MetaFilter posts tagged with monsanto

The World According to Monsanto

aniola — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:14:12 -0800

The World According to Monsanto - A full documentary on the agricultural giant. All sorts of previously. Originally: "Le monde selon Monsanto"

So much for organic farming?

bitter-girl.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:02:51 -0800

No conflict of interest there, no sir. Organic food fans and small farmers alike are saying if HR 875 is passed, it will mean the end of organic farming in the United States. An overstatement? Perhaps, but HR 875 has serious flaws. The bill, introduced by Rosa DeLauro last month (who happens to be married to Stanley Greenburg of Monsanto, the world's largest producer of herbicides, chemical fertilizers and genetically engineered seeds), is here. This isn't the first bill that could damages small farms under the guise of protecting consumers. Remember NAIS? HR 875 isn't getting a lot of press yet except on slightly fringe-y blogs. Two less-panicky responses to the bill here and here.

Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides in India

bodywithoutorgans — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:28:10 -0800

A recent study shows that farmer suicides in India have not increased due to introduction of GM crops The Washington based research organization IFPRI claims that "Bt cotton is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the occurrence of farmer suicides. In contrast, many other factors have likely played a prominent role." Their study has been wielded in the empirical arms race by big pharmaceutical corporations such as Monsanto against NGOs that oppose GM modified crops in India such as Gene Campaign and activists such as Vandana Shiva.

Monsanto Milk

homunculus — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:00:33 -0800

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear. "Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination."

Would I like it? What a DREAM! But hey, what happens if I push this red button?

miss lynnster — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:03:38 -0800

In the early 1950's, Monsanto Chemical Company, MIT and Disneyland collaborated their resources and creative brainpower to build "the house of 1986." Using 30,000 pounds of plastic (The building's structure, carpet, chairs, sinks, appliances and floors were all plastic. About $7,500 to $15,000 worth.), the Monsanto House of the Future* was opened to an excited public in June of 1957. It was closed in 1967 as ideas of the future were beginning to change. Let's take a quick tour, shall we?
*(Not to be confused with Xanadu Homes of Tomorrow.) Indirectly related. From this page: In June of 1957, Disneyland opened Monsanto's House of the Future. It remained for 10 years, finally closing in 1967 with the remodeling of Tomorrowland. In it's short run, more than 20 million visitors got a glimpse of what the future home may include. Such innovations included insulated glass walls, picture telephones, plastic chairs, microwave ovens, speaker phones and electric toothbrushes. The house included three bedrooms, two baths, a living room, a dining room and a family room. Some inventions never came to a reality (yet), including ultrasonic dishwashers, foam-backed plastic floor coverings, atomic food preservation and plastic sinks with adjustable heights. Upon entering the home, a voice would state "Welcome to Monsanto's Home of the Future", and continue to cover the details of construction, which was almost entirely of plastics. Monsanto sponsored the exhibit, but the house itself was built at MIT and remained at Disneyland until it was demolished. A giant wrecking ball was brought in, but bounced off the sturdy plastic construction. A crew of several men had to go in and demolish it by hand, dragging most of it away. Unfortunately, none of the original building was ever salvaged. From this link:
The house was a hit for people visiting the park, but Monsanto's plans for their prefab home were a complete flop. The aesthetics of a giant, floating plastic X just weren't palatable to the general public. Monsanto quickly dropped any plans of selling the design and settled with just leaving it as an attraction. When it came time to tear it down in 1967, Disneyland ran into a problem: the house was too well constructed! The wrecking ball they had brought in just bounced harmlessly off the plastic walls. Eventually, each wing had to be pulled off the main core by cables and taken apart by hand. The main core, however, had to be slowly beaten away with pickaxes and shovels. Each small piece dragged away, and not a single one salvaged for history.

life in Bangladesh

nickyskye — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 09:21:13 -0800

SOS-arsenic.net has excellent recipes, visuals, articles and information about life, history, living in Bangladesh, which borders India, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Assam, Burma and is near the Himalayan country of Bhutan. Among the many interesting things included in this site is disturbing information: mustard oil, whose production and consumption were until recently integral to India's way of life, has been banned, so as to provide a market for Monsanto's soya oil and the poisoning of between 85 and 125 million people with arsenic.

Y U R 2 C No rBGH in PA

kyrademon — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:35:17 -0800

The Pennsylvania government is worried that consumers will be “confused” by labels such as “pesticide free”, “antibiotic free”, and “contains no artificial hormones”. After all, doing so might seem to imply that products without such labels might be unsafe! PA Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff is very concerned about that sort of “confusion”, which surely has nothing to do with the fact that he owns a 600-acre dairy farm. Oddly, while Mr. Wolff said his office had received many calls from confused consumers, his office was unable to come up with the name of even one consumer who had complained.

I think it might be time to get my own cow - or goat.

bigmusic — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:43:35 -0800

What's in your milk? Estradiol, testoerone, and growth hormones (IGF-1) IGF-1 is what Fox News doesn't want you to know is in your milk.

When GM food is fed to rats it affected their kidneys and blood counts. So what might it do to humans?

Lanark — Sun, 22 May 2005 02:09:55 -0800

Rats fed GM corn develop abnormalities A new study reveals that rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn develop abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food.

Monsanto vs. US Farmers

digaman — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 11:32:01 -0800

Farmer Homer McFarland is being sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Monsanto corporation. His crime? Replanting his crops' own seed, as farmers have done for millennia, which violates the biotech giant's intellectual property rights, the company claims. Quietly, Monsanto's aggressive "seed police" have been suing farmers in 25 states for years, often settling out of court for huge sums, according to the Center for Food Safety's new report, Monsanto vs. US farmers [PDF link]. For more information, also see a new documentary called The Future of Food.

Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastics

thisisdrew — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 23:26:41 -0800

Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastics
TO ORDER, SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:

The Center for Global Food Issues (operated by The Hudson Institute ..funded by ConAgra Foods, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, McDonalds, Monsanto, etc etc etc...)

"Diverse" reviews at Amazon

Patenting Genes

batboy — Fri, 21 May 2004 10:28:32 -0800

Monsanto Wins Fight to Control Plant The Canadian Supreme court sets international precedent by ruling that since Monsanto holds a patent on a gene, it can control the use of the plant. So does this mean that in the future that an engineered human gene could be patented, and therefore if you receive this gene you will have to make royalty payments? And if you renege on paying can they repo the gene?

thedailygrowl — Thu, 31 Oct 2002 22:33:27 -0800

Listen to a true ready made Halloween horror story about a David vs Goliath type struggle. On her October 24th show Caroline Casey creator of the VisionaryActivism Radio show interviewed Percy Schmeiser a canola farmer from Saskatchewan Canada whose organic Canola fields were genetically contaminated with Monsanto's Round-Up Ready Canola. Schmeiser a 40 year organic canola seed saver is in the fight of his life against the powerful Monsanto corporation. This powerful interview should make you cry and provoke you to clean your pantry and refrigerator and rethink food choices like I did.

skallas — Wed, 30 Jan 2002 14:44:23 -0800

Wild GM corn begins to overtake Mexican countryside. "It even grows out of the concrete."

feckless — Tue, 01 Jan 2002 15:59:35 -0800

Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution. Short version: PCBs, small Alabama town, Monsanto knew about problems, told no one, and ignored warnings. Neal Stephenson fans will find the descriptions of the toxic effects of PCBs eerily familiar.

mathowie — Mon, 03 Dec 2001 15:38:54 -0800

The genetically modified cat is out of the proverbial bag. New study finds traces of GM corn DNA in wild maize fields, over 60 miles away from the closest possible source. Are GM crops still the great idea that Monsanto thought they were? [via the pocket]

Steven Den Beste — Mon, 30 Jul 2001 13:28:13 -0800

A major advance in genetically modified foods. Developed with government funding, and intended eventually to be given away to farmers, there has been a major success in the use of salt water to irrigate crops. They've developed a tomato which grows fine in salt water or on salty soil. Thousands of lives will be saved in parts of the world where fresh water for irrigation is scarce, including up to one third of the arable land in India where salt has been accumulating. Interestingly, these tomatoes are so good at what they do that they remove salt from the soil, improving it. The genetic modification which was done to these tomatoes should be possible with many other crops, including especially rice (on which major effort in Egypt is underway now).

gimli — Fri, 30 Mar 2001 15:19:09 -0800

Monsanto wins case against Canadian farmer. Percy Schmeiser, who has attained folk-hero status, was held liable for growing genetically modified canola without paying the royalty. The decision in a federal court in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was a significant setback for farmers who fear they will be held liable if pollen from neighboring farms blows onto their fields, transmitting patented genes to their crops without their knowledge or consent.

jbushnell — Wed, 26 Apr 2000 19:30:57 -0800

Monsanto, the megacorp who brought you terminator seed technology, and who is known for suing farmers who harvest seeds from crops grown from patented Monsanto seeds, has had a busy couple of weeks. On April 4, they merged with pharmaceutical giant Upjohn to form meta-megacorp Pharmacia. That same day, in a spurt of overactivity, they decoded the genetic sequence of rice.

Uh oh.