From what I understand, the reason Monsanto sued and won the is because the farmer admitted to the courts that he had sprayed his beans with round-up. That was proof that he knew he was harvesting round-up ready beans and not his own heir-loom seeds. No farmer in his right mind would ever spray non-round up ready beans with round-up.

ol'dad

No Cross pollination happened and they sued farmers that tended their own seed in Missouri and Illinois not just one Farmer... They made tending your own seed a huge risk if Monsanto genetics showed up and they come knocking with lawyers.

Well that's a common mistake.


I don't want to sound like a nerd but:


They're all pesticides.

Then they're broken down into the different types of pesticides.


"Pesticides can be grouped according to the types of pests which they kill:

Insecticides - insects
Herbicides - plants
Rodenticides - rodents (rats and mice)
Bactericides - bacteria
Fungicides - fungi
Larvicides - larvae"

When I got out of the Navy hospital corps I spent a year working for a product testing company. They did cancer testing on mice, dogs ( beagles) rabbits, cows, chicken and hogs. Each was used for a different type of testing due to natural characteristics. The company had a tremendous amount of business. Too much, infact, and began “dry-labbing” because they couldn’t keep up with the demand. That being said, I know some of the toxicity test data from years ago was faulty. I quit, after a year and went to college to get more of an education in chemistry and public health.

Over the years I’ve learned a thing or two about chemical use. As humans, we tend not to read and heed directions. Also as humans, and not following directions, some people prefer to use the “glug” method over actual measurement and this gets us in a lot of trouble.

Fast forward about 40-years, I now work for a chemical company part time. They produce and I product demo their fruit and vegetable wash on weekends. Most supermarket customers don’t understand their role in making their produce safe. THE SUPERMARKET industry is not required to clean produce before offering it for sale. And they don’t, leaving it up to the customers. Most customers simply rinse produce under cold water. In so doing, it doesn’t take off much more than the surface dirt. What they miss is the mold, wax and any pesticide residue that is under the wax. Please note, many crops come from overseas and they arrive pretty dirty.

The waxes are known as parabens. This type of wax holds moisture in but has its own problems. If you don’t actively clean it off with a fruit and veg washer mixed with water, you and your kids are eating it. Parabens are known as endocrine disrupters. This class of chemical are known to affect the way your endocrine glands produce hormones. They can affect bone growth and sexual maturity in kids. They can affect your fertility as adults and so on. The medical field simply doesn’t know the longtermed effects of constant, low-dose exposure over a lifetime. But we aren’t doing ourselves any good by not attempting to wash things off before consuming them.

Then there are the pesticides found on produce that are still there if all we do is a cold water only rinse. And the mold and finally the bacteria and viruses from the hands of those pawing thru the products before you buy them. As far as the pesticides go, lots of testing has been done to show safe application to harvest times. The problem is, even small doses on the produce consumed 5-servings a day (or more) may have an accumulation effect. The product safety studies are typically done on animals and in laboratories using computer models, not on people, so there is no real life understanding of how it affects kids or adults. I don’t fault the testing methods because extrapolation has been pretty good. But blowing the science off and drawing non-scientifically studied results is not protecting anyone at all. The environmental working group is putting their data out there. You can heed or not. That choice is up to you. But if you’re honest, and you come down with something 20 years from now that’s related to pesticide or endocrine disrupters chemicals, don’t blame the messenger (EWG) for the warnings they gave you.

Wow!

What's your take on roller coasters?

Seriously? Belt in and hang on for the ride. But if you stand on the seat don’t be surprised if you fall off

Eh -hem. I rest my case. LOL

X2

Careful Marty, smart people may be viewed with the same vitriol as rich people. You might be as evil as Monsanto!

I guess that could be right if you view one plant as a "pest" towards another plant.

Glyphosate has revolutionized modern day agriculture. The yields produced by "organic" crops are not near enough to feed the world. The regulatory process that each GMO has to go through is incredible- years of studying before it will be released. Do you guys really think "organic" is organic? Or "all natural" is really all natural? Its a labeling craze that gets into your wallet- and it works. People (general public) are ridiculous, uninformed and seem to "know it all", and they run their mouth and run these companies down, when in fact they are what feeds our growing population.

I traveled to Raleigh, NC 2 weeks ago to tour one of Syngenta's research labs. It is incredible what they are doing, the time effort put into finding new traits to grow better yields with better QUALITY grain. If this research does not get done, there will be many hungry desperate people in this world in the years to come.

GMOs get such a bad rep, when in fact, they are very beneficial. Quick example, sweet corn with a corn earworm resistance. This prevents from spraying another pesticide over the top of your sweetcorn before harvest because the earworms are not present. A lot of GMOs result in less pesticide usage (satisfying consumers and saving producers from more input prices.)

So to answer your question, NO, I do not believe Monsanto is evil.

GMOs are not good and terribly poisonous but meat grown in a lab is perfectly safe because you don't have to kill a cow to get meat...

DDT was just like Lead shot. One liberal professor with a mission. Millions upon millions of third world people have died since the ban on it from malaria. I think it’s a travesty myself. And NO Monsanto is not the Devil. I believe their research has added lives not lost them

It's not my classification, or definition.


It's the scientific / industry label for an entire group.


Like I said, it's a common mistake. Ask me how I Know.

Pesticides Defined

Funny how 100 years makes a difference. In 1918 people we're glad to have a belly full of food. Modern day fools are trying regulate them selves to starvation

Baby ducklings eat mosquito larva (wigglers) in the first couple weeks of their lives. Look at how many ducks have survived.

I hope you’re joking! Not even close. Everyone needs to slow down and know the facts!!

I spray hundreds of gallons a year. I’m a hunter and a outfitter. My livelihood depends on wildlife!!! I would not use it if it hurt bird numbers. There is a chemical that I don’t use called Paraquat. It has gained popularity in the last few years because it kills what roundup won’t. As a farmer I think it’s dangerous. I will not use it, but EPA says it’s ok. I guess they are all knowing like the state of California

Roundup is a heap better than what used to get used. Long before Agent Orange was being used in the jungles it was used to prepare corn ground. Agent Orange is harmless anyway. It's the dioxins that were the problem. I think it is funny that people are holding the decision of a jury up as proof. Monsanto bad. OJ good.