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and RON PAUL, LIEBERTARIAN, would say that Monsanto should not have its freedom restricted by anti-pollution rules. Only being sued enough by injured people should be the proper regulations of these corporate citizens.
ANYBODY that says “over regulation” is wrong is a simpering mouthpiece for corruption and greed. The ONLY proper position is “appropriate regulation properly enforced.” THEN you can have a conversation worth the oxygen.
i saw this movie show up late night on IFC one night. got it dvr-ed. not watched it yet though….
I used to chase mosquito foggers down the street as a little kid growing up in New Orleans, and I turned out okay. 😉
You can get a dvd quality copy from:
mininova.org/tor/1714816
Not that I’d ever advocate piracy of course, but where the hell else are you going to get a copy watchable on any kind of normal screen.
John C Dvorak (or contributors)
“Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers”- AP.
why is roundup being picked on
it truely is one of the most nontoxic plant killer ever invented it binds to chlorophyll stopping the production of energy in the plant it has to be applied to the plant you want to kill it breaks down in the environment in about 24 hours.
Ive hare used it for years you can actually drink it and it wont kill you.
just another stupid environmental wacko hit piece on gm plants and any thing that is not horse and buggy farming
you like your cheap cotton products and cheap food then thank these guys roundup ready plants removed the use of harsh herbacides that were extremely toxic off the market and increased crop yields dramatically
“The FDA just announced the appointment of Michael Taylor as a Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg.” The same guy for the story. Things never change in the US
People have no idea what harm excess regulation and particularly the unwritten “regulation” that out-of-control tort law does.
At its core, it stifles and delays innovation.
It is so difficult to do ANYTHING, that very little actually gets done.
People don’t see this negative side. They don’t see the fact that cars don’t have more smart anti-collision features is due more to the threat of litigation than the technology.
They don’t realize that laws to remove lead solder led to XBOX 360 failures and will soon lead to aircraft electronics failures as avionic exemption comes to an end.
They don’t know that stoves can be made to prevent most kitchen fires, but aren’t because they can’t prevent 100% and are thus a liability threat. Better that 100 houses burn than 99 be saved with one lawsuit against the appliance manufacturer.
They have no idea why manufacturing found it so difficult to stay in America, and so easy to move to China.
The nannies did it, for your own good.
How would one go about feeding 6 billion people without chemicals and genetic enhancements? Even with that it’s risky due to the constant threat of negative environmental factors. Our oceans are fished out, or soon will be. Games such as commodities futures put the farmers at the risk of someone’s whims every season. A major natural disaster would throw this fragile economy in the wood chipper. Scary as hell isn’t it. We Boomers have something to be proud of.
I’m always a bit suspicious of these eerie music documentaries that completely trash big agri.
http://percyschmeiser.com/conflict.htm
If you have a crop that came from your own seed, but has been cross pollinated from a Monsanto GM crop you then owe them a commission/fee. If the wind or bees cross pollinate your crop you are screwed.
No benefit of using roundup to eliminate weeds, and a share owed to Monsanto to boot. 🙁
#6 SO apparently you have not actually watched any of this documentary. Sheesh.
#1 He would also remove limited liability for corporations. Not only that but the monopoly privilege that is patents. No one would be dumb enough in such a situation as to not test products with limited liability removed. Given that if harm is done with a product the individual or group responsible would loose their home and property to compensate for the damages.
Limited liability creates an incentive to socialize the costs of business.
Let’s not pretend that there is no regulation. As a company you are not allowed to advertise that your food product does not contain GMO food. The reguatlaions that are in place are to protect the big companies that have bought off the system. You are not even allowed to have private regulations because the corporate controlled FDA does not want competition. Now there are a lot of good scientists that work for the FDA, but the leadership of the government body has been compromized.
The last thing they want is an informed market, “Frankenfood” isn’t at the top of people’s supermarket shopping lists.
all the chemicals used to grow food have a 12% loss to bugs and such.
Using natural methods the loss is the same.
The difference is the profit the chemical companies make
#6 – PMitchell – Ive hare used it for years you can actually drink it and it wont kill you.
Go ahead and drink it. Btw… you might want to watch the video…
Bottom line, Monsanto has one very successful product.
Lies.
I don’t know of a single crop that isn’t Franken food to some degree. None of them are like the wild plant that was first domesticated. However the more varieties the better I like it.
Should you trust Monsanto or any company, no. Many people will lie to increase profits. You verify. Can round up do a lot of damage if used or disposed of incorrectly. Sure.
However roundup is part of no tile farming. You kill the plant cover and drill in the seeds and you end up with a better crop, less erosion, and less polution. The top soil doesn’t kill the fish.
Then they found a gene that would allow some crops to take a heavy hit of round up and not be killed. Now they can spray the crop and kill the weeds and not the crop. With luck they only spray once I think.
My problem with round up is rather different. It didn’t kill poison oak nor poison ivy for me nor did it kill the grass growing in the cracks in the driveway. I removed them using other means. I don’t know how much herbicide they use to get those fields clean but it must be a lot.
My problem is that my 4 raised garden beds, each one a 4×8 area, a re producing so many tomatoes and squashes and green beans and carrots that there is no way to keep up with those veggies. And not a bottle of chemicals of any kind (including fertilizers) anywhere to be found. Composted leaves mixed with local dirt are all that is needed to keep us well fed in the veggie department. It’s just too bad that the heat kept the dozens of peaches, pears and apples from ripening this time around.
While I somewhat agree that Monsanto is wrong in many ways and I definitely think GM seeds should not be patentable — I find this “documentary” very one-sided and “eco-flametory”, which undermines it completely.
Most of the testimonials and discussions were with people that agreed with her pre-conclusions, and were also to support the idea that ALL GMO is wrong.
GMO is a very good idea that has to be controlled properly, by scientists and governments.
But in any case, she undermines her arguments by not talking to those who are SUPPORTIVE of the GMOs and how the government has handled the situation. As a consequence, I find this is greenpeace anti-GMO propaganda. Also she uses the internet quite a lot but doesn’t go and do strong fieldwork to back up the conclusions she and other take. Did she find and validate each of the articles she pulls up? Did she check multiple studies and give them to an independent group of scientists to analyze for conclusions? She also appears to take most people at their word as to how things happened or didn’t happen.
Again, I don’t like Monsanto any more than they do, but without a thorough, scientific and un-biased look at the issues I can’t agree this was worth watching. And it doesn’t further their idea except amongst the “faithful”.
Thanks for putting this movie up, John. I am thankful that I am 60 years old, and won’t be around to see the mess this world is headed for. I’ll be living harder from now on, to spend all my money before the end. Too bad for my kid, but he is doomed, I guess.
Great documentary, even if she does try to use the number of google search results as some sort of scientific proof towards how bad Monsanto is.
She lost me when she pronounced the word “aspartame” as “as-par-tuh-mee.”
I’m sure that’s one part of her, and that’s where her brain is located.
#8 Yeah too bad it takes years for drugs to get approved, I want the new xanax to come out I’m starting to get bored with it. (j/k)
If you think that the threat of law suits are what prevents stuff like “anti house fire stoves” from coming out then you’re retarded. Any 2bit lawyer can build a strong enough legal statement that claims do not guarantee prevention of house fires that would hold up in court and prevent a suit from getting anywhere.
from my local paper today!
FIRST, KILL THE LAWN
If you want to convert a section of thirsty lawn into a productive garden, you first need to kill the grass. Spraying unwanted lawn with the herbicide glyphosate (trade name Roundup) is an easy and safe way to kill all lawn grasses including Bermuda grass and other grasses that spread by runners. Green foliage absorbs this systemic herbicide which moves throughout the plant including underground roots and stems.
Grass and weeds that have not been watered for a while are tough and hard to kill. For best results, water the area well for one or two weeks before you spray. This will produce tender new leaves that will absorb more of the chemical.
Thanks for the video, John. It was a real eye opener. My sympathies and apologies go out to all the small farmers around the world.
If she did the video today, I bet she would Google bees Monsanto, which turns up some ugly pages. It’s my guess that the current global famine of biblical proportions is just the tip of the iceberg, metaphorically speaking.
There are two issues which the movie did not stress enough, but which are very, very important.
#1.
When a company – any company – produces BOTH a potent plant-killer AND ‘owns’ the ONLY plants that are immune to it, that company can gain control over our food supply. Think about it.
#2.
It is no more difficult to insert the ‘terminator gene’ into either gamete. It could just as easily have been spliced into the female gamete (which is the bit that turns into the seed – and so remains on the plant) as it was to splice it into the male gamete: pollen, which is blown around by the wind and carried about by insects. Yet, Monsanto chose to insert the terminator gene into the highly mobile pollen….
Why?
Think about it: this has the potential to be a biological weapon.
KEYWORD:
as to any company,
is PROFIT.
The company dont care if you dont make any, ONLY THEY will make profit.
Even if they have to create the problem to make sales of the solution.
#6 ok, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll fly you out here and you can drink a glass of the stuff we’ll go buy. I’ll guarentee I’ll call 911 when you drop. (How can you make this claim, are you serious??)
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4098947/World_According_to_Monsanto_-_DVDRip_English.mp4
There ya go, the full thing, and remember, please seed!