Monsanto

[BoarBuster]

Now I see where the anger comes from. The main contractor I worked for in the plant I was at had two contracts. One was supplimental maintenace and the other was capitol projects. Maintenace was day to day. Depending on the work load for plant personal. Capitol projects depended on how many were needed and if you were one of the bosses pets. I always figured if I walked out the gate at quiting time then I had a job the next day. As to what happened with Delta Pine. I understand what happened there. I have a friend that worked for a company that Ralston Purina bought. It became John's job to go to dealers and pickup their unsold stock and bring it back to one warehouse. They bought it for the sol purpose of closing it and using it for a tax write off. Sounds like the same thing here.

[BoarBuster]

Well I will tell you this about me. One of my uncles was a farmer all of his life. I have raised locker beef and I have read about a lot of the law suits you are talking about. I can no more help where the pollen comes from to polinate my crop than you can help where the pollen comes from to polinate your crop. I lay the blame at the feet of judges that let these type suits go forward. But like you said about the genes if you get their seed and do not use all of it they will sue you for retaining the balance for use the following year. I did read about that suit. About the only thing that GMO corn is good for is to make fuel.

[deltadawg9]

Well I will tell you this about me. One of my uncles was a farmer all of his life. I have raised locker beef and I have read about a lot of the law suits you are talking about. I can no more help where the pollen comes from to polinate my crop than you can help where the pollen comes from to polinate your crop. I lay the blame at the feet of judges that let these type suits go forward. But like you said about the genes if you get their seed and do not use all of it they will sue you for retaining the balance for use the following year. I did read about that suit. About the only thing that GMO corn is good for is to make fuel.

Bad thing the fuel ain't worth a dang either..

[Hanr3]

Unless I'm missing something here. Monsanto provides chemicals to control weeds, disease, and insects in the crops. Pioneer provides seeds to grow crops. ADM buys those crops and makes everything from cooking oil to ethanol, including products used in all processed foods. Both Pioneer and Monsanto have farmers that will test their products. I could see where product remaining from last year would be a liability issue for the company. I could also see there must have been a contract and if the farmer is being sued, he violated the contract. By the way, bees are used to pollinate the crops.

I live in farm country and used ot manufacture feed/seed bags by the millions per season.

[BoarBuster]

I am aware about bees and other insects that move pollen about what I was refering to was the wind blowing things about. A lot of people would be surprised at what all of these chemical companies make that go into food. For an example the coloring used in mountain due is poisonious until mixed into the rest of the drink. I spent a yr and a half in a seafood plant and can tell you that if shrimp taste a little like chlorine that they have been bleached because they were beginning to change color. And i would say that anyone that has worked in any field that is even remotely connected to one of the industries mentioned can tell stories from what they have seen that would have a lot of people running the other way. Another thing that I can think of is that the composition of Diet drinks will change if keep in a warehouse where the temp regularly exceeds 90*..... Another company that is heavy into food production and processing is Con-Agri. I see their signs on a lot of the cornfields around here.

[olduckhunter]

I farmed before Monsanto bought out delta pine and before they bred into the seeds the genes for roundup ready and insects, etc. when I farmed a bag of delta pine cotton seed cost 35.00 for a 50 lb bag. now a 50 lb bag with all the genes bred into it is up to and over 600.00. if you are lucky and trust good weather you can get by with planting 10 lbs of seed per acre so it runs over 100.00 an acre for seed. the lawsuits spoken of here are and were the farmers own fault. they signed a paper when buying the soybean seed saying they would not save seed from the crop to plant the next year. no matter how closed mouth you are word gets out that this farmer or that farmer saved seed for the next year. all Monsanto had to do was go by the fields and take leaf samples to find if their seed had been saved. then they could go to seed companies and find out if that farmer did in fact buy seed for his crop. I knew a farmer or two over in the bootheel that got caught and they paid. they can't save corn seed because it's a hybrid seed and won't make a crop the next year. I've not heard of any farmer saving any cotton seeds to plant. I'm not sure one can get them delinted and treated anymore. there was a delinting plant in the bootheel but I'm not sure it's still in business. Monsanto has done a lot of good things for the farmer but they also have them by the balls when they buy their products.

[speKzilla]

Sadly what is being discussed here is just another nail in the coffin of the family farm.

[Cray]

Oldduckhunter, just wagged a Documentrys on American food production. Covered several facets of how our food in America is produced. In it was a segment on Monsanto and how the have treated the small American farmer. In one part of it was about a old man that had a portable seed cleaning machine. Showed how Monsanto had hardware and sued him until he lost everything. Partly because they were sueing the farmers he was cleaning for. Their reasoning was he could be helping farmers hold back seeds for the next years planting. He spent everything he had fighting them but went broke trying and just gave up. Will not disagree that Monsanto has done a lot of good for farmers but at what cost to the farmers and the consumer.

[crappiefarmer]

Have they done us a lot of good? The round up ready crops have caused an over reliance of round up to the point that we have over 20 weeds that are resistant to Round up or Glyphosate. That means we have to go back to old chemicals and tank mixes of 2 to 3 older chemicals to keep the fields clean. We are right back to where we were 20 years ago but we are still paying the technology fee for the roundup ready gene that is little better than a grass herbicide now. A Tech fee that we are getting little benefit from. Just ask any farmer in the South about the weed Palmer Amoranth or look it up.

The insect protection GMO is is called a BT or Biotoxin. all it is is a protein that the crop produces that insects cant digest. It kills them. Don't worry, it is not dangerous to us. I am a good friend with two retired NC state entomologist that are still doing trial work to this day on Monsanto and Syngenta stuff. They asked us to plant a BT sweetcorn test plot one year on our farm in which we did. The BT toxin worked well. I asked him about any dangerous effects to human consumption. He walked out to the field, shucked a couple ears and ate them right in front of me. I figured well if he has no doubt then we are safe. Later I found out that humans digest the BT just fine. It has no implications to us because we are different from insects. Chemicals have different affects on different organisms. That is all the chemical companies are doing. finding what chemical kills Weed (A) that does not affect the commercial crop in any way. Insecticides and BTs are the same way. But some insecticides have a cut off date before harvest that they can be sprayed so that all residue is gone by the time harvest commences.

Saying that, the BT's don't control all insects. Mainly worms. There are still other insects like stink bugs, Japanese beetles, Potato leaf beetles, (also known as Lygus bugs or plant bugs)and some new insects to the US like the Kudzu bug. Once the Kudzu bug hits the midwest, You will be hearing about it in the news. It was introduced in Atlanta Georgia from the airport. It hitched a ride from China. They multiply by the tens of millions. BT will not touch them. fortunately cheap insecticides will....for now.

So, when I started farming in 1993, You could keep your soybean seed. Cotton seed was $50 a bag. beans were $20 a bag. wheat was $9 a bag and corn was $30 a bag. Now Cotton is $600, corn is right at $300, Beans are nearing $60 and wheat is $20. If you wonder why wheat has not gone up as much as others, it is the only one Monsanto has not been able to take over. All this increase in seed for the technology that does not work anymore and we are having to spray like we did 20 years ago, rotate crops to use different chemical formulations to help with keeping fields weed free and for soil health. We are doing what we did 20 years ago but Monsanto and fertilizer companies are making all of the money that farmers bring in. They make way more on their take than a Farmers average profit margin and Monsanto's and the chemical companies takes are sure bets. So Basically every farmer in this country is farming for them. We just do the work and take all their risk away. We assume the risk and just hope we get a little piece of the pie after doing all the work to raise the crops while they get their sure fire cut. THIS IS WHY FARMERS NEED A GOOD SAFETY NET. WE ARE NOT A SURE BET AND ARE THE BOTTOM OF THE TOTUM POLE. If You ask why not just plant seed without the BT or other tech in them, well Monsanto and Syngenta, Dupont and a couple others bought up all the seed companies over the past 20 years. they do not produce enough conventional seed to sale anymore. In other words, we are forced to buy and pay the fees on the crap that does not work anymore and they own us. Thats it in one sentence and it sucks folks. Your American farmer is owned by the seed and fertilizer giants and other ag giants like Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, and Cargill. They get their cuts without taking the risk too. The object of all of this is to keep control of the 300,000 true commercial farms left in this country (meaning 300,000 getting their sole income from farming) the 2.5 million number usda has is for the total but the majority have other jobs to supliment income because they do not have enough acreage to sustain themselves. They do not want farmers becoming self sufficient. We have to be dependent on someone like the government or Monsanto to keep us in line. after all we do grow the food supply.CF

[Billbob]

didnt they help make AGENT ORANGE ????