Bees Endangered, Monsanto

[beeman]

Here is something for the non-believers, just a good reason be worried.
Have a look, then tell me that bees will recover.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxXXa...ature=youtu.be

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by tlintx

It's fashionable to hate Monsanto.

Any thoughts on how we can feed the human population without conventional farming, by the way? I ask because I like the idea of heirloom and local (and I know our current system is very wasteful) but don't want billions of people to starve.


Tl

You might ask yourself exactly why that is the case. Why would it be fashionable to hate a company doing so much good in the world? Maybe because Monsanto repeatedly over and over has murdered people with negligence and covered it up to protect their corporate profits? You may think I am a bit heavy handed with my criticism. But once you know your negligence is killing people, and you cover it up, and as a result MORE people die after. That is murder in my opinion.

Our government is supposed to protect us from evil companies like that. But good ol USA politicians are on the lobbyist payroll. They don't dare attack such an American icon such as Monsanto. In fact they just passed legislation effectively giving Monsanto immunity from certain types of liability for some products they produce!

So yeah it is "fashionable" to hate Monsanto. Pity the "fashion" hasn't caught on more. Any corporation that is so arrogant as to put corporate profits over peoples health needs to go.

But that strong language will of course bring down comments against me. That's fine. At least I haven't killed anyone.

As for your second comment.

Any thoughts on how we can feed the human population without conventional farming?

Fairly easy. Conventional farming is not really all that effective at producing food. It is effective at making profits for corporations. Huge difference.

1) Empty the CAFO's. Put the animals on the land and use them to fix our global warming problem by sequestering carbon in the soil. BTW that also frees up the majority of arable land to grow food for people instead of livestock feed.
Holistic management

2) Teach MODERN scientific organic and semi organic methods to produce food. Example SRI.India's Rice Revolution Instead of teaching the "world" how to line Monsanto's pocket. Teach them how to grow more food to benefit themselves.

3) Take charge of ourselves.
Guerrilla Gardening

That should do it. Pretty easy. You don't even have to dismantle corporations like Monsanto either. They will adapt or whither on the vine. You might have to get the government to crack down on CAFO's though. That should be pretty easy though. Once people find out Grassland actually outproduces CAFO's and the only reason we humans are being so cruel to the animals is to line evil corporations' pockets that are already proven to not give a gosh darnoodley about our health. Should be an easy sell.

[fredx]

Last post for me on this-

Just remember , we live in a capitalistic society- we are getting what we asked for-

I think this thread is kind of getting off track

There is a lot more I could say- but wont, wrong place for it

regards

fredx

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by fredx

Last post for me on this-

Just remember , we live in a capitalistic society- we are getting what we asked for-


fredx

Profit isn't evil. Killing people for profit is evil. If you can't see the difference, I don't know what to say.

No one asked for evil like that. Believe me.

[tlintx]

I certainly don't mind being argued with. I'm wrong often enough that I'd be miserable if if did! However, this is getting too close to political for me. But I appreciate the links.


TL

[coastal bend]

This is like the Twilight Zone!

[carolyn137]

I may have posted the following link here at TV recently, but since I no longer have a perfect memory, I'm doing it again.

It's about the situation with honey bees in my area of upstate NY which speaks to some of the comments made in previous posts:

http://poststar.com/news/local/disap...a4bcf887a.html

I thought it was a well written article and did a good job of reviewing all the possible known reasons for colony collapse, to date.

Carolyn

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by tlintx

I certainly don't mind being argued with. I'm wrong often enough that I'd be miserable if if did! However, this is getting too close to political for me. But I appreciate the links.


TL

Well it isn't politics. It is facts. Where the politics comes to play is in Monsanto weaseling out of their responsibility by lobbying the government and applying political pressure.

Killing people is not politics it's murder. Unless of course you are so powerful and corrupt you can play the "politics" card (read "get of jail free" card) to get out of it.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/...e=search_story

Oh and BTW. When researchers were getting close to pinpointing Monsanto as definitively the cause of bee collapse....guess who simply bought the premiere bee research company? Give you three guesses what company did that. Then I'll give you three guesses if any proofs have been presented since!

Monsanto buys bee research firm

Wanna place bets if any published research comes out of that firm proving any Monsanto product is harming bees? Come on! 10 - 1 odds should be good. Take the bet?

[carolyn137]

I'm getting a bit concerned about some of the posts in this thread.

Monsanto was mentioned in the first post, but nothing said about which products they produce that might be causing Colony Collapse.

The same question could be asked of Syngenta or BASF or many other companies, but it's turned into a Monsanto bash, IMO.

Also, there have been several comments made that I would have liked to respond to but in doing so would take this thread into different areas which would not be the right thing to do, for me or possibly others here..

I just posted a link to the honey bee situation near where I live and I think it's good to note that there is NO ONE accepted cause of Colony Collapse, the allegations against Monsanto not withstanding..

Thanks for your cooperation.

Carolyn

[Chucker]

If Neonicotinoid pesticide is to blame for bee declines, and I'm not saying it is, then the company you should be upset with is Bayer. They are the company that produces Neonicotinoid and they are the company that funded the study which caused the EPA to approve its use.

[Crandrew]

If you think it's one element that is solely responsible for the decline then you need to research further. I posted an article above.

[drezz]

Originally Posted by Chucker

If Neonicotinoid pesticide is to blame for bee declines, and I'm not saying it is, then the company you should be upset with is Bayer. They are the company that produces Neonicotinoid and they are the company that funded the study which caused the EPA to approve its use.

That's because, as mentioned before, it's fashionable to hate Monsanto.

Did you know that the nutritional value of Spinach, as a whole, is less than 25% of what it was 100 years ago?! Bigger, greener etc., does not constitute better.

I'm sorry but do you have any proof of this at all?! I bet you just got this idea from some guy on youbtube trying to sell you Azomite in a slick manor to "reminerallize" your soil. Yeah, let's take a bunch of rock dust from the southwest and ship it all over- that's real green.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by drezz

That's because, as mentioned before, it's fashionable to hate Monsanto.
I'm sorry but do you have any proof of this at all?! I bet you just got this idea from some guy on youbtube trying to sell you Azomite in a slick manor to "reminerallize" your soil. Yeah, let's take a bunch of rock dust from the southwest and ship it all over- that's real green.

I try not to get involved in these kinds of posts, but the nutritional decline in vegetables is well known. Here is one report, Google will find you hundreds more.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/37396355/n...ies-dwindling/

[Tom A To]

Maybe it's just me but unless I'm extremely interested (rarely), I generally do not click on article, video or picture links in a post. If I put a link to something in my posts, I'll summarize the contents of the link for the reader then they can click if they want to pursue furthur. There are probably others like me with this character flaw.

[tlintx]

I also do not click youtube links, though I will read articles. Just too impatient to sit through a video.

Mark, that article you linked is why I am extremely distrustful of much of the "science" I read in the news today. It's just so often skewed in whatever direction will sell papers!

The article I found discussing a similar study has similar facts, but also points out some of the issues with drawing conclusions. (From the article) Our accuracy in measurement and record keeping has gotten a lot better. Our produce is bigger but the extra bulk is primarily carbohydrates. Conventional farming pushes the produce out so fast it doesn't have time to absorb the nutrients.

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...880145,00.html

I appreciate the link to an actual source, however. I have had very little success googling many of the claims made in this and similar threads.

By the way, when I said "fashionable" I didn't speak to "justifiable". I feel a bit misquoted! Whether or not a cause is fashionable has very little bearing on if it is justified or not!