Quote:
Originally Posted by rmay635703
I believe you need to understand Mansanto is the place that figured out Arsenic laced chicken feed made them gain weight, now they are getting sued by various rice farmers because the rice fields are poisoned with the chicken litter they used to use for fertalizer but now exceed the limits on arsenic.
There is nothing safe, inexpensive, intelligent or usefull about factory food, just like back in the old days where the sausage factories dumped the scum, hair mud and rust from cleaning back into the sausage to save money.
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The morality or lack of morality of certain corporations does not reflect as to whether something they do is bad or not. The only thing that determines whether something is bad or not is the fact that it is bad... or not.
Again, I am perfectly willing to accept that Monsato is a vile, profiteering, dangerous agricultural monopolist that promotes bad practices and maybe sells dangerous products. And that excessive fertilizer and pesticide use is bad for the environment.
But I need to see the evidence backed by hard facts rather than pandering rhetoric. And many of the links posted don't show a positive correlation that would stand up to close scrutiny. Not the Indian farmer suicides, not the lab rats, not the Parkinsons links. (So, are we going by case studies with single patients, now? The same kind that proved, once and for all, that cellphones cause brain cancer?)
Sure, Monsato, evil. Yeah. Industrialist out to take advantage of poor farmers. But saying that Monsato is the only reason Indian farmers are suffering is grossly oversimplifying the problems of third world farming.
And once you oversimplify, you ignore other factors that are more pressing. Abject poverty. Farmers trying to support too many dependents on parcels of land that are too small. Inefficient farming practices. Lack of sufficient credit, lending institutions and government props to suport farmers through lean times. Poor climate, drought, etcetera.
The Monsato crops fail because they fail to address the rest of the issues present, while adding the issues of more expensive seed stock upfront, reliance on costly fertilizers and pesticides and the dangers of monoculture and single-crop versus rotation.
But they're not the only cause. And their failure is not because they're "GMO".
As for crop patenting... cross-pollination makes such lawsuits problematic... and frivolous. You'd have to prove (as the corporation) that there is a systematic attempt to steal your property. Suing farmers for having fields with scattered samples of your seeds IS one of the unethical things Monsato et al are doing.