Ok, what's so evil about Monsanto?

[Zundfolge]

I'm always hearing folk ragging on Monsanto as though they're a blend of Enron, Hannibal Lector and the Illuminati (most of these folk are leftists but also Alex Jones types).

So can someone posit a cogent, logical, fact based explanation as to why exactly I'm supposed to buy the whole "Monsanto is teh evil" thing?

Arguments I won't buy are:

• They're a big multinational corporation only interested in making profits, ergo; evil!
• Frankenfoods man! GMOs are a conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!
• They ARE part of the Illuminati/Reptilian/Zionist/Bilderberg/whatever conspiracy.

So if one of those is your argument, just go away.

[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.

[Rooskibar03]

I'm no expert (but I did stay in a holiday in express last night) but from what I gather from farming relatives is they have become the monopoly in the growing business.

They developed seed that will only grow when treated with their own special blend of fertilizer and bug spray. They drove all the other seed makers into the ground and now if you want to grow all your products have to come from them, and they continue to raise prices.

The last hold out crop was wheat (I think) which up until a few months ago they had not be able to modify. Now that they have cracked that code they basically own everything that is planted that becomes our food.

I saw a list of the products and brands that come from them and its a lot of household names on there. There is an awful lot of control of the nations food supply behind handled by one major corporation. .

[Dave_L]

I heard that without them, the price and availability of most of our foods would be outrageous. I can't confirm or deny that though. Just hearsay...

[Sawin]

I heard that without them, the price and availability of most of our foods would be outrageous. I can't confirm or deny that though. Just hearsay...

I'm sure that's probably true to some degree. They've decimated their competition, so without them the supply could not possibly measure up to the demand quickly enough to keep prices stable.

[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.

[Dave_L]

I've also "heard" that if Monsanto's seeds blow over into your fields, that portion of the field now belongs to Monsanto. Can anyone confirm that?

*edit* Person above me answered.