The Seed Emergency: The Threat to Food and Democracy

[seedcorn]

Thank you for correction......my spelling was never good and it ain't getting any better..........

If correcting my spelling makes you a pain in the rear, hate to think what my friends are for I get way more grief from them. & don't want to even imagine what people that don't like me think.

 

[thistlebloom]

Sorry. I was the obnoxious kid in school that lived for spelling bees.

 

[Detlor Poultry]

most agree it is over 80% of all soybean seeds and around the same percentage of corn seed.

Not even close. Dupont sells 30%, Monsanto-32%, Syngenta-7%, Agreliant-7%, Dow-5%, 1%-Stine, independents that buy seed from Dupont/Syngenta-10%.

I'm not meaning to argue, but those numbers sum up to 82%.

 

[seedcorn]

most agree it is over 80% of all soybean seeds and around the same percentage of corn seed.

Not even close. Dupont sells 30%, Monsanto-32%, Syngenta-7%, Agreliant-7%, Dow-5%, 1%-Stine, independents that buy seed from Dupont/Syngenta-10%.

I'm not meaning to argue, but those numbers sum up to 82%.

Not even close. Dupont sells 30%, Monsanto-32%, Syngenta-7%, Agreliant-7%, Dow-5%, 1%-Stine, independents that buy seed from Dupont/Syngenta-10%, rest are a bunch of independents that sell what ever they can buy on wholesale market cheap.

OK?

 

[ducks4you]

Ya know, I TOLD you all about the food shortage problem worthwide, that I first read about in Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

http://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Civilizations-David-R-Montgomery/dp/0520248708
We USED to have 5 breadbaskets feeding the world. We now have 3: US, Europe, China
US has a surplus, Europe sometimes has a surplus, China has now bought farmland in Venezuela to feed their people bc they've mucked up their farmland so badly that a lot of it doesn't produce anymore. =/
AND, Venezuela is tropical. THEIR soil doesn't get a chance to rest like in temperate zones, so they'll use it up shortly.
If ANYBODY wonders why China is happy to buy our debt, I believe, IMHO, that they intend to demand payment in food. Chew on THAT.

 

[897tgigvib]

Just to clarify, genes do not get incorporated into the eater from the eaten. Ingestion is not a vector of genetic makeup.

The actual problem with GMO is that gene transfer is used to make plants tolerant to herbicides and tolerant of things such as Corn Smut, even able to poison the smut fungus. Actually, corn smut is edible. The poisons used to kill it are not. GMO corn often grows its own poison to kill the smut, and that same stuff is indeed harmful to humans. Care to eat some copper based fungicide?

GMO is something that is too dangerous, and I compare it to nuclear bombs.

What
is
the
reason
for
the
oipposition
to
at
least
labelling
products
containing
GMO
plants
?

 

[Detlor Poultry]

There is another problem to the Terminator gene (if anyone's been idiotic enough to create something like that...)
Plants make very neccesary food, yes. The alleged terminator gene would immediately cause a global monopoly for food.
It seems there is yet another problem that nobody's noticed.

Plants also make air.
No plants means no air.

Terminator gene = global food monoply + apocalypse + global suffocation + lots of money for a few people - all people = *$&%#&* greedy food companies.

That's a scary thought.

 

[seedcorn]

Marshall, corn smut is there because of damage to the kernals, either by mammals or insects. The reason you have less smut in some GMO hybrids is because the Bt gene kills the insects before they can cause major damage to the ear.

While I agree labeling should be easy because of liability laws, LAWYERS, and PEOPLE WHO WILL HIRE LAWYERS TO SUE FOR ANY REASON FOR $$$$$$$, it complicates labeling.

There are a couple of genes that can be called "terminator" genes with one of them producing seedless watermelons. None in corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.