Out of Pod Experience

I have heard of a company called Monsanto that aims for complete control of the agriculture market though genetically engineered and pesticide ridden foods. I have found a few articles detailing it but I can't link them due to viruses and browser exploits the site that has the article contains.
One thing I know about is the "Monsanto protection act" a bill in the USA that grants complete legal protection against Monsanto and it's products.
What are your thoughts/concerns?

This is news to me, thank you for sharing this!

The USA's citizens and inhabitants are going to be dead from this stuff sooner or later.
The Romans had lead, we have GMO.

Edit: looking around it seems that they also own a large amount of the non-GMO market too.

Heh, I worked for Monsanto when I was 15.

They had enormous corn fields where every two rows for 20 feet were a different genetic variant. We'd count the plants, chop the ones in excess of the number that were supposed to be in the row, and report shortages in the row to the supervisor. Then later in the summer we'd chop the tassel off the top, put it in bags and rubber band it around the corn ears so each plant would self-pollinate.

After the growing season was done they'd come through with highly specialized combines that would weigh the corn as it was harvested to determine which variants had the best yield.

The only options are quickly becoming to grow your own food, or get used to not knowing what's in it. Even many 'organic' choices are cagey, sadly.

In actuality, all food is genetically modified.

Grafting and seed hybridization have been used since ancient times.

Natural genetic evolution has taken care of the rest of the genetic modification.

People are just seeing Frankenstein in their minds.....utter irrational fear is all it is.


EDIT:.......and an excuse for these alarmist organizations to get 'donations' (cough cough) for their causes.

I remember an old ride in the '70s at Disneyland that shrank you down to the atomic level. It was really cool. And prominently "Sponsored by.........Monsanto" on the ride's signage.

Doesn't Monsanto have a monopoly on South American water as well, apart from pesticides, GM seeds, biology in general...

Exactly.

"genetic modification" is the least of the issues with Monsanto.

Keep in mind there's also hydroponics proposals for vertical farming to increase the land available, keep crops throughout the year and in a density that lets us not rely on GM crops. Perhaps I've been taken in by the propaganda (biology ins't my field, but when enough scientists say something you listen to hear them out regardless, cigarettes, climate change ect)

Take the UK, we grow 85% of our calorie intake on the islands as a whole, this drops off to 55% if we lose Ireland as part of a reliable food source. From this alone the UK needs access to markets to simply feed itself, indeed this was South America's main WW2 effort, growing enough food in sufficient quantities to feed a besieged Britain and keep us in the war, respect o7

And like in WW2, we lose trade, we lose the food, we riot, we're natural capitalists that way. Same with Singapore, they have a expensive though strategically viable practice of changing the country they contract for water every few years, hence no single nation *cough*Indonesia*cough* can gain absolute leverage over the tiny city state. Hence, if you create a high density multi story hydroponics facility, you can take in nutrients, say from sewage, and then re purpose it more directly as a basis to grow new food.

Its an alternative to GM, and creates more room to farm in, though it is a capital intensive process compared to throwing seeds in the ground and growing, but new building techniques are making it more viable over time and cost effective. Little old Singapore could be a net food exporter if it chose to do so, to put into context the density we are talking here