Would You Care for a Side of Agent Orange With Your Soy Burger?

[ensho]

http://blog.buzzflash.com/analysis/1031


You've probably heard about Roundup Ready crops, the Monsanto-created seeds that are resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. But did you know that "Agent Orange Ready" corn and soybeans may be on their way to a supermarket near you?

Thanks to the utter failure of Roundup Ready products to live up to their environmentally-friendly and productive promises, Monsanto competitor Dow Chemical is developing crop seeds that can tolerate the damaging defoliant used in the Vietnam War.

-snip of some history-

In addition to dumping more chemicals on their fields, farmers are having to use several different kinds of herbicides at once. Hence, the commercial re-emergence of Agent Orange. The New York Times nonchalantly explains the necessity in today's edition (emphasis mine):

Monsanto and other agricultural biotech companies are also developing genetically engineered crops resistant to other herbicides.

Bayer is already selling cotton and soybeans resistant to glufosinate, another weedkiller. Monsanto’s newest corn is tolerant of both glyphosate and glufosinate, and the company is developing crops resistant to dicamba, an older pesticide. Syngenta is developing soybeans tolerant of its Callisto product. And Dow Chemical is developing corn and soybeans resistant to 2,4-D, a component of Agent Orange, the defoliant used in the Vietnam War.

-snip-

Though Dow says it's using only a component of Agent Orange, clearly this is not the type of chemical we should be introducing into the food system, nor should the lives of farmers be considered so expendable as to risk them on a chemical that has been proven deadly for decades. The notion that Dow would consider such a dangerous and politically polarizing chemical in food production is remarkable.

Considering the shoes it is trying to fill, however, the idea to use Agent Orange is less shocking. After all, the dangers of Roundup are not merely in the imaginations of organic food purveyors. Scientists in Argentina have recently found that the herbicide causes fetal defects in much smaller concentrations than were previously assumed. And while conventional wisdom maintains that glyphosate is a safer alternative to other herbicides because it does not persist in the environment as long, the veracity of such information has become increasingly suspect. As I noted last year:

-snip-

This should be a wake-up call for Big Ag. It's clear that business as usual is making the production of food more dangerous and less sustainable with practically every new development.

But of course, they don't see it that way. And until Big Ag realizes that a farmer's field is not a war zone, they're going to keep trying out their shiny new weapons -- or in Dow's case, old rust-colored ones -- on our bodies and planet.
-----------------------------

monsanto loves money, hates life.

[FirstLight]

1. sooo...what's the equivalent

of the Gulf Disaster in terms of food?


:scared:

Corporate decision making is almost like military planning. Loss of life and environmental destruction is seen as nothing more than 'collateral damage' to them.

I am really ready to find my own space off the grid and just 'leave the things of man' ...

[ensho]

3. looking around for a clean place - I don't think Cuba uses monsanto

crap.

anyplace else?

[Newest Reality]

2. In my opinion ...

Monsanto is the incorporation of the antithesis of life itself.

Left unchecked, Monsanto, and its ilk, will clearly demonstrate the detrimental and lethal results of the impact of profit and power on an ecosystem and all its lifeforms. We may already be at a threshold of no return considering Monsanto's predatory, no holds barred impact on farmers and seeds, not to mention the sheer toxicity of their chemical invasion.

That company has a track record that speaks volumes. To sum it up, they will stop at nothing in order to control and mutate the food supply regardless of the overall destructive impact it will have on our health, the environment, and the future of life on this planet.

Monsanto is an icon for what is wrong with our current system and perspectives in total. The company embodies the paradigm of people as livestock and statistics that exist as a means to accumulate profit, wealth and power regardless of the impending, wide scale impact.

[yellowcanine]

4. 2,4-D is not Agent Orange. Saying it is the same is like saying sugar is cake.

Agent Orange was made up of 2,4-D + 2,4,5-T PLUS dioxin, which was a contaminant formed during the manufacture of the 2,4,5-T. It was the dioxin, a known carcinogen, which caused human health problems.


For the record, 2,4-D is considered to be safe enough to be classified as a general use pesticide by the EPA, which means homeowners can buy and use it with no restriction. All pesticides have inherent danger but to say that 2,4-D is a "chemical that has been proven deadly for decades" is a gross exaggeration. Most of the 2.4-D in this country is applied to lawns to kill broadleaf weeds. People don't know that because they don't read labels (Weed and Feed, Weed be Gone, for example, contain 2.4-D)and because they don't pay any attention to what lawn service companies are putting on their lawns.


When grossly false claims like these are made it is easier for Monsanto to discredit its critics, even the many who have legitimate complaints. So who wins? Monsanto.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. LOL

Who's shilling for Monsanto now?

:rofl:

[yellowcanine]

6. So - supplying correct information is "shilling". Ok.

Whatever floats your boat. Glad I could make your day for you.

Maybe you could actually supply some facts to prove me wrong? I thought not.

[superduperfarleft]

8. I think he's laughing at the scientifically illiterate OP

who is one of the crowd that regularly accuses people of shilling for Big Pharma, Big Nuke, whatever whenever they attempt to point out the errors in his/her OP.

[Codeine]

7. Science fail. nt