource, our soil.
I had the same question as the OP a few years ago and spent quite a bit of time researching and reading what the big deal was with the hate of Monsanto. Everything I have been able to find has made me a firm hater of everything Monsanto.

[Rooskibar03]

It's also my understanding you cannot save and reuse their seeds. You must purchase new seed every season. They have Successfully argued they own the rights to the seen much like an artist owns the rights to the content of a CD.

Theh sue, and win, against farmers who attempt to do so.

For as long as humans have been growing food, farmers have saved seeds from their harvest to sow the following year. But Monsanto and other big seed companies have changed the rules of the game. They have successfully argued that they spend millions of dollars developing new crop varieties and that these products should be treated as proprietary inventions with full patent protection. Just as one can't legally reproduce a CD or DVD, farmers are now prohibited from copying the GM seeds that they purchase from companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and Syngenta.

Taken from here. http://www.alternet.org/food/monsant...l-police-state

[Scogin]

While I do buy into the idea that many of their products including GMO foods cause cancer that is not my main reason for hating them.
Monsanto creates patented breeds of plants, let's say corn in this example. Farmer A plants this corn. Farmer B next door to farmer A wants nothing to do with this corn and plants his own corn. During that season the pollen from Farmer A's corn blows onto Farmer B's corn and pollinates it. The next year when Farmer B plants, his corn comes up as having the patented gene from Monsanto. Monsanto then sues Farmer B for illegal use of their product, puts him out of business, and now owns his farm.

[Scogin]

Back in the late '70s Monsanto was trying to find a way for farmers to be able to grow more wheat per square foot. Their issues was that wheat would grow, let's say, 10 stalks per square foot. They wanted many more, let's say 50. They contracted with one of the ag colleges to try and make this happen. This was before genetic modification was possible, but the college was able to do it through selective breeding. The issue they found with this new type of wheat was that the gluten in it was increased by the power of eight (not G x 8, but G x G x G x G x G x G x G x G). Monsanto decided to put out this new type of wheat anyways. Anyone wonder why Celiac disease never seemed to be a problem in the past.

[Scogin]

Here is a website that has some of the information on the horrors of Monsanto. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto

[Zundfolge]

Here is a website that has some of the information on the horrors of Monsanto. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto

You were actually making a good case until you sourced Center for Media and Democracy. Do you have some sources that aren't owned by George Soros?


See, this is my problem with the whole Monsanto and GMO issue ... there's a lot of things that sound like they make sense when you say them fast, but then I find out they're all coming from sources that see as their life's work the destruction of capitalism and western civilization ... then I have to take it all with a grain of salt.

[Scogin]

You were actually making a good case until you sourced Center for Media and Democracy. Do you have some sources that aren't owned by George Soros?


See, this is my problem with the whole Monsanto and GMO issue ... there's a lot of things that sound like they make sense when you say them fast, but then I find out they're all coming from sources that see as their life's work the destruction of capitalism and western civilization ... then I have to take it all with a grain of salt.

I completely agree with the you on disliking anything having to do with Soros. I will go back and try and find the studies and reports when I first started digging into this. I was just trying to find a quick website with the condensed information and this is the first one that popped up. My apologies.

[Ronin13]

You were actually making a good case until you sourced Center for Media and Democracy. Do you have some sources that aren't owned by George Soros?


See, this is my problem with the whole Monsanto and GMO issue ... there's a lot of things that sound like they make sense when you say them fast, but then I find out they're all coming from sources that see as their life's work the destruction of capitalism and western civilization ... then I have to take it all with a grain of salt.

You mean like the whole anti-CO2 deal (which is false) and the anti-Fracking movement (which is also false)?