Monsanto is a chemical company that was started in the year 1901. They created DDT and Agent Orange. Many people aren’t even aware of their existence and that needs to change ASAP. They’re absolutely huge and own a majority of agricultural production WORLDWIDE (India currently having many legal issues with them). (See link-http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/make-monsanto-pay-for-swindling-farmers-in-india) (yes source is a blog, but she’s a doctor and you can easily google her). I’m sure many of you have heard of GMO… guess who made those? MONSANTO. They are the ones who directly poison our food and encourage the use of chemicals in/on our food.
More than just health effects, (see link by New York Times about lawsuits against them) [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/business/monsanto-could-benefit-from-a-chemical-safety-bill.html] this company bullies and threatens farmers into producing their GMO crops. (see free doc- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvkNda-_jdc) . It’s important to note that GMO crop are to be made on a mass production scale and require heavy and expensive machinery (in order to keep up production) that poor farmers- especially 3rd world farmers- cannot afford. Unlike normal, natural plants, GMO crops (seeds) do not come back every year and must be repurchased from Monsanto with money that farmers do not have! There was a mass suicide among farmers in India over a ten year span that started in 2005 simply because they, as poor, 3rd world farmers, could not meet Monsanto’s requirements and fell into financial ruin! The farmers that produce food don’t even have enough to eat themselves- this is so sad!
To make things worse, Monsanto has sued farmers and have won in court! Monsanto has patented (copyrighted) GMO seeds, making them illegal to use/ sell unless paid for. Many crops, such as corn, are wind pollinated and can easily contaminate a neighbouring farmer’s organic crop (via wind).
When their crop tests positive for GMO and they don’t pay Monsanto- they sue the farmers and succeed in doing so! See how they can scare farmers?!
These crops, because of how large the sale is, must be maintained with the use of chemicals. (Chemicals synthesized by Monsanto as well). As stated before, Monsanto’s use of pesticides and fungicides contain chemicals that are very harmful to us and the environment. It’s odd how a chemical can kill all the plants (weeds) around the crop but not the actual crop itself. When it rains on these crops, its causes a toxic runoff that drains into bodies of water and pollutes them! Hence why it’s only recommended to eat fish once a week, as their mercury levels are so high (and for some reason we take that as fact and we’re all okay with it!)
The only financially reasonable way we can help is to spread the word and raise awareness of this company and what’s its doing to us and our planet. As a company that only cares about revenue, when people become aware, their sales will go down! When more people find out, Monsanto will only have two choices: either change their ways or go out of business.
>>7753560
Is this spam ?
I’m not debating whether GMO crop is good or bad. My focus is on the health effects of pesticides on us and the environment. And also, the hardships of famers (especially 3rd world). Here are some scholarly articles that are a better source than the blog (Blog is written by a doctor though).
www.researchgate.net/publication/7302066_Aquatic_Toxicity_Due_to_Residential_Use_of_Pyrethroid_Insecticides (click on PDF, is 8 pages).
http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/3364/
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-585-36973-0_1#page-1
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1311994?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
http://www.toxicsaction.org/problems-and-solutions/pesticides
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2984095/
Thanks everyone for your time reading this and perhaps together we can discuss environmentally sustainable agriculture such as polyculture (see google lol)! I appreciate everyone’s feedback, negative or positive. A quick reminder that not everyone will agree (even some farmers), so remember to be patient and respectful of everyone’s opinion… as change does not happen overnight!
>>7753564
Yes.
>>7753563
Where do you get the crazy idea that GMO seeds don't come back every year?
One reason to buy GMO seeds each year is because of the contact you sign to use the seeds. Don't want to sign the contract? You won't get GMO seeds.
Farmers find the increased profitability from using GMO seeds to make it worth the extra costs.
For many crops such as corn, you wouldn't save the seeds anyway. In the US, very few farmers have saved corn for seed since the very early 1960s or later 1950s. It has nothing to do with GMO organisms.
Some crops such as corn are what are called F1 Hybrids or First Generation Hybrids. The parents of the corn are of entirely different varieties of corn that are bred, by hand, specifically to produce the new hybrid. The new hybrid is very uniform in terms of its larger size and in maturation date.
If you replant the corn and grow it, the second generation corn will not be very uniform. It will mature at different rates and produce different sizes of corn. The result will be less profit. The price of seed corn is low enough that you should make a better profit with the F1 Hybrid seed corn than you would with the second generation if you did save it.
As far as I know, neither Monsanto nor any other seed company has ever sued someone based on the patent. In every case that I know of, the lawsuits were based on the contract violation.
>>7753573
Politics go to /pol/ while cooking is on /ck/ like read the rules
I wonder if the anti-GMO people would maintain their ideas of the evilness of GMO and refuse to accept cancer treatments that were created by the use of GMO techniques to fight their specific cancer. I'm not sure how much it is here now, but that is coming.
What would be interesting would be a GMO virus that was made specifically to fight cancer cells. When the virus found a cell with the right markers, i.e. a cancer cell, it would replicate itself inside the cell destroying the cell in the process. Only those with the cancer cell being attacked would become ill and the illness would cure them of the cancer!
However, I doubt that we will see that because of the issues of the virus mutating to attack other cells. It's still an interesting though, though.
>>7753590
anything not "natural" is evil
>>7753594
What do you do? Eat everything off of a tree?
Think about it. Boiling isn't natural. Roasting isn't natural. Frying isn't natural.
Insecure manchildren moving heaven and earth so that laws abide to them and succeeding is all I can see.
>>7753594
No pasteurized milk?
>>7753560
Couldn't even make your post look nice, could ya?
stfu op...i'm educated on the matter and gmo's are not bad.. the shit happens in a way naturally in nature, so plz stfu.... monsanto is a horrible company though and i agree there....learn some biology and come back b4 you argue gmo;s are bad
>>7754107
oh p.s.... the majority of us would be fucking dead and starving without GMO's... the real problem is people reproducing to damn much
>>7753560
>They are the ones who directly poison our food and encourage the use of chemicals in/on our food.
I know this is bait, but there are organic pesticides that are worse than synthetic ones. Like rotenone. It's an organic pesticide that gives farmers Parkinson's disease.
It would be nice if vertical farming becomes common, if it's as good as people say it is. Less water usage, more efficient land usage, less pesticides, etc.
>>7754109
>scorpion venom proteins occur naturally in foods
What bugs me more than the people who mindlessly bash all gmos are the lemmings who mindlessly support them no matter what. equating natural plant evolution or farmers using selective plant breeding to scientists using chemistry to alter a plants dna to something that completely changes how the plant functions by making it produce its own pesticide or something similar.
You do know that there is gmo corn that is admittedly unsafe for humans to eat right? its often used to feed cows.
When people think about food making them sick they think of acute sickness. You eat a food your body cant handle and you immediately have to shit or have a seizure.
What about the long term affects?
GMO good
Suicide seeds bad
Monstanto bad
Pesticide bad
>>7754192
kill yourself
Terry Funk created the DDT you lying sack of shit
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