Monsanto Protection Act

[tigerwoodKhorns]

If this type of food is bad for you,,Why have i outlived longer than my parents ??

Why did George Burns live so long if smoking was bad for you? Who can say?

The stuff might be bad for you. Maybe not. But what seems especially ballsy is lobbying rules that prohibit competitors from saying, "Our ingredients do not include X." You know we are a doomed public when big players can buy that kind of power.

The other issue is that it may be bad, it may not. But what is being done is unleashing a living organism that can replicate and mutate. If it is bad for us, or if the GMO's have other effects, like killing beetles or bees, or microbes other critical parts of the ecosystem that we need, how do you stop it once it is unleashed?

This isn't like cleaning up the economic mess from the big bust of 2008, which was huge and we are still not out of the woods. This cannot be cleaned up if there is a mistake. Think of the killer bees that were introduced in the 1950's in central america. Some got out and now they are everywhere. You cannot clean this up.

What if the GMO's have a similar effect? Do you really trust completely profit driven take no prisioners company like Monsonto to look out for us and our well being?

Throwing money at a mistake in this area will not fix it, and besides, we are not even talking about stopping GMO's, we are just talking about allowing products to be labeled as not containing GMO's so that we can make a choice. But you are not allowed to know what is in the food that you are eating, here in the good ole USA.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

The only legitimate way to beat these neo-Malthusians in your actual life is to do it personally by making carefully informed choices. For example, don't take up smoking suddenly, or maybe realize that beef for a buck a pound surely has some hidden costs you are not seeing, right? The only defense you have left is individual choice.

Thank you Mark. I really try to be healthy and that is why I really would like to know what is in my food (and not have it be illegal to label the truth on the package). I have found some organic farms locally, but they are few and far between here in the Mohave desert.

[billybob]

Buying local produce is more than just an exercise in commerce. It can be a healthy choice. For those with a green thumb well, it was not too mundane for our common ancestry.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Good food is getting more popular, although yes, it can still be hard to find in some areas. We've had great food up here the past 10 years with major organic operations ll around us. Even grass fed beef and so on. At some point, you have to simplify food too, and give up those prepared foods.

I gave up fast food, preparred foods, and crap in general about 17 years ago in my mid 20's. I felt much better but still ate a lot of cereal, yogert, dairy products, and meat every day, and coffee and diet soda.

I, by chance, heard about a book called "The China Study" that was referenced in a different thread and read it and applied what I had learned. Now I no longer crave coffee (I loved coffee before) and seem to have way more energy, and my allergies seem to bother me much less (I always seemed to be tired before). Mind you my doctors told me that I was in great health and "whatever you are doing just keep doing it." But they also wanted me to take allergy pills every day. So there is room for improvement even if you do not think so.

Anyway, I changed my diet after reading the book and I am honestly surprised at how much better I feel, especially because I felt pretty good before besides beign tired from what I though were allergies. If you did this from a normal American diet the result would be huge. But I am also pi$$ed that the food that I am buying is all probably GMO and I need to find organics. The food is great by the way, I do not miss a thing (I actually am enjoying the food more now). My wife is Asian and can really cook. I also enjoy cooking and we cook delicious meals together.

[ZAKO]

eat organic rat,,,OR instead of chicken eat buzzard,,,I think your all carrying this GED too far,,,IT wont hurt you,,

[JJkizak]

My doctor told me to switch from ice cream to yogurt. Then I read on the label that Yogurt has more sugar than ice cream but less cholesterol. So now I will die from diabeties (?) instead of a heart attack.

JJK

[Mallette]

Certainly conceptually GMO is a good thing. In practice, it could be deadly.

Evolution is a GMO process that is well tested before use. Probably a lot of carnage in that as well but it takes place over a long period of time.

There is room in science for a lot of mischief and death. While few seem to loose sleep over it, CCD in bees is very frightening and could wipe out all but a handful of human life and most of everything else if it gets worse, which appears to be the trend. While no one knows for certain, it is suspected to be a product of human activity.

Makes one wonder how many intelligences out there might have reached our level then cut their own life line through ignorance.

As to big farma, I've always wondered how they get away with the lawsuits against neighboring farms that are contaminated with their proprietary seeds. Seems like the neighboring farmers could sue them in return for letting it happen. Any lawyers out there with a take on that?

My own answer is simple: We should eliminate the patents on seed altogether and use tax money to establish research centers for this purpose. While a free enterprise person to the core, there are places where it should not apply. The essential food chain is one of them.

Dave

[germerikan]

GM is a big no no in Germany. While you in theory could get GM Corn many do not considering the stipulations when you want to plant. You have to guarantee 100% that it will not cross into your neighbors lot. Which is 100% not possible.

Also no one would buy it if they knew what it was.

[ZAKO]

The population has doubled since i was born,,Pest resistent GMO is now important,,To feed the world,,What are you going to feed them with ???insects ???

[germerikan]

No, the world could already be fed. It is about Profit. GM seeds cannot be used again (saving seeds from crop before) since they are "copy righted" These seeds have to be rebought every year. Pest resistent crops could be produced when they go back to the crops which were grown before and are indegenous to the areas where they originated.

[seti]

The population has doubled since i was born,,Pest resistent GMO is now important,,To feed the world,,What are you going to feed them with ???insects ???

Isn't that what they do in the Philipines and parts of Asia. In parts of South America they prepare meals with grasshoppers. Can't say I'm in a hurry to try it.

[ZAKO]

Ive eat,n fried greasshoppers and chocolat dripped ants,,Quite good..Also rattlesnake,,tastes like chickin.

[seti]

Ive eat,n fried greasshoppers and chocolat dripped ants,,Quite good..Also rattlesnake,,tastes like chickin.

To me I thought rattlesnake tasted like frog but squirrell tastes like chicken dark meat. Hell with all the squirrels in the south we could eat them for years before putting a dent in the population. Free range acorn fed as well.

[tigerwoodKhorns]

As to big farma, I've always wondered how they get away with the lawsuits against neighboring farms that are contaminated with their proprietary seeds. Seems like the neighboring farmers could sue them in return for letting it happen. Any lawyers out there with a take on that?

The party with the most cash has the ability to sink the other side by slimy tactics, like burying them in discovery (docuemnt production), using experts that will say anything for a buck (like cigaretts are safe), and making nice campaign contributions. They create leverage by beign very smart, no morals and having huge amounts of cash to make it all work. OJ was found innocent, remember?

As far as the comment (from soemone else) "GMO's are safe don't worry." Have we heard this before? Have we been told that things are safe and then as time goes by things turn out different?

I am not an environmentalist, or "tree hugger" or whatever else you want to call me. But natural systems have a delicate balance that have so many parts that we canot track all of them. Before you say that nature corrects itself, yes it does and will. If the balance is disrupted there will be big changes and things will reset and life will flourish again, but we will not be here to see it. There was a Biosphere 2 project in Arizona in the 1990's that was an experiment for long term space exploration. It was supposed to be self sustaining. The cement used oxygen to cure that was not calculated, this caused certain bacteria to die and the whole thing went awry and they had to abandon, from one missed calcualtion.

I just looked up the BCC or Bee Colong Collpase. Here is a nice exerpt:

Honeybee deaths are on the rise across the world, and researchers are working to find the cause. With as many as 40 or 50 percent of commercial U.S. bee hives lost to colony collapse disorder, according to the New York Times, scientists are eyeing a relatively new class of pesticides as a likely culprit.

GMO crops are designed so that you plant them (every year because they are designed to be sterile) add lots of chemical fertilizers (instead of using composting and other methods of maintining chemicals in the soil) and adding huge amounts of pesticides that kill everything except the crop that was modified to tolerate the pesticide. So now we eat the pesticide and are also seeing things like the above BCC.

Here is what life is like without bees (I remenber seeing this on 60 Minutes years ago) and bees are just one piece of the puzzle:

http://www.apinews.com/en/news/item/12780-china-hand-pollination

I also work with farmers in my profession and the ones that I know try to avoid Montensano GMO seeds because once you are "in" you are stuck and it is very difficult to get out. It is like signing a deal with the devil. You have to use their seeds, huge amounts of their pesticides, and replant every year. The soil is not in that good of shape when you are done too. It is ugly.

[tube fanatic]

Some interesting info about bee colony collapse came out. I'm not sure I totally agree with it, but it's worth pondering:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/high-fructose-corn-syrup-may-be-partly-responsible-for-bees-collapsing-colonies/

And Maron, according to some, GM seeds are not going to answer the food needs of the planet. This is only a small example of the human toll which has presumably gotten worse since this was written:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html

Unfortunately, once the genetic material of GM seeds is out in the environment, there's no way to stop it, control it, or do much else with it. Additionally, the crops grown with GM seeds are much higher in glyphosphate (i.e. Roundup) than non-GMO crops. In fact, independent testing of some crops has shown much higher levels than are permitted by the gov't.

The sad reality of this whole situation is that choice is being taken away. We are all part of a long term experiment, the effects of which will not be known for decades (or longer.) And it isn't only seed crops which are the target of the GMO crowd:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/genetically-modified-frankenfish-nears-fda-approval-debate-heats/story?id=18078157#.UYKJgUpGirM

[ZAKO]

SSOOOOO,,What kind of food are the Executives and there families at Monsanto eating,,????

[Jeff Matthews]

I agree with the nay-sayers. It doesn't matter if the dogs eat their own sh!t (sorry, Maron). There are risks involved. Medical science does not fully understand the human body and all those things that make it tick. They are good at structure (bones) and plumbing (organs) and can do so amazing things. But they have yet to figure out how to prevent the common-cold or cure it. They have yet to figure out a myriad of illnesses, what causes them, and how they can be cured. If you don't now the causes, why would you want to inject things into your consumption that create unnecessary risk.

"Feeding the world" is a bullshit line (sorry again). There is already way more than enough capacity to feed the world. The corporations are not out to do charity. If they were, you'd see a hell of a difference in the living conditions of the average American. Instead. what we see is an increasing wealth and income gap, stagnation of wages, higher unemployment, reductions of benefits and common entitlements, a destruction of unions and local manufacturing, and a relentless pursuit to outsource even our service sector to India and other parts of the world.

Suffice it to say, corporate America does not care one iota about the American public except for how much profit it can extract from it. That the public receives some benefit from this scheme (like iPhones) is purely coincidental.

[billybob]

Do not forget the UN and agenda21...google it.

[seti]

It seems normal to press the button even if you don't know the ramifications of your actions. Some of the first nuke tests they didn't know if it would destroy the planet or ruin the atmosphere. Yet they pressed the button. Same thing across the board with genetic testing on plants animals and likely human. What's the worse that could happen?

No I am not anti-science. But we seem to leap first and ask later.

[ZAKO]

Debeers thought they had the diamond market locked in,,Thr Russions now make a better engineered diamond with less flaws,,Bringing the price down,,New sources of engineered grain are now competing,,,Some from Canada,,The Canadian Govt now has leveled the playing field with new laws.