Monsanto. Round-up. GMO's, it's all in here.

[bogfrog]

Couldnt there be an alternative that doesn't involve poison though?

I mean sure, I understand its the most cheap and effective way, but killing those weeds just leaves more open ground for other weeds to collonise.

In NZ we are seeing a new approach to dealing with gorse. Instead of spraying and burning it, they plant natives in the undergrowth. The gorse protects the seedlings when they are young and once the trees grow up through the gorse they starve it of light and nutrients and the gorse dies off.

Obviously not all weeds would play as nice as gorse does in this example.. But my point is that the weeds are only able to take over in the first place because we kill all their competition!

[whoami]

well in the case of Singapore daisy.... its mostly a ground covering habit. but it also climbs and will choke small trees and shrubs. around here, its invaded and has been very successful because there are like no other plants that inhabit the same niche that can out compete it. so its had a free run with fuck all to stop it. it chokes waterways and dominates the understory along riparian zones. it propagates itself by runners and even very small pieces chopped up by a whipper snipper can strike roots ans take off again. it loves shade just as much as it loves full sun. its a very well rounded opponent. fire resistant and very hardy. mechanical controls are limited to pulling it out at the roots by hand or constant mowing, which is impossible on rough or hillside terrain. when there's that much of it there's seriously not much else you can do apart from spray it. and that's just singapore daisy....

[whoami]

I can think of a few others in my area that are really bad and most land management groups just go for poison-

guinea grass, grader grass, hymenachne, shit like leukena, parkinsonia, pond apple, parthenium, the list goes on.

people are employed in biosecurity full time to just mark infested sites by GPS either on foot or in a chopper before they come back and poison it all

[whoami]

the loss of biodiversity when using poison is far less than the loss involved in allowing the weeds to continue their take over

[waterboy 2.0]

there's a bit of a difference between using herbicides as a tool for weed management and making it standard practice for application in food production (even when not required...).

Big difference.....

EDIT - aside you Victorians watch out, appears they are gunna try poppy production your way, just wait to you see what is standard practice for chemical application on those crops

I still grab some of the higher scheduled chems out of the chem safe WHEN required, I'll add..... but sure as hell not near food production areas. I like my microflora too much for starters.

Edited September 3, 2013 by waterboy

[whoami]

hell yeah good point waterboy, there is definitely a big difference there

even just thinking about some of the withholding periods some chems require after spraying, before harvesting. even if the bottle says its safe to eat after a month im like eeeeeeeeeeee yeah. try not to think about that shit when i buy fresh fruit and veg at IGA hahaha

[whitewind]

Sign petition here

In an obscene development, a Monsanto executive is winning this year’s “Nobel Prize of agriculture” -- the prestigious World Food Prize -- for creating GMOs. Receiving it legitimizes the sort of rampant genetic modification Monsanto pioneered, and helps validate a ruthless business model that impoverishes farmers and monopolizes our food.

If that wasn't baffling enough, the founder of Syngenta, the same biotech giant joining Bayer in suing Europe to keep selling bee-killing pesticides, will also win the prize -- and with it, a share of the $250,000 prize money. We cannot allow this prize to legitimize frankenfoods and bee killers. The ceremony is in less than two weeks, so we need to act now.

Tell the World Food Prize Foundation not to reward Monsanto and bee-killer Syngenta’s outrageous practices.

Winning this prize will encourage the wider use of genetically engineered crops and be a huge obstacle to those fighting to investigate the long-term effects of its frankenseeds -- which is exactly what Monsanto wants. In 2008, Monsanto made a $5 million pledge to the World Food Prize Foundation, part of its plan to buy the credibility it can’t legitimately earn. By handing its benefactor this award, the Foundation risks undermining the credibility of the most respected prize in agriculture.

In protest, 81 Councilors of the World Future Council have penned a statement blasting the World Food Prize Foundation for betraying its purpose. In the words of the esteemed authors: “GMO seeds reinforce a model of farming that undermines sustainability of cash-poor farmers, who make up most of the world's hungry… The most dramatic impact of such dependency is in India, where 270,000 farmers, many trapped in debt for buying seeds and chemicals, committed suicide between 1995 and 2012.”

Despite the criticism, Monsanto and Syngenta executives are set to receive their prize on World Food Day, October 16 -- a slap in the face to everyone harmed by their products. We don’t have much time, so we need to publicize this obscene decision -- if enough of us get word of this out, and let people know the World Food Prize is threatening its reputation, we can shame it into choosing a more suitable candidate.

Genetically-modified crops do not deserve the highest praise. Don’t reward Monsanto and Syngenta.

[bogfrog]

14 Year Old Responds To Billionaire Who Claims Monsanto Is a Hero:

http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/07/14-year-old-responds-to-billionaire-who-claims-monsanto-is-a-hero.html

[whitewind]

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article2147

Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) maize is suspected of being toxic.

According to a French study presented by its authors as a "world first", rats fed the GM maize die younger and are more likely to suffer from cancer.

"The results are alarming. A two to three times higher mortality rate was observed in treated females. And two to three times more tumors in rats of both sexes," according to Gilles-Eric Seralini, Professor at the University of Caen, who conducted the study. For two years some two hundred rats were fed either a GM maize NK603 alone, or together with the GM maize treated with Roundup —the most widely used herbicide in the world — or with non-GM maize treated with Roundup, . These two products are the property of US Monsanto group. Maize was introduced into a balanced diet in proportions representative of the American diet. "Results show a much faster and higher mortality when both products are consumed," explains the researcher, who is or has been part of official commissions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in 30 countries. "The first male fed GMOs died a year before the first in the control group. The first female eight months before. At 17 months, we observed five times higher mortality amongst males fed 11% GM corn," he explains .

As for tumors, in the male group they appeared up to 600 days earlier than in the control group (skin and kidney tumors) and an average of 94 days earlier amongst females (mammary glands). The researchers found that 93% of tumors found in the female group were breast tumors; the majority of males died of liver or kidney problems.

Click on the link for more..

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article2147

[in_spirit]

Perhaps someone should produce a similar chart for Australia, ya just never know it might be an eye opener.

Its not governments that control or own food JT, they just make the rules to suit their lords & masters.

And a story on the upcoming Marsh case in WA

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2012/s3541322.htm

Can someone please clarify, this article discusses gm canola seed and conventional canola, but canola is gm rapeseed a toxic weed who's oils only use was in industrial applications. My question 'Isn't all canola genetically modified??

[waterboy 2.0]

"Canola" refers to lines selected out of rapeseed bred during the 1970s....it is not GMO ...until you fck with it.

GMO canola gets inserted into it gene sequences to code for producing things it would never be able to do with conventional breeding...you know useful stuff like say protection against a given herbicide

[in_spirit]

Why are so many sites stating canola is gm rapeseed not just a slectively bred rapeseed. I am pretty sure it wa sgm to start with. Heapsof info on it,

Olive oil comes from olives. Sesame seed oil comes from sesame seeds.

But what is a canola? Canola is actually a made-up word for a genetically modified product.

Canola stands for “Canadian oil low acid.” It’s (sadly) a Canadian invention and subsidized by the government. The subsidies make it very cheap to use, so almost all processed or packaged foods contain canola oil. Be sure to read the ingredients. Here’s why you should:

THE SCOOP ON CANOLA

Canola oil is developed from the rapeseed plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants. These oils have long been used for industrial purposes (in candles, lipsticks, soaps, inks, lubricants, and biofuels). It’s an industrial oil, not a food.

Rapeseed oil is the source behind mustard gas, and on its own it causes emphysema, respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, and blindness. But through the beauty of genetic modification, we now sell it as an edible oil.

The claim is that canola is safe to use because through modification it is no longer rapeseed but “canola.” Except… canola is just genetically modified rapeseed. It has been marketed as a wonder oil that is low in saturated fats with a beneficial omega-3 fatty acid profile. It is recognized by the American Dietetic Association and the American Heart Association based on the belief that the absence of saturated fats alone makes it healthy.

It is now believed that rapeseed has a cumulative effect, taking almost 10 years before symptoms begin to manifest. One possible effect of long-term use is the destruction of the protective coating surrounding nerves called the myelin sheath. This is like having raw, open wires in the body. Some symptoms include:

tremors and shaking

uncoordination when walking or writing

slurred speech

deterioration of memory and thinking processes

fuzzy or low audio levels

difficulty urinating/incontinence

breathing problems/short of breath

nervous breakdown

numbness and tingling in extremities

heart problems/arrhythmia

From a nutritional perspective, canola oil has been found to deplete Vitamin E. It has a tendency to inhibit proper metabolism of foods and normal enzyme function. It also depresses the immune system.

No matter how it happened, it doesn't sound like a good thing to do, and unfortunately Australian food labelling laws allow canola to be labelled as vegetable oil, and it is in everything bread, biscuits, chips you name it, this is criminal people are not being told whats in their food.

[waterboy 2.0]

I missed this somehow....

but I will go back to

"Canola" refers to lines selected out of rapeseed bred during the 1970s....it is not GMO ...until you fck with it.

"Canola" itself is not GMO, it has been selectively bred - not GM rapeseed to produce "Canola".....

"Canola" is varietal lines of rapeseed, its the "made up name" name for the varieties (low erucic acid rapeseed)

....conventionally genetically selected.

(although I've heard the argument that genetic selection is genetic modification...lol...its debatable nonetheless) .

Why are so many sites stating canola is gm rapeseed not just a slectively bred rapeseed.

So many sites probably say so to push their agendas, or misnformed from other websites and taken it as gospel.....I would suggest it is the former in a lot of instances.

But as the point I made above some believe selection is genetic modification....but if you use that definition its still using genes from within its own "gene pool"...not inserting sequences to manipulate a living organism to do something it never had a chance of doing.....like surviving a certain companies herbicide.

I've worked for ENGO's , not any more because of the mistruths/white lies some push to advance a given agenda, instead of using the hard hitting defensible facts.....but I digress. But when folk get caught out ....trust is gone...you need trust and no bullshit to change shit IMO.

To be honest "the facts" lost me when mustard gas came into the equation there....lol

I am not saying that canola oil consumption is with or without risk, to be clear. I personally limit my intake of foodstuffs that were originally used as fuels.... it was a fuel a long time before it became an oil...that occurred when steam power emerged.

Edited March 4, 2014 by waterboy