Monsanto's Roundup Ultra

[Dagnabit]

Monsanto's Roundup Ultra is the Napalm of the War on Drugs.

<a href="http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,508146,00.html">The Observer reports</a> on the use of this nasty chemical. They're using helicopter gunships to spray it at 100 times the allowed US levels, on villages and indigenous communities in Colombia. Their intent is to kill coca plants... instead, they've killed 178,000 farm animals, and given skin conditions and gastric disorders to 4200 humans, including hundreds of children. The result: they've managed to disrupt legitiate farming, while the coca production has generally survived.

[jaguar]

Does this sounds like agent orange to anyone else?
And goddamn, after seeing what that has done to people in Vietnam i think the person whos authorising the spraying of thise stuff should have thier left testicle placed in a pheunamatic press....

[elSicomoro]

My $0.02 on this...

I have no doubt that Monsanto (which was recently acquired by somebody...don't remember who) did/does some shady things--after all, my parents live in the shadow of one of their former plants in St. Louis that has leaked dangerous gas before. (That plant is now owned by Monsanto's chemical spinoff, Solutia.) But on the other side of it, Monsanto gave new life to dieters and diabetics in the form of Aspertame, not to mention came up with AstroTurf, which at the time, was ingenious...and I doubt that Colombia is saying much about this current situation. I don't condone hurting innocent people in the "War on Drugs", but some lives will inevitably be swallowed up by this. It seems to me that Monsanto is the middleman in this, as they're not the ones spraying it...perhaps that fair, perhaps not. Sure, Monsanto's parent is making money off of it...but war is a business.

There seems to be only one real reason why there is a "War on Drugs"--What would the Feds do with all their idle ATF or DEA agents if drugs were legal?

[Chewbaccus]

Two words, Syc: Black Ops.

If the War was ended, they'd probably turn attention to Bin-Laden and others of his ilk.

One more reason why I want this craziness to stop.

~Mike

[jaguar]

Hearhear chew, i agree entirely. Looks go back to school polticians, SUPPLY = DEMAND.
Only way they can win is to lower demand, and to do that leagise soft, mostly safe drugs like dope and extasy. And treat the cuses of hard drug abuse.

[tw]

Originally posted by jaguar
Hearhear chew, i agree entirely. Looks go back to school polticians, SUPPLY = DEMAND.

You are asking an MBA educated president who leads a political party dominated by right wing, 70 something, extremists to make a logical decision? To even understand the principals of free markets? Remember it is an MBA educated president. The extremists have already and expressly stated that treatment does not work - not doubt and no exceptions. That military war on drugs is the only answer. And so we sell (or force down the throats) to Columbia millions of dollars of helicopters (which happend to be made in which party districts).

So like in Nam, they have decided to bomb the enemy into the stone age - again. But like Nam, they have met the enemy, and he is us. That famous express never was understood by a previous power crazed president and right wing extremist politicians. Why should the current crop we any more intelligent? Intelligent, president ... where has that been meantioned before?

[classicman]

bump - thanks to the SDRTP.
I found this last post typical T-Dubish, yet the spelling and grammer seemed very unlike him at the same time.

[Sundae]

Bit too much Agent Orange in his marching powder?

[jinx]

GM crops were supposed to feed the world cheaply, weren't they?

“Buying seed used to be not terribly costly,” said Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center in Boulder, Colorado, who in December completed a study of 35 years of seed pricing. “Now farmers are locked into these high seed costs on an annual basis.”
The study showed that soybean farmers spent between 4 percent and 8 percent of their farm income on seeds from 1975 through 1997. Last year, farmers who planted genetically modified soybeans spent 16.4 percent of their income on seeds, it found.
Monsanto’s licensing royalty on soybean seeds with the Roundup Ready trait climbed to $15.65 for each 140,000-seed bag last year from about $6.50 a decade ago, according to the owner of one seed company. A bag of Roundup Ready seed sells for about $35 and can plant three-quarters of an acre (0.3 hectare).

Farmers who adopt Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 Yield technology, being introduced this year as a replacement for Roundup Ready, will have to pay a royalty of as much as $39.75 a bag, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
Cal Dalton, a farmer in Pardeeville, Wisconsin, said he switched to a competitor last year when Monsanto sought a $30 price increase, to $210 a bag, for its “triple stack” corn seed, a line that resists glyphosate, rootworm, and corn borers. Monsanto still earned a royalty on the purchase because the seeds he bought carried the Roundup Ready trait, he said.
The list price for Monsanto’s “Yieldgard VT Triple” brand of triple-stack corn seed rose to about $277.50 a bag this year from $201.83 in 2008,

Anyway...
Monsanto is being investigated in 7 states for antitrust practices

Showing that Monsanto engaged in anti-competitive behavior that harmed residents of their states could enable the attorneys general to demand civil monetary damages in addition to any penalties that the Justice Department may seek, Hovenkamp said.
In one soybean licensing agreement reviewed by Bloomberg, Monsanto offered the licensee financial incentives to favor Roundup Ready seeds and Roundup brand chemicals over those of competitors. The dealer’s agreement with Monsanto is confidential, and he asked that his name not be used.


‘You Had To’
Under the agreement, the licensee would earn a rebate of 7.5 percent of the royalty it pays Monsanto if Roundup Ready accounts for 70 percent of the dealer’s annual herbicide- resistant seed sales. The rebate is halved if the Roundup Ready share is between 50 percent and 75 percent, and isn’t paid at all below 50 percent.
Similar terms were in Monsanto’s licensing agreements with Stine Seed Co. until Monsanto phased them out in recent years, according to Harry Stine, president and founder of the largest closely held seed company in the U.S., based in Adel, Iowa.
“In order to get the large rebate they would give you, you had to minimize your sales of other companies’ seeds,” Stine said. “The rebates were so large that for all practical purposes you had to do it.” At one time, the requirement for earning the full rebate was as high as 90 percent, he said. Stine has a collaborative agreement to develop seeds with Monsanto, he said.

[squirell nutkin]

Do you think Monsanto's boots big aren't enough to kick those states in their respective tacos?

IT sucks, but we need to acknowledge that our entire government is not really the house and senate and the presidency, but a handful of very large corporations that tell the house, senate, and presidency what it wants them to do.

This is akin to one of your kids trying to accuse you of staying up past your bedtime or finishing the last of the insanely awesome cookies.

Monsanto, pfizer, ge, etc. our (not so new) overlords.

"Now be a good girl and go do some shopping -- help support the economy." That's what we are all here for.

/tinfoil hat

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

Do you think Monsanto's boots big aren't enough to kick those states in their respective tacos?

take it easy there, Yoda. you're gettin' all wound up.

[squirell nutkin]

gettin? I think I am.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

IT sucks, but we need to acknowledge that our entire government is not really the house and senate and the presidency, but a handful of very large corporations that tell the house, senate, and presidency what it wants them to do.

Well, it is easier to say things like "Obamacare" instead of "PfizerGlaxoSanofiNovartisMerkcare"

[squirell nutkin]