[jaykay]

I can't see the mechanism for GM food causing those problems either. Doesn't mean they don't just because I don't understand it  but I'm sceptical still.

Castle Farm, you're not serious, that's a wind-up isn't it?

[smallholder in the city]

As I expected the response from teh scientific community raises serious concerns aboutt the data and interpretation
 http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/pages/press_releases/12-09-19_gm_maize_rats_tumours.htm

[jaykay]

Enough said, for me. No proven effect.

[deepinthewoods]

yup me too.
i would be very interested in seeing a 'proper' report and test tho. theres no smoke without fire and all that, and monsantos arms are long and their pockets are deep and full of lighters.

[tizaala]

Here's one for the siege mentality minority to ponder,
 
What if they geneticaly encode crops to fail if a chemical trigger is dropped ?
 
 what a weapon that would make , instant starvation for your enemies , ie, the rest of the world.
I hope Monsanto doesn't read this.
 
 

[deepinthewoods]

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Petition_pour_labolition_de_Monsanto/?cEtzTab
 
 
yes i know its a petition......

[RUSTYME]

Too late mate , this has already been mentioned , if not done  but , monsanto already have the death gene in their seed, as in their cotton , wheat and soya , whereby , the plant does not produce viable seed at harvest , the grower has to go back to monsanto to buy more death gene seed .
This is a main reason for the death of thousands of cotton farmers in India , and the repeated crop failure of the cotton plant in the last few years .
The women in India don't get left out either . Thousands of them have died due to roundup poisoning , it is now in the water table there .
This is due to increased use of roundup due to super weeds becoming roundup ready , and thus the use of industrial strength roundup to try to kill the weeds .
This is also now failing , so what do they do ? , they go back to their other blessed gift to mankind 'agent orange' , or at least one of the main ingredients in their death  to humanity product !

[jaykay]

theres no smoke without fire and all that

I'm not so sure, the general populations' sense of anything scientific is pretty abysmal. Most folk are convinced that gamma-irradiated strawberries for example are somehow made 'radioactive' by the process and would apparently rather eat ones covered in invisible fungicides instead. And believe that things that are 'natural' are good and 'unnatural' are bad. Not so sure anyone ingesting cyanide or hemlock would agree, nor the many of us who have had cause to benefit from assorted unnatural things like pacemakers.

So I think it is easy to persuade people that GM is dangerous and the journalists that do it are as ignorant as most folk about it. I don't know if GM is dangerous or it isn't - but it hasn't been proven to be as yet.

Monsanto's arms are long and their pockets are deep and full of lighters

We agree there!

Rusty, you're absolutely right (of course  ) about the F1 seed and it not producing viable seed itself and about the appalling safely record of companies like Monsanto in developing countries 

[deepinthewoods]

monsanto's whole buisness model is based on monopolisation of the grain market. they control entire countrys via the method russ explained.
 there is im sure good points to what they do i just havent found them yet im sure.

[deepinthewoods]

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
 
''
Because Monsanto claims that its GMOs create higher yields and therefore comparatively higher revenues per acre for struggling American farmers, they're certainly a tempting option. On the surface, that is. Monsanto controls its seeds with an iron fist, so even if you happen to own a farm next to another farm upon which Monsanto seeds are used, and if those seeds migrate onto your land, Monsanto can sue you for royalties.

Additionally, if you use seeds from crops grown from Monsanto seeds, a process known as "seed cleaning," you also have to pay royalties to Monsanto or it will sue you. All told, Monsanto has recovered $15 million in royalties by suing farmers, with individual settlements ranging from five figures to millions of dollars each.''
 
that was liftef from.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/04/monsanto-the-evil-corporation-in-your-refrigerator/

[deepinthewoods]

and how it all works.
http://grist.org/article/attack-of-the-superweeds/

[deepinthewoods]

a  bit more on the study from the beginning of this thread.
''And that’s why this latest study is important. It’s not that it “proves” GMOs are harmful to humans. It’s that a single study like this one can represent the only lifetime study of the effects of eating GMOs.''
http://grist.org/food/the-latest-gmo-study-raises-more-questions-than-it-answers/?postpost=v2
 
thats the issue here, 50% of the worlds corn is now gm. but there are no longterm impact studies. scary.

[Sylvia]

So, why are people sucked into this morrass like rabbits mesmerised by a weasel? It only takes growers big or small to say no and where would Monsanto and the like be ? If only we weren't driven by money or greed

[robert waddell]

all seed producing company's rule with an iron fist    long before Monsanto ruled the farmers were being sued for growing new variety's without the appropriate licence     grain and potatoes were just a few      the roster variety that was Albert Bartlet  that owned them and controlled the growing of them

[RUSTYME]

Sylvia , in India the subsistance cotton farmers , who had survived generation after generation , by harvesting their cotton crop and collecting the seed from the best plants , to improve their crop over time . This seed collection is part of the boll harvesting process and is free .
Monsanto , using their own unsubstantiated and flawed data , told the farmers that their seed would be very cheap , almost negligable , and would be a far better crop , more cotton = more £ , and it would be roundup ready and therefore make their life so much easier via no weeding .
The farmers accepted this and grew the gm cotton seed . It failed !
Crops were down 60% . Then the farmers found out about the death gene . This is not an F1 first cross JK , but a genetic modification of the seed that makes it effectively a sterile plant .
Therefore the farmers had to go back to monsanto , or one of the thousands of seed suppliers that monsanto now own , to buy fresh seed year after year .
The crop has continued to fail , the farmers unable to support their families have been commiting suicide at the rate of 1 every 30 seconds .
The price of cotton has gone up worldwide and the Indian farmers are still suffering  . Now with less cotton to sell = less £ and more  costs on roundup and now industrial strength roundup plus the cost of the death gene seed from monsanto which went through the roof once monsanto had their hold .
The farmers can't go back to non gm seed as they don't have any now , and where they do get some it crosses with gm crops and they are back to death gene crop again , which is a monsanto patent and monsanto then demand payment for growing their patented plants or they sue the farmers .
The same thing has happened in the USA . 85% of soya is now gm , 60% wheat ( i think ?) and corn (maize ) is anywhere between 40% and 80% gm . The cross pollination figures are unknown , or at least , not published .