Monsanto admits their technology doesn’t work!

[ensho]

http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1083961


For years Monsanto has been shouting that the main – read only – benefit of Bt cotton in India (the only genetically engineered crop planted here) was the reduction in pesticide use. Well, it seems they have just admitted this is not true. Pink bollworm, a serious pest for cotton farmers in India, is now resistant to the toxin in Bt cotton. Meaning that this bug is now sort of a super-pest that farmers will have to work harder and harder to avoid. What is Monsanto’s solution to this? Maybe you have guessed it: use Monsanto’s next weapon – same technology – Bt cotton 2.0. With double the amount of toxins (and almost double the price of non-Bt seeds).
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Monsanto should be embargoed. what a scam to pull on the Indians.

last year Indian farmers were killing themselves by the dozens.

[msongs]

1. our corporations are terrorists just like the bomb throwers and plane crashers nt

[DKRC]

2. More than 1500 last year in one area

1,500 Indian Farmers Commit Mass Suicide: Why We Are Complicit in These Deaths

Crop failure may have pushed farmers over the edge, but American companies have been leading them to the cliff for years.
April 16, 2009 | AlterNet / By Tara Lohan


The headline has been hard to ignore. Across the world press, news media have announced that over 1,500 farmers in the Indian state of Chattisgarh committed suicide. The motive has been blamed on farmers being crippled by overwhelming debt in the face of crop failure.

...snip...

Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."

...snip...

Shankara, like millions of other Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if he switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead. Beguiled by the promise of future riches, he borrowed money in order to buy the GM seeds. But when the harvests failed, he was left with spiraling debts -- and no income. So Shankara became one of an estimated 125,000 farmers to take their own life as a result of the ruthless drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops. And no company has been as notorious in the business as the U.S. agra-giant Monsanto.

...snip...

Corporations don't care who, or how many, are poisoned, maimed, or killed in their drive for more profits. :grr:

[Quantess]

3. Monsanto lies again!

Monsanto is featured in excellent documentaries such as "The Corporation" and "Food, Inc".

[Quantess]

4. They'll lie tomorrow, too.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Vatican comes out against GMO mutant crapola seeds and food

TITLE: VATICAN OFFICIAL CAUTIONS AGAINST GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

SOURCE: Catholic News Service, USA

URL: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20100310.htm <http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20100310.htm>

DATE: 03.09.2010


VATICAN OFFICIAL CAUTIONS AGAINST GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Genetically modified food crops could be used as ”weapons of infliction of hunger and poverty” if they are managed unjustly, said the new head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Cardinal Peter Turkson told Catholic News Service March 9 that he would urge an attitude of caution and further study of the possible negative effects of genetically engineered organisms.

Under Cardinal Turkson’s predecessor, Cardinal Renato Martino, the justice and peace council sponsored several conferences on genetically modified food as a way to alleviate hunger in poor countries. Agribusinesses and biotech industries that produce genetically modified organisms are justified in wanting to recoup the expenses laid out for research and development, and they have a right to want to make a profit from their work, said Cardinal Turkson, who took over the reins of the council in January. But the issue becomes problematic when a company that controls the use of genetically modified seeds and crops is motivated more by profit than by ”the declared desire to want to help feed humanity,” he said. There are also doubts about the efficacy and long-term effects of genetically engineered crops, he said.

[Orsino]

6. Give them a check for 42 million tumtums.

http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?ab&TheIngeniousPatriot

[Brewman_Jax]

7. The bottom line

is ALL that matters, all else be damned.

[MrScorpio]

8. I would imagine that there was a time, long ago, when organic farming was practiced in India

The result of thousands of years of tried and true practices.

Then one day, some Goddamned American capitalists came along and fucked all their shit up.

Major suckitude.

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Return to Organic Cotton

Return to Organic Cotton & Avoid the Bt-Cotton Trap

No more debt, pesticides and suicides for Indian cotton farmers who avoid Bt-cotton and regain livelihood, health, independence and peace of mind with organic methods

Rhea Gala reports from Andhra Pradesh

snip

Mr MD Amzad Ali of Sarvodaya Youth Organisation, Mr G Raja Shekar of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad, and Mr Y Kambaram of Modern Architects of Rural India introduced me to farmers who have been practising NPM cotton production and had moved on to organic cotton production after two years. By making and applying their own natural fertiliser they were able to access a high quality premium of 200 rupees per quintal (1 quintal = 100kg) at a price of around Rs1900/q.

The NPM system was started in 1997 by MARI and attracted farmers because of microcredit available to them and the low investment needed for seed and other natural inputs such as cow dung and urine mixture and neem seed that were available locally. The farmers and NGOs organised four local cooperatives of between 100 and 500 farmers that soon became self-sufficient and able to pay their way in the local market, adding substantially to the local economy. Farmers who complete the five year programme - of two NPM years followed by three organic years - become trainers and role models for new entrants.

Tookya Niak knew farmers who planted GM Bt cotton that failed and committed suicide, and decided to try the NPM method himself. Now in his second year, he stressed that the low investment required will almost certainly lead to a profit, and that farming had become virtually free from stress as his debt was minimal.

He was confident that his variety was hardy and dependable and that he could remove most pests during the early immobile stages in their life cycle through his skill in selecting an effective deterrent. He also no longer worried about the health of his young family, and expected that his yield would rise as his soil improved and insect communities reached a natural balance. He was still expecting about seven quintals per acre on his poor red soil.

Indeed Niak had become such a beacon in his community that the village has been renamed after him and the NPM credo written on the walls in the village square to counter the pro Bt cotton posters found everywhere. His positive appraisal of the NPM method and its advantages were confirmed by all the other farmers that we questioned.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ROC.php

[JohnyCanuck]

9. Glyphosate Resistance in Weeds: The Transgenic Treadmill

Glyphosate Resistance in Weeds: The Transgenic Treadmill

Glyphosate herbicide was patented and sold by Monsanto corporation since 1974 under the trade name and proprietary formulation Roundup. The herbicide has been used widely in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, alongside roads and highways, and in home gardening. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide that poisons many plant species so it is frequently used to ‘burn down’ weeds on a field prior to the planting or emergence of crops.

Before 1996, weeds were not observed to have evolved resistance to glyphosate in the field, but since then, the introduction of transgenic glyphosate tolerant crops has led to evolution of a number of resistant weeds as the result of the greatly increased use of the herbicide particularly during the post-emergent growth of the crops. Glyphosate reisistant Asiatic dayflower (Commelina cumminus L) common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album L) and wild buckwheat (Polygonum convolvulus L) are reported to be increasing in prominence in some agro ecosystems as are populations of horseweed (Conyza canadensis (L) Cronq) <1>.

In regions of the USA where transgenic glyphosate resistant crops dominate, there are now evolved glyphosate-resistant populations of the economically damaging weed species Ambrosia artemissifolia (rag weed), Ambrosia trifida L.(great ragweed), palmer pigweed (Amaranthus palmeri), common water hemp (Amaranthus rudis) , rough fruit amaranth (Amaranthus tuberculatus) and various Conyza (horse weed ) and Lolium (rye grass) species.

Likewise, in areas of transgenic glyphosate resistant crops in Argentina and Brazil, there are now evolved glyphosate resistant populations of Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense) and Mexican fireplant (Euphorbia heterophylla) <2>. These herbicide resistant weeds pose a clear threat to the transgenic crops dominating North and South America <3>.

SNIP

Conclusion

The evolution of glyphosate resistance among weeds that interfere with the productivity of crops is approaching catastrophic proportions. The evolutionary process leading to the resistant weeds has been described as a “transgenic treadmill” that renders current use of transgenic crops unsustainable. As current transgenic crops are rendered obsolete through weed resistance, the crops will be replaced with new transgenic varieties made available at higher prices to the farmers (my emphasis /JC) <19> (GM Crops Increase Herbicide Use in the United States , SiS 45) followed by another round of weed evolution to resistance. The only escape from this treadmill is to shift comprehensively to organic agriculture <5>, as farmers have discovered in India <20> (Farmer Suicides and Bt Cotton Nightmare Unfolding in India, SiS 45).

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/glyphosateResistanceTransgenicTreadmil.php

[Odin2005]

10. I am sick of these fucks abusing GMO technology and giving it a bad name.

We could be using GMOs to help people (like government labs developing hardier plants), but NOOOO, greedy fucks have to use it to maximize their profits and screw people over. :grr:

[JohnyCanuck]

12. kick n/t

[HeresyLives]

13. You are aware Monsanto has competitors, right?