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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.
Monsanto is doing this, indeed it is and you're next.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
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();
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.
I do not think that Mother Nature gives a damn.
Monsanto usurped Mom and Mom p'ownd Monsanto.
Man, meet earth.
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
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.
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.
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