GMO's may have led to increased pesticide/herbicide usage

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Found this article kind of interesting...

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/10/20/ge-cr...

[loki]

i did not read the article but...... i know monsanto owns round up weed killer and has GMO plants called/classified as "round up ready" so farmers can buy 100's of gallons of their round up product and just spray to their hearts content!

 

 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Yeah but round up is just a run of the mill glyphosate based herbicide (not that that's good or anything)...this goes way beyond that even...their whole spiel about Bt corn/soy...that whole selling point (and pushing it through regulation) was based on their premise that less pesticides would then be used...But no big surprises there. What a fucking joke...I bet if Prop 37 passes, monsanto will try to sue every citizen who votes in Ca...

[loki]

well monsanto is doing a good job with their comeritals  (i am a CA residen) getting all of the farmer unions and saying thing like it will cost them money and cost consumers more to buy produce in the state! my father and i got in to a debate about it. all in all i want to know  if i am eating a swamp thing x frankenstien x wolf man  science experement or something all natural.

so in total if monsanto and other GMO's is good then so is agent orange!

 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I like the headline "May" have lead to more use. GMOs are explicitly created to sell pesticide/herbicide. These companies aren't interested in selling seed, they want to addict farmers to artificial products they think they need to get higher yields and more profit. So long as the motivation for all parties, including politicians, is making money we will steadily see the degradation of our food supply. You can't stop the human instinct for greed! All you can do is grow your own food... that is until that becomes illegal.

[loki]

until it becomes illegal...........? i am hopeing for if! most people in government not all but most are only in office to make large sums of money wether it be in their paychecks or under the table!

 

 

 Jonathan Kadish said:

I like the headline "May" have lead to more use. GMOs are explicitly created to sell pesticide/herbicide. These companies aren't interested in selling seed, they want to addict farmers to artificial products they think they need to get higher yields and more profit. So long as the motivation for all parties, including politicians, is making money we will steadily see the degradation of our food supply. You can't stop the human instinct for greed! All you can do is grow your own food... that is until that becomes illegal.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Loki, I think what Jonathan meant was ...until growing your own food becomes illegal. Which judging by the way things have been going thus far, doesn't seem all that far fetched (at least not far fetched in the United States...)

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Yes the cynical interpretation of my poorly worded sentence is correct.

[loki]

it was not ment to be cynical i was rushing outside to look at the beavers and beaver dam befor a set of work crews got rid of them. my ADD/ADHD misinterpreted what i was reading as making GMO food illegal not as untill backyard farming becomes illegal! and as you state vlad the US gov has been trying to find a loophole that wil make the growing of ones own food illegal! i pray that the small % of farmers have the integrety to sand up for the rest of us! i like growing eddble and useful plants!

so if i offended johnathan or you vlad in any way i am sorry! some times what i read and what gets interpreted are 2 diffrent things! 

[Kenneth J Roche']

The big four companies are infact selling seed as well through their subsidiary own agencies such as pioneer seed and the like. Get ready for dicamba ready soybeans. The idea of engineering hebicide tolerant crops is so that they can use higher rates to get rid of 'weeds'. Knowing full well that this pressures for herbicide resistant weeds even faster. Currently there are herbicides utilizing around 8 modes of action. Glyphosate falls into the category of Amino Acid inhibition specifically EPSP synthetase inhibition (5-enol-pyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate). Here in NE. I am working on waterhemp, giant ragweed and kochia and I am finding some populations with suspected resistant upward 5 modes of action. This is truly industrialized ag land here and I am a small voice advocating change. Tough sell let me tell yas!

As Michael Franti sings----many little people doing many little things in many little places and the whole world changes.  Have faith brothers and sisters all is not lost!
 
Jonathan Kadish said:

I like the headline "May" have lead to more use. GMOs are explicitly created to sell pesticide/herbicide. These companies aren't interested in selling seed, they want to addict farmers to artificial products they think they need to get higher yields and more profit. So long as the motivation for all parties, including politicians, is making money we will steadily see the degradation of our food supply. You can't stop the human instinct for greed! All you can do is grow your own food... that is until that becomes illegal.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Kenneth, have you heard of this practice called "desiccation" where farmers spray a crop with a glyphosate based herbicide right before harvesting even a non-GM crop? 

Apparently there are a host of so-called "benefits" to spraying a non-GM crop with a broad spectrum herbicide just before harvest. Grains tend to take on the appearance of uniform ripeness while with things like potatoes, this practice (spraying 2.5 l/ha) seems to harden the skin and keep them from germinating. Things like that... 

Recent studies on using the urine of city dwelling folks (here in Europe where GMO's are still illegal)in Berlin, has shown that every single one (in the study) of them had glyphosates in their urine. Between 5-20 times the allowable amount in drinking water. These are city folks far from AG land...so their exposure was through food.

I imagine the politicians/policymakers answer to this problem will once again be to raise the legal limit of allowable glyphosate in vegetables, wheat and bread (as was done a few years back... a 100 fold increase for veggies and 200 folks increase in allowable contamination for wheat is now accepted).

The problem is not just in the US, although it does seem particularly bad there. 

I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your area. I'm sure it's a pretty tough sell.

[Kenneth J Roche']

 Yes Vlad I have heard of desiccation. You see it in cereal grains alot now especially wheat. The big four are always looking for different ways to apply/sell their products. The so called 'benefits' are claimed to be sooner and more uniform ripening. Which is weird because here in Nebraska they harvested wheat earlier by three weeks since records have been kept. It should be noted that they would not allow me to brew beer (I was just asking) with the grain in the study but said it was ok for processing and feed products. Go figure. You are correct I was involved in data entry for the 2013 weed herbicide extension guide and had to double check label rates and over 60% of the products have increased rates/acre. Sad as hell. I get a lot of rolling eyes and hurrumphs when I attend seminars or speak because they know I am anti-indutrialized food production. And that I am not blinded by agribussines propaganda. 

[Carey Ma]

The ship is sunk yet the band plays on...Bravo my brave brothers.

Buy, collect, and build a seedbank of wild and open polinated seeds. I just pray we can keep our stocks pure and avoid genetic contamination. I even have three pounds of seed in my bug-out kit.