Silent thread for everyone who has been killed by GMOs.

[Nye Bevan]

[wyldwolf]

1. .

[polly7]

2. .......

Seed Monopolies, GMOs And Farmers Suicides In India

[Zorra]

3. !

[lunasun]

5. Monsanto’s GMO Seeds Contributing to Farmer Suicides Every 30 Minutes

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2014/may/05/india-cotton-suicides-farmer-deaths-gm-seeds
http://www.nationofchange.org/monsanto-s-gmo-seeds-contributing-farmer-suicides-every-30-minutes-1333632229

[silverweb]

6. ...

[ozone_man]

7. The birds and the bees

are silent.

[polly7]

13. ........

[Maedhros]

8. Look, I know that you are infinitely smarter than everyone else on DU,

and we certainly deserve to be put in our place by our betters (such as yourself), but might one consider that the issue is not just about potential health effects?

Maybe there is some concern regarding the domination of the world seed market by companies like Monsanto, which genetically engineer their seeds to grow plants that will not produce viable seeds themselves? And maybe this might force farmers to buy new seed each year rather than simply save a portion of their harvest for next year's seeding?

Nah, couldn't be those things. Only idiots would be concerned about something like that.

[Javaman]

9. Who are you complaining too?

it seems as if you and the op are on the same page.

[Maedhros]

19. I object to his mocking tone. [n/t]

[Javaman]

21. mocking tone?

I have some tea leaves that are really angry with me, can you give them a talking too?

does the poster have a history of this kind of behavior?

[el_bryanto]

10. I agree that lumping all concerns about GMOs in with the less scientific ones

is not ideal. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about Monsanto's business practices without believing that Monsanto is deliberately poisoning people or creating monsters.

But there are also people who do believe that GMOs are some sort of scary devil crop and that humanity should stop experimenting with them.

Bryant

[Maedhros]

18. I understand - we saw the same sort of alarmism over irradiated food in the 80's.

Somehow, people thought that dosing food with x-rays would result in radioactive food (it' doesn't - you'd need a neutron beam for that).

However, the concern over GMOs is not simply that of potential health risk.

[el_bryanto]

20. Exactly - it's annoying that the two get conflated; but given the similarities not surprising. nt

[mathematic]

11. Of course gmos produce viable seeds. How on earth do you think they make them?

Genetically engineering each and every regular seed they can get their hands on?

Why do you think there's some sort of overriding desire of farmers to save seeds? Tailors don't raise their own sheep. Brewers don't grow their own hops. Being able to economically grow seeds is not the same thing as being able to economically grow food. Farmers started buying seeds long before gmos and they won't stop buying seeds if gmos suddenly didn't exist.

[KurtNYC]

14. Why Does Monsanto Sue Farmers Who Save Seeds? ...let's ask Monsanto...

When farmers purchase a patented seed variety, they sign an agreement that they will not save and replant seeds produced from the seed they buy from us. More than 275,000 farmers a year buy seed under these agreements in the United States. Other seed companies sell their seed under similar provisions. They understand the basic simplicity of the agreement, which is that a business must be paid for its product. The vast majority of farmers understand and appreciate our research and are willing to pay for our inventions and the value they provide...

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/why-does-monsanto-sue-farmers-who-save-seeds.aspx

[Maedhros]

17. This was an issue in the 90's when I first became aware of Monsanto's shenanigans.

I remember it from an NPR broadcast. Why do I think there's some sort of overriding desire of farmers to save seeds? Because in the third world (and I'm sure elsewhere as well) farmers can't afford to pay for new seed every year. Saving seed from the harvest is a practice as old as agriculture itself.

There is also the issue of tailoring the genetics of the plant to thrive only with certain patented pesticides and herbicides, which further gouges the farmer.

It's all about corporate control of the food supply, which is bad. I suppose Republicans think it is a good thing, but this isn't a Republican board.

[HuckleB]

23. Farmers don't save seeds, because it's far more costly to do that than to buy them.

Next.

[polly7]

12. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/seeds-death/

[ReverendDeuce]

15. These stories sound like alarmist propaganda, similar to the stuff that Alex Jones pumps out... n/t

n/t

[marions ghost]

16. ---------

When the honeybees, our most important food pollinators, started dropping like proverbial flies, scientists scrambled to identify their killer (or killers). Attention eventually turned to the increased use of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Scientists now believe at least some of these pesticides play a major role in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the ongoing demise of honeybee colonies.

Who makes the neonicotinoids? Syngenta, Bayer CropSciences and Dow Agrosciences.

Who's using them, and for what purpose? Companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow Agrosciences . . . in the herbicides and pesticides and seeds they sell to farmers who grow genetically engineered crops. Crops that eventually end up in our food, or in the feed used to fatten up animals in factory farms-animals we slaughter for food.

We need bees in order to grow food, or at least some of it. Yet the food-GMO food, drenched in neonics-we are growing is killing the bees.

------------

It's not just the bees that are dying. Butterfly and bird populations are in decline, too. And it's not just the neonicotinoids that are to blame. Other herbicides and pesticides, especially Monsanto's Roundup, used to grow GMO crops-and also used to contain (kill) weeds in cities and home gardens-are decimating pollinators, fish and wildlife, and some would argue, humans, too.

But we need to look at the bigger picture, too. That means calling for an end to the use of Monsanto's Roundup in urban areas, on our lawns, roadways, schoolyards and parks. It means paying close attention to the seeds and garden plants we buy for our home gardens.

It means asking ourselves what can we do to pressure Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, and Dupont's customers, both rural and urban, into understanding that their widespread, reckless use of neonics and other toxins is destroying our food, soil, water, air and wildlife? And that organic, sustainable, non-chemical alternatives exist?

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_29307.cfm

[hunter]

22. I bathed my kids in Monsanto toxic waste hoping they'd become mutant superheros...

How's this thread turning out for you, Nye Beven?