Bayer buys Monsanto

[Tiberius]

Monsanto is hardly the white knight.

https://www.rt.com/usa/monsanto-patents-...rmers-547/

"The Supreme Court failed to grasp the extreme predicament family farmers find themselves in," said Gerritsen, an organic seed farmer in Maine. "The Court of Appeals agreed our case had merit. However ... safeguards they ordered are insufficient to protect our farms and our families."
In addition to Monday’s news and the appeals court decision against them, the plaintiffs - many of them non-GMO farmers and who make up over 25 percent of North America’s certified organic farmers - also lost a district court case.
“If Monsanto can patent seeds for financial gain, they should be forced to pay for contaminating a farmer’s field, not be allowed to sue them,” said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, in a statement “Once again, America’s farmers have been denied justice, while Monsanto’s reign of intimidation is allowed to continue in rural America.”
“Monsanto has effectively gotten away with stealing the world’s seed heritage and abusing farmers for the flawed nature of their patented seed technology,” said Murphy. “This is an outrage of historic proportions and will not stand.”

No, but those farmers were being idiots. Firstly, Monsanto doesn't sue, and has never sued (to my knowledge) any farmer who had Monsanto seeds blown onto their land. Monsanto does sue (for good reason) farmers who attempt to replant Monsanto seeds from previous crops. A lot of farmers have claimed that the seeds blew onto their lands, but these claims never held up in court.

Secondly, the idea that if Monsanto can patent seeds, they should be forced to pay when those seeds contaminate a farmer's field is just about as ridiculous as it gets. Patenting something doesn't mean the company is responsible for how consumers use that product. Plenty of patented things can be used to murder people, but that doesn't mean the victim has a right to sue the company that made the murder weapon. Monsanto aren't responsible for the wind, and they aren't responsible if a farmer's seeds are blown to another farm.

[Mermaid]

Monsanto is no different than any other large tech/chemical company. They just get more than their fair share of the press.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Monsanto is no different than any other large tech/chemical company. They just get more than their fair share of the press.

It's amusing, really. The aunty Gmos are doing millions of dollars worth of propaganda for Monsanto. Mature adults realize that they're not Margaret Hamilton. 

[Alex K]

Ever since I've had a conversation with Greenpeace activists in front of our supermarket, I don't trust them any more to know anything. The specimens I've met were as entirely emotionally ideology driven as any religious true believer, babbling on about the "purity" of their food like that crazy general in Dr. Strangelove.

[abaris]

Ever since I've had a conversation with Greenpeace activists in front of our supermarket, I don't trust them any more to know anything. The specimens I've met were as entirely emotionally ideology driven as any religious true believer, babbling on about the "purity" of their food like that crazy general in Dr. Strangelove.

I guess these were the usual students trying to hook you on a lifetime supporter role there for a few dimes. All armed with their handhelds and ready to take your details. We've got our fair share of these. Amnesty, Greenpeace, every organisation you can think of. But they're not representative of their particular organisations. Just a few people pestering anyone for the few dimes they get for their efforts. I don't even stop to talk with them.

[Tiberius]

Ever since I've had a conversation with Greenpeace activists in front of our supermarket, I don't trust them any more to know anything. The specimens I've met were as entirely emotionally ideology driven as any religious true believer, babbling on about the "purity" of their food like that crazy general in Dr. Strangelove.

Rather ironically, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, Dr Patrick Moore, is very pro-GMO now, because of projects like Golden Rice.

[Alex K]

Ever since I've had a conversation with Greenpeace activists in front of our supermarket, I don't trust them any more to know anything. The specimens I've met were as entirely emotionally ideology driven as any religious true believer, babbling on about the "purity" of their food like that crazy general in Dr. Strangelove.

I guess these were the usual students trying to hook you on a lifetime supporter role there for a few dimes. All armed with their handhelds and ready to take your details. We've got our fair share of these. Amnesty, Greenpeace, every organisation you can think of. But they're not representative of their particular organisations. Just a few people pestering anyone for the few dimes they get for their efforts. I don't even stop to talk with them.

No, not exactly, they were middle-aged and retiree idealists distributing anti-GMO pamphlets.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Speaking for myself, I prefer GMO foods. Many's the time I've gone into one of our better restaurants ('Big Joe's Porkateria', for example), sat meself down and shouted, 'Someone bring me a large platter of genetically modified foods, and be sharp about it!'

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

Ever since I've had a conversation with Greenpeace activists in front of our supermarket, I don't trust them any more to know anything. The specimens I've met were as entirely emotionally ideology driven as any religious true believer, babbling on about the "purity" of their food like that crazy general in Dr. Strangelove.

Rather ironically, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, Dr Patrick Moore, is very pro-GMO now, because of projects like Golden Rice.

Greenpeace itself take a dim view of the stufff.

After years worth of aggressive disinformation campaigns (up to and including, and I'm not even kidding...claiming that golden rice didn't actually exist and was instead a cover for western scientists to experiment upon asian children......) the initial field trials were tampered with by activists, delaying the release of the tech.  Meanwhile, vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness among children worldwide.  Every 60 seconds...a child goes blind.  Good lookin out, luddites.

[Alex K]

Speaking for myself, I prefer GMO foods. Many's the time I've gone into one of our better restaurants ('Big Joe's Porkateria', for example), sat meself down and shouted, 'Someone bring me a large platter of genetically modified foods, and be sharp about it!'

Boru

Waitress: Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and genes; egg bacon and genes; egg bacon sausage and genes; gene bacon sausage and genes; gene egg gene gene bacon and genes; gene sausage gene gene bacon gene tomato and genes;
...genes genes genes egg and genes; genes genes genes gene baked beans genes genes genes...
...or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and genes.

Wife: Have you got anything without genes?

Waitress: Well, there's gene egg sausage and genes, that's not got much genes in it.