All Comments on 'The Problem with Monsanto'

Well thought out and true but why is this on a erotic website?

This is more of a rant than an essay or review.

Looked at doofus' bio to check out his bona fides — you know, his degree in bio or ag or, well you get the picture. No just another person who asserts many things without documentation, without any first hand knowledge.

BTW, I was an organic farmer in Florida with a section of citrus. Why was I farming organically? Because the food costs the consumer more to satisfy their vanity. Was my fruit better? Yes, but that was because we were producing premium fruit for high-priced markets (we sold a lot to Europe and Japan.)

...and by timely, I mean it came out on April 1st.

and even worse, an anonymous amendment was recently attached to a bill that will make Monsanto immune to being sued for problems caused by the products it produces. How about that corn that produces an insecticide, just what I want to eat.

Stick to porn.... it's a subject you're better informed to write about.

which deserves to be read. Thank the wee man that so far the UK and other European countries have outlawed GM crops, for some of the reasons noted here. Despite, of course, intensive lobbying by Monsanto and other producers.

One point not noted in this essay is that some GM seeds produce crops which cannot be used for the following year's seed, as they're genetically sterile. So once a farmer becomes a customer of the seed producer, they are tied into purchasing seed from them hertofore.

It's called capitalism and it stinks.

for all of you less informed please look into this. and uuuuh mr organic farmer...you are not even a pimple on monsantos butt. but if you were smart enough to look into the alberta wheat ranching business you would certainly see that monsanto can sure take your 20,000 acres because of winded seeding. you will probably have to look winded seeding up...

Farmers "soak the ground with chemicals" whether they use RR crops or not-- it's an invalid argument against GMOs. Glyphosate happens to be one of the gentlest chemicals ever invented for agriculture.

The only reason farmers grow food IS money. The only reason Monsanto makes chemicals and genetic traits IS money. The only reason Apple makes gadgets IS MONEY. Why else would the do it? The byproducts of these profit seeking actions are in the case of the first two, the world gets fed, and in the case of the second: happy hipsters.

Many RR crops are hybrids anyway. Hybrids can't be seeded year after year effectively-- so you already had to buy new corn seed every year.

Nearly every modern field corn variety can be traced back to 18 parent strains regardless of the GMO aspects. Thousands more are on archive in seed banks in case of disaster.

The part where Monsanto traits can infect neighboring crops, and the farmers get sued is valid and should be changed. Although I've never actually heard of it happening except from a documentary or someone ranting on the internet.

I have been keep up with that companies activities and it reads like a script from The Omen. Other countries are now beginning to ban their 'products'. And now there is evidence that the Monsanto foods are causing serious defects in the body.

Greed and control are a very dangerous combination.

And for all of those who like to squawk without a screen name, a bit of advice. If you don't like a topic, you can either ignore it or at least give a reasonable argument if you must comment.

Among other things, I'm a farmer. I DO NOT[knowingly anyway, they keep buying competitors out you can't really keep up anymore]use any product Monsanto owns or produces. In fact, I do not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. A personal choice. So I'm organic, right? Wrong. The paperwork is horrendous, the inspections intrusive, you have to sacrifice acreage for a buffer zone, it's just not worth it. So when I advertise, the legal term I can use is 'sustainably grown produce without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides'. If I say organic and get caught lacking certification, it's a $10,000 fine. One of the reasons that it's so hard to be certified is because Monsanto maintains a lobby in Washington that makes sure any threat by competitors and small farmers is squashed, the more public and expensive, the better.

I do not use hybrids, everything I grow is usually an heirloom, proven over generations. Many times I simply save the seeds from one season to the next. A lot of times I buy seed from Baker's Creek, Sustainable Seeds, or one of the other reputable sellers. Jere Gettle, the man who founded and owns Baker's Creek Seed Company, is one of the most outspoken critics of Monsanto on record. Go to his blog, read some of his essays on the subject.

My wife has spent nine years developing a solid black butter bean that is very hardy in drought and a great bearer. She wants to market it. When she went to register it, she was told it had to be genetically analyzed, and if a portion can be traced to Monsanto, they can take it away, or at the very least stop it from being mass marketed.. I'm planting half an acre this year, all for seed. She plans to offer it for free, to people in as many different parts of the country as she can. If you say Monsanto around her, you better spit on the ground in disgust.

While Monsanto may be the great Satan of pesticides, Bayer[yes, the same people who make aspirin] is a close second. One of their chemicals, I can't remember the brand name, has been closely linked to the severe decline in honeybee populations. Despite the evidence, they strongly deny it, hiding behind their experts and lawyers.

One last observation. Many sections of the corn belt are five feet or farther below sea level than they were a hundred years ago. Why? Overuse,and runoff. The farmers compensate the poor quality of the soil with large applications of fertilizer, which then leaches into the ground water table, or flow to the oceans in runoff. It's the reason we can produce cheep corn, but have to buy seafood and shellfish from foreign countries. Our is so contaminated the government bans the sale of it in many coastal areas.

So. if you're a small farmer or backyard gardener, express you displeasure with your wallet. Buy seeds from dealers like the ones I mentioned. Us compost and organic fertilizers. Your yield may not be quite as large, but you'll feel better, especially if you have kids.

One last note. Being organic is a myth. Chemicals are spread through the air, water movement, and animals, via their dung. I use composted horse manure as my main fertilizer. I get it from a friend that owns and boards horses. He sprays his pastures with fertilizers to build better grass coverage, and sprays herbicides to ensure nothing grows but grass. I heat treat it as much as possible and age it two years, but the residue is still there.

Thank you for your essay, I hope people will read it and understand the consequences of using these products.

QHML!

This essay is filled with inaccuracies and all the pseudo-science that anti GMO groups are using to scare consumers.

Before Rup came along farmers were spraying their crops with far more dangerous things to eliminate weed competition. Believe it or not (I know you won't) Rup is environmentally friendlier than almost any other herbicide. Farmers are driven by the same evil desire as Monsanto - MONEY. Stop romanticzing agriculture and realize it's a business. I think Monsanto has, their products are still affordable because unfortunately, the consumer REFUSES to pay what it would really cost to make agriculture profitable for small family farms. That's why they're disappearing, they can't afford to feed you because you won't pay to cover the costs of production.

I've done my research, and I've worked in the fields so I've seen the other side. Monsanto is helping farmers, you are not.

I am a US man past retirement age. Until two years ago, I never had ANY digestive problems. Then I developed a very serious illness that put me in hospital with diarrhea that could not be stopped. The docs tested me for everything known to man and monkey, with no diagnosis that seemed to work.

My system was deteriorating, finally I asked to talk with a dietician. She suggested a gluten free diet; I went home the next day, and have not had even one bout of Montezuma's revenge since then.

I think that all the GMO mods of the wheat crops have caused the recent increase in celiac disease (look up the stats on line...something like 1 in 13 USAns have this problem) Look at the number of "gluten free" foods in the market.

The only way, apparently, to be sure of a celiac disease diagnosis is to put the patient under anesthesia and go down the gullet to take a sample of the celia, which line the small intestine. I did not have this test done, simply have avoided anything containing wheat and a few other of its relatives.

Most celiac disease patients apparently develop this problem at an earlier age than I have done, which I think had to do with the bad diagnosis by the docs in hospital.

wMonsanto is helping provide plentiful cheap food. The people want plentiful cheap food. Is Monsanto's technique ideal? NO. But, without it, food would be neither cheap nor plentiful. Eventually Monsanto's cleverness will max out and there will be a severe shortage of food. Heirloom varieties CANNOT provide the quantity of food needed by the peoples of the world at a price they can afford. Every country should be required to raise their own food and support their people on that food, because eventually the US, Canada, etc will be unable to provide the necessary quantity of food to sustain endless growth of non-productive populations. Then, naturally, the left will blame capitalism or the "west" for the failure, when the cause is their own greedy socialist expectations.

All done for greed. Nobody cares if the food you eat kills, as long as they can line their pockets. High fructose replaced sugar. Greed. GMO replaced heritage. Greed. Chemicals replaced manure. Greed. Greed. Greed. People kill for the almighty dollar. That's just the way it is. Corporations are people my friend, haven't you heard. Politicians are the puppets of greed. greed. greed. It will never change, only get worse.

I didn't really expect to find such an article on this site. As a 40 plus year farmer who has followed organic practices since I was a teenager, I have to agree with most of what the author writes. Monsanto and the companies that have been licensed to use Big M's technology are driving family farms, as we know them, out of business. I believe there is an argument as to whether GM crops will really "save the world from hunger" or in the long run make it worse. It seems like about the same amount of pesticides are being used if not more then before RR (Roundup Ready) seeds came on the market. I believe the jury is still out on if gyphosphate (Roundup) is as safe as originally thought.

One note on the article, Monsanto has GM sugar BEET seed, not sugar cane.

You do have valid points, but you seem to be only pointing to the finger at Monsanto and similar companies as the only parties responsible for all the problems when the issue isn't that simple at all.

Like what one poster had said, agriculture is a business. Companies like Monsanto would've gone out of business long ago if people stopped buying their products because of environmental concerns. You can't really blame them for seeking economical solutions. Many farming businesses are caught at an endless downward spiral of competition and would seek every advantage to stay afloat. And who are allowing these companies like Monsanto to continue doing what they're doing? It's the government, farmers, and the consumers!

It's funny you would even compare weeds in a lawn with weeds in a farm. It's easy to deal with weeds using safe, traditional methods (like pulling it up with your hands) if the area in concern is small, but try that in a farm! It's going to take forever.

Finally, you can't solve the problem without finding a solution first. Unless you can find a method that's safe, effective, and economical, people would continue using Monsanto's pesticides. If you're suggesting of going back to using neolithic technology, you're naive. Ancient farming practices would only be able support a small population, not to mention costs were much cheaper back then because society was smaller and simpler. Still, many ancient societies collapsed at the times when they were desperately trying to maximize their crop yields in order to support the population. In today's modern society, you have so many layers of administration and bureacracy regulating everything that doing everything is expensive.

Bad food, air, electrical harmonics, medicine, and gun control are part of a bigger problem. Its time we used our 9th amendment rights to keep our 2nd amendment rights to protect our 1st amendment rights to preserve our 4th amendment rights. In 1933 the Constitution Republic of the United States was replaced with a CORPORATE DEMOCRACY as the nation was bankrupted and sold to the global bankers for 11 million in gold. (At that time only 8 million in gold was known to exist.) Anyway, people are starting to wakeup and it is scaring the global bankers. So, the UN has adopted Agenda 21 to control the global population as not to be removed from power. So, our food is designed to kill us slowly while robbing us financially. Chemicals and bio-hazards are sprayed from planes into our air. Our electrical grid, gas, and water are being upgraded to Smart Meters which are designed to attack our nervous systems with microwaves. Many wireless devices follow suite. Allopathic medicine was selected and funded to be our managed death-care system as it eats our checkbook. Our managed population reduction is in Agenda 21. And In Many More Ways! Please note that Obama doesn't even pretend to follow the Constitution any more because he is actually the king of America and CEO of the CORPORATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA under admiralty law. No wonder why politicians ignore the people as of late. The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction under admiralty law so they keep finding loops to hide in to avoid telling the people out right what happened. Food for thought

This essay is full of debunked claims and practically a case study in deployment or repetition if the most common logical fallacies.

The fact is that counties that now feed themselves, for example India and China, as well as the majority of Africa can only do so with GMO. Why? because GMO crops produce vastly more per acre, vastly more per gallon of water, and use LESS, not more, pesticides.