Compensation doesn't feed people

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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/270101

Quote:
South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation.
Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces,on alleged 'underfertilisation processes in the laboratory". Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems.
 
That's one way of doing it.

Wonder if they didn't play their killer gene properly.
 
Sad thing is we are eating this "Franken Food".
shocked2.gif


Genetically modified crops that is.
 
You don't have too, I'm sure you could find a local non GMO farmer in your area for almost any food. Most of the stuff corn is in, is bad for you anyways...
 
i remember watching a show about this happening in India to farmers. they were trying to argue that the "evil multinational corporation" knew the crops wouldn't have seeds so it would make the poor farmers buy the more expensive seeds.
 
It sounds like Monsanto didn't thoroughly test their product before distributing seeds wholesale. Shame on them. Unfortunately, we see this a lot of this in all industries.

I'm not so worried about the farmers having to buy seeds for next year, as I am that they have no food for this year!
 
south-africa-corn-production-image.jpg

Quote:
Poses some difficulty for the argument that expanded use of GM varieties will increase food production for expanding populations in developing nations.

The impact of this mistake is comparable to what farmers would experience from regional weather extremes: from flooded fields; from windstorms knocking down crops; or, from a severe and protracted drought. Had the "seedless corn" problem been more widespread, the graph presented above could have taken a very noticeable dip, and contributed to a national food and economic crisis. Thankfully it did not.

What are the odds those affected farmers still in business next year will plant genetically modified varieties? That their friends and neighbors will?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/monsanto-seedless-corn-sold-south-african-farmers.php
Sounds like the market is working pretty well.
 
Originally Posted By: oilyriser
Monsanto has taken cues from Microsoft, and now also downloads R&D costs to the consumer.

Sounds that way, but there are more options to buy corn from than operating systems.
 
Originally Posted By: oilyriser
Monsanto has taken cues from Microsoft, and now also downloads R&D costs to the consumer.



I guess. It's doing your R&D and revisions "in process" without too much pre-release R&D. I guess it's cheaper than recovering R&D costs where continual obsolescence is compressed into a shorter time line.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
i remember watching a show about this happening in India to farmers. they were trying to argue that the "evil multinational corporation" knew the crops wouldn't have seeds so it would make the poor farmers buy the more expensive seeds.

Yes that is true... Some of their seeds have a terminator gene put in to prevent using the crop to reseed next year. Also monsanto is suing farmers who cross monsanto varieties with other varieties...
In India where farms are small and don't need much capital to operate, monsanto is luring farmers to take big loans to buy seed. Once the farmer has the debt he has to keep buying seed from monsanto to maximize his yeild to have a chance of paying the loan off... They get trapped and suicide is common because they realize they will never get out of debt and lose their land.

Anyways, this little accident in south africa might wake people up that GMO grains aren't a good idea...
 
Quote:
Yes that is true... Some of their seeds have a terminator gene put in to prevent using the crop to reseed next year. Also monsanto is suing farmers who cross monsanto varieties with other varieties...


Monsanto has sued farmers for that when there was no evidence that the spread of the Franken Crops weren't naturally spread into adjacent fields.
 
Quote:
Multiple factors seem to be responsible for farmer suicides in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. True, most of the farmers who committed suicide were facing a debt-trap, but this was the result of cumulative factors, like high input costs, comparatively lower returns on produce, crop failures, inclement weather, lack of irrigation.

Out of 1.5 lakh farmer suicides in the country in 1997-2000, Maharashtra alone accounted for 29,000. If the state government's data for 1995 and 1996 is taken into account, the figure jumps to 32,000.

Incidentally, farmers in Vidharbha predominantly grow cotton. Lately, some are switching over to soyabean cultivation, but no permanent solution to the crisis seems in sight yet. Suicides continue in the region, even after announcement of the PM’s Rs 3,750-crore relief package in July 2006.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/vidharbha-farmers-not-victims-of-debttrap-alone/240638/
Quote:
Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.

The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.

"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine

"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/1500-farmers-commit-mass-suicide-in-india-1669018.html
 
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