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Genetically Modified Canola Spreads To Wild Plants
eldavojohn writes "A research team conducting a survey has found that about 86% of wild canola plants in North Dakota have genetically modified genes in them, and 'two samples contained multiple genes from different species of genetically modified plants.' Canola usually has little competition when cultivated but does not fare well in the wild. The Roundup Ready and Liberty Link strains of genetically modified canola appear to be crossing over to wild plants and helping it survive. The University of Arkansas team claims that the ease in which genetically modified canola has 'escaped' into the wild should be noted by seed makers like Monsanto because this is proof that it will happen."
Reader n4djs notes that Monsanto has been known to sue farmers for patent infringement when their crops unintentionally contain genetically modified plants.
1. Enforce strong patent system
2. Spread patented genetic material all over domestic agriculture
3. Sue farmers
4. Profit!!!
You might want to see the film Food inc. which will give some background about Monsato and the rest of the "modern" food industry. The funniest thing is that in their response to the film Monsato even directly admits they require farmers saving seed to provide "samples for testing". That's right; if you have nothing to do with Monsato, you still have a duty to provide them with samples of your seeds so that they can be sure you haven't "infringed their intellectual property rights".
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Luckily nature doesn't need direct hybridization to evolve toward "roundup ready" 'behaviour'. Large scale spraying over time leads to glyphosate resistance, be it in the coca plantations of Bogotá or the rapeseed fields of northern america. "Roundup Ready" kudzu does not have to be a direct canola-kudzu hybrid.
There is no such thing! There is such a things as CANOLA oil, which is made from rapeseed. CANOLA is a word made up of Canada Oil. It is not a particularly good oil for huma consumption to begin with, let alone GMO version. The thing is it's cheap and plenty and it's hard to find food that does not contain it. Do some research on Canola oil and you will not want to eat it in the first place.
Despite the level of corruption, you find that in generally free societies which are all capitalist based economies (they have varying levels of regulation, but a free market is always the basis) there is the least corruption of any system. Central economies tend to be the very worst. After all, when the people doing the watching are the people with control, well there is something of a conflict of interest, isn't there? It's not perfect, but it is the best we've yet come up with. Doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement or that vigilance and regulation aren't needed, but trying to say "Oh capitalism is the problem," shows a good deal of ignorance of history and current events. As power concentrates, corruption tends to go up and in command economies, you have a hell of a concentration of power.
A completely unregulated, free market tends towards consolidation of power into large companies and ultimately monopoly. This maximizes corruption every bit as effectively as a strong, centralized government.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Here is the story NPR did on this a few days ago - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129010499
"Wilkinson says that just because the plants are genetically modified, doesn't mean they'll be more successful than wild plants. In this particular case, herbicide resistance will provide little edge to plants growing in areas that, almost by definition, don't receive many herbicides. "It's very difficult for either of these transgene types to give much of an advantage, if any, in the habitats that they're in," he says, referring to the genetically modified canola."
I hate Monsanto and GM because of their legal views and actions on DNA patents. I also hate how their products require tons of chemicals to grow and how it gets into the environment. I hate it how it promotes growing "all one type of plant" which turns niche problems and pests into giant clusterfucks because of the lack of biodiversity that would have naturally kept the problem in check. Google "pig weed" which is now ultra resistant to all known herbacides thanks to GM/Monsanto. The list goes on and on.
Note that there is a difference between capitalism, free market enterprise, and a completely broken patent process [...]
In principle, you are right. But in practice, capitalism and free market almost necessarily lead to a broken patent process and other "intellectual property" nonsense. Look: for capitalism/free market to halfway work, you need growth. And once all of Earth is colonized, growth can only expand into the "intellectual domain" (colonization of extraterrestrial planets not taken into accont for the moment). Now, when it's cheaper to buy lawmakers than to buy material goods, tere you are: buying lawmakers to invent new types of assets on which to speculate. What once was a time-limited monopoly to reward innovation becomes more and more a "property right"... you know the drill.
Sorry, but I jus can't buy what free market apologists keep repeating. I'm convinced that the current (broken) situation is what capitalism leads to (and no: the "practical instances" of communism we've got to witness don't convince me either).
The most honest answer to that question is "we don't know".
I'm pretty sure the honest answer is "unlikely" (though certainly not impossible - see especially the links about widespread HGT for mitochondrial genes among plants), but as a previous AC poster has mentioned, you don't need to directly modify the genes of kudzu, poison ivy, or any other "undesirable" plant to end up with a "RoundUp Ready" variety - all you need to do is selectively breed such organisms by spraying RoundUp indiscriminately until you create one "naturally". Monsanto may have done a lot of work to come up with a GM short-cut, but we've bred drug-resistant strains of bacteria, pesticide resistant strains of insects, and herbicide resistant strains of plants before, all without tinkering directly with the genes.
I do not think that Mother Nature gives a damn.
Monsanto usurped Mom and Mom p'ownd Monsanto.
Man, meet earth.
Property law is also a state-granted monopoly. So is contract law. And free market doesn't "stand for" anything, it's simply an economic optimization tool society uses to benefit its members, and couldn't exist without a strong state enforcing rules for its participants.
You'd think the fall of Soviet Russia had been an excellent lesson on what happens when you let economic decisions be driven by ideology rather than reality, but I guess free market fundamentalists aren't any better than other fundamentalists in learning from observation, so now our economy is in the gutter too.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
So if you 'let business be' to the maximum, you don't have intellectual property ownership. Or property ownership. Or ... capital?
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
If you really think that it's OK for a farmer not to be allowed to save his own seed, from crops growing in his own field, as farmers have done since the dawn of history, regardless of the selection criteria he uses, then I'm afraid you sir, are lost in the insanity of our world. The circle of life itself can no more be owned by an individual or a corporation than can the Sun and Moon.
I'm all for progress and technology, but some things are truly "sacred" -- not in any religious sense, but in a practical one. Food production is the single most important activity that we humans undertake concerning our survival.
I don't know about you, but I'd prefer if our food production systems were a little more robust than having a cadre of corporations dictate to all farmers exactly what they can and can't do on their own farms.
The end result of unbridled capitalism is fascism though - "Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy." [Wikipedia]
Corporations definitely seek to organise the political system according to their values - you just have to look at how much they spend on lobbying. The logical end result is a government by the corporate, for the corporate. Laissez-faire capitalism only works so long as there are controls on how powerful any one corporation is permitted to become, otherwise as corporations merge with others, eventually you end up with the position of corporations that are more powerful than nation states - this is already the case, but the nation states are far enough down the list that the ones at the top remain comfortable.
Which is why I'm no longer a libertarian. Power corrupts. Libertarians seem to read this as "government power corrupts," which isn't the same thing. I've had consistent problems finding libertarians upset over the actions of Monsanto, Blackwater, etc. Basically no problem exists unless the government is doing it, and their only solution is to say "less government." That someone could do bad stuff for profit isn't even on the radar.
So we have been breeding plants with fish and insects for thousands of years? Yeah...uhh no. If you would read up on the technique involved they are "shotgunning" DNA from different species of all different sorts into plants and then patenting any that show "good traits" the problem is by using the shotgun method you end up with a LOT of "free-rider" DNA that frankly we don't have a clue in hell what will do because it has never been and wasn't created in plants in the first place.
What you are gonna end up with is massive ecological disaster when one of these free riders mutates into something really nasty and like in TFA spreads into the wild plant population. I have no doubt if one was to do a serious double blind study on the increases in food allergies and food illnesses you would probably be led straight to GMOs, but of course with companies like Monsanto making congress its bitch we just won't see those kinds of studies funded.
But already we are seeing the classic corporate malfeasance where farmers get sued because Monsanto shit spreads onto land adjacent to their crops while Monsanto takes NO LIABILITY for said spreading. Basically they get all the rewards, while WE take all the risks. Personally I believe the world would be a better place without Monsanto in it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
this, has to be the point where the sane realizes that this does not work.
The Supreme Court handed Monsanto the license to sue small farmers. Clarence Thomas used to work for Monsanto and didn't recuse himself from the case.
So if you're looking for sanity, you're barking up the wrong tree. Follow the money, you'll have better luck.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
It's retarded to think that without capitalism, all the corruption goes away. It simply moves to places where it's harder to reach.
No sane person advocates capitalism without laws to govern it. Efficient law enforcement is critical to a free society and business that succeed and grow without onerous regulation and taxes are the best way to keep a society working and prosperous. You know what has really failed? Government. Government has entered into an unholy alliance with the big companies who write the big checks.
You can have free-market capitalism and stay out of the way of 95% of the businesses out there as long as you're willing to 1) not structure all the laws around protecting only the property of those who can afford the best lawyers and 2) clearly define at what point you will crack down on the few who are abusing the system.
Actually what usually happens is that "mother nature" carries the Monsanto-owned genes to standard natural plants, which absorb the genes and pass them on to their seedlings. Then Monsanto sues the farmers for owning their genes without paying for it, enve though it's not the farmers fault (it's the bees and wind that did it). Then the farmers find themselves driven into bankruptcy by legal expenses.
Pretty soon Monsanto will have driven all the independent farmers out of business, and they'll have no competition.
Isn't copyright great?
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I have too much beer in me to tell if you're being ironic, but in case you're not, you may want to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_(herbicide).
Basically, Monsanto long ago produced a plant-killer that will generally kill/damage plants that are not "Roundup Ready". From whom do you buy (patented) Roundup Ready seeds? Oh, right... Monsanto.
Of course, as you can see from the Wikipedia article, the patent on the active chemical in Roundup has since expired, so the free market can do its job in producing cheap herbicides that prop up Monsanto's seed monopolies. Thank goodness their evil business model hasn't suffered complete collapse!
Free markets cannot exist in a vacuum. If nobody interferes, then when we come together I'll steal your stuff if I am stronger than you, (or you'll steal mine if you are stronger). And I'll punch you in the face, and tell you to bring me more stuff tomorrow or I'll come find you and punch you some more. And everybody else will look the other way, because doing anything else would be interfering.
Free markets can only work if there is a Big Brother with a force monopoly that threatens us both if we try to make an exchange that doesn't fit within Big Brother's philosophy of what is allowed to be traded, and for what in exchange.
Because he specifically decided to replant the Monsanto seed.
The seed belonged to him, not Monsanto. He decided to replant his seed which contained a DNA sequence the Monsanto plants infected his with.
It's one thing to have your crops polluted; it's quite another to say "hey, I like this pollution and I'm going to spread it further".
He had two choices. He could discard all his seed (only a portion of which was Monsanto infected). Or, he could plant his seed. He didn't go through each seed and pick the Monsanto ones to plant and discarded the uninfected. He replanted in the same proportions as it was harvested. That isn't spreading it, that's the choice to not discard all the seed he had, but instead to use what he had because it's all he had.
Which is all unrelated to the question of whether someone is allowed to spew pollution with a dollar value then sue when someone picks up that discarded pollution and makes money from it.
Learn to love Alaska
That's completely incorrect. Open pollinated hybrids are often sterile and even more commonly fail to breed true. As a result farmers planting these crops cannot plant the seeds from these plants; they always buy new seed. Otherwise the likelihood is that their crop will be useless.
And as far as Monsanto suing farmers for accidental genetic contamination, cite please. As far as I can tell that is an urban myth. There was a case where Monsanto sued a farmer for INTENTION use of such, and won.
There are some things to worry about when it comes to GMO crops. However the amount of misinformation and outright lies in this area is staggering. Your posting happens to contain a couple of the more frequent items in this category.
You may notice that people are not dying from this, we haven't had an epidemic of many people becoming ill or dying because a genetically engineered food was introduced...
Not yet, at least.
Even though testing could not reveal whether 51 people were legitimately sickened by Starlink corn, the news left a lingering thought it could.
Even earlier this year when a report found that GM corn may cause organ damage in rats, it only showed 'signs of toxicity' (not proof). http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11
We probably won't know the true effects for decades or maybe longer. Perhaps livestock will develop reactions to GM feed that we won't know about until we have an adverse reaction to eating them. Too many what-ifs, but it's nice to think about them.
The EU has some of the strictest laws regarding labeling of GMOs on food products... And, apparently there were some folks in the FDA that saw a clear danger from using GMO in the food chain. Hmm...
FTA: "Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried "serious health hazards," and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/youre-appointing-who-plea_b_243810.html
And "KEY FDA DOCUMENTS REVEALING (1) HAZARDS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS--AND (2) FLAWS WITH HOW THE AGENCY MADE ITS POLICY"
http://biointegrity.org/list.html
No sig for you! Come back one year!
Schmeiser sprayed his crops with RoundUp, and harvested the seed from the resistant plants for replanting. His plantings were found to be 98% RoundUp resistant. He clearly was intentionally violating Monsanto's patents.
Even worse - he continues to lie about what he did.
The guy is schmuck.
I call BS. Schmeiser sprayed his crop with RoundUp and kept the seeds from the plants that survived. This isn't merely propagating an existing seed line.
Tests found his crop had 96-98% RoundUp resistance. You don't get anything like that from open pollination in one year.
It's already common for orchards and other large scale food growers to order bees for when their plants are flowering. The bees hives are delivered by truck, left for a few weeks, then moved to the next farm.
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Actually canola stands for "Canadian Oil, Low Acid", as in low levels of erucic acid, a major constituent of Lorenzo's Oil. The seeds used for canola are from Brassica napus L. and B. campestris L. (naturally low in erucic acid). Oils from other varieties are indeed machine oil, and there are varieties engineered to produce high levels of erucic acid (HEAR oils) for industrial purposes.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.