animal-friendly wrote:
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EVERY farmer is there to make a profit due to hunger or they will not be in business, so they are now bad? It is possible to do both in the real world where real facts are used instead of beliefs and misrepresentations like your source presented."
Every farmer is there to make a profit due to hunger?
To prevent their own hunger, yes.
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You say this while their own families starve?
If their own families are starving while they grow a cash crop such as cotton, yes.
Yes? And globalization has what to do with it? Why do they grow the cash crop that they can't eat rather than the eggplant they can? (Yes, we know).
The reason does not mean they are successful in the attempt, especially given the situation in India with support. Poor options for funding and the lack of crop insurance in a changing climate is a recipie for disaster for many.
If you know this, why doesn't Monsanto? Because they are in the business of feeding the world?
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And you then accuse anti-Monsanto groups of propaganda?
No, I pointed out their propaganda.
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And you say this without a smidgeon of understanding of the propaganda of Monsanto?
A large assumption regarding my level of understanding.
So you are aware of the propaganda of Monsanto?
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Really?
Yes.
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Vendana Shiva is a source who misrepresents?
Yes, clearly she did.
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Is she like Mohatma Ghandi?
Not in my opinion, but maybe in yours.
There are some obvious parallels.
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They were both such ignorant folks (sarcasm intended) ..... And she is currently representing the needs of her counrtry-folk while you seem to be defending the rights of a multi-national corporation.
Her country folk need better access to reasonable credit and a form of crop insurance, which has nothing to do with Monsanto, other than the modified versions of the crops give a better yield, which helps the farmers more than the non-modified crops would in the same conditions.
Her country needs a giant corporation to be understanding of the particular needs of the countryside where farmers have done there thing for several thousand years.
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Farmers are just trying to make a living and support their families, contribute to their communities, build schools for their children. They are not there to "make a profit due to hunger."
If they do not make a profit their families will starve, because eating cotton just will not help. Bt cotton is the only GM crop so any farmer being "abused" by Monsanto is only growing crops to make a profit.
See above.
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They are there because the soil and earth has always sustained them. Farmers are not now bad. No.
Just your false perception of farmers in this situation.
Bullshit.
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But they are now crying out for help. They are resisting the colonization of their farmland by corporations who would like to turn their villages into global supermarkets.
ALL they have to do is not plant the GM crops, plant the regular versions and accept the lowered yield for their cash crop. It is really that simple IF this were the case.
Not so simple. We have seen this. It's why I posted this information.
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They are resisting the criminalization of the very simple at of saving seeds. And so am I.
That would be theft, since the farmer and you feel it is "right" to either sign a contract and break your agreement or to illegally obtain stolen property to benefit yourself. The costs of the research and testing of the products must be recovered by those who develop the better crops if the improvements are to continue.
And as they force it on unsuspecting "customers".
They are fascist.
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What could be more simple?
The truth.
I am interested in the truth.
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They are using the Bt cotton more and more each year to MAKE A PROFIT because they do not eat the cotton. Cotton is the only GM crop allowed in India. The saving of seed is a violation of the agreement and is theft, plain and simple. [*]
Not that plain and simple when a people are coerced and are already trying to simply float.
Yet saving seeds is a practise ancient old and an integral part of their culture.
So are usuary and theft, but that still does not make it right nor acceptable.
Saving seeds! Usuary and theft are on the part of the corporation called Monsanto!
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They can plant regular cotton and save the seed if they wish, but they also must accept lower yields.
They are ending their lives because of the undue stress Monsanto has caused them. Their yields are lower because.
Bt cotton offered them higher yeilds .... but they got lower yields ... which is why they killed themselves.
No, they got the same yield in a drought as they would have with the regular crop without a drought. The yield id higher for Bt crops or they would not pay for it. Unless you think farmers are that stupid to continue to buy seeds that do not give them a yield they can get from seeds which are free.
They are forced to re-buy what they could have seeded themselves at no or little cost. Monsanto made it very costly for them.
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So, it seems that if it is truly farmers in the discussion, they are wanting their cake and to eat it too.
Oh yes, those Indian farmers are just so greedy. They not only want to feed their families, but the world too and Monsanto promised them they could... They are as idealistic in terms of feeding the world and money-hungry for themselves .... NOT.
Who eats cotton? I know of none who do anywhere. Monsanto only provided one GM seed to the Indian farmers and that is Bt cotton. They cannot feed the world with that cotton, but they can feed their families if they make sufficient profit from the crop, which is why they flock to the Bt cotton to get the higher yields and make that higher profit.
And if Monsanto's cotton fails, they cannot feed their families or anyone else. They traded their food crops in for cash crops ... to satisfy the global market of which Monsanto is a big player. They were hood-winked!
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I suspect it is more non-farmers who do not want the GM crops who are more involved.
Do you suspect it is non-farmers who are anti-GMO?
No, most of the organizations opposed are made up of non-farmers. Your quoted spokesperson is a non-farmer. Most of the farmers are growing the GM crops because they profit from it. If they were opposed they would not plant it and just plant the non-GM versions.
Spokesperson. Farmers are busy people, from dawn to dusk.
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Okay .... the non-farmers. Like the folks on Wall Street who are bidding on food as a commodity? The speculators? And the farmers want it? Because the speculators of GMO's on Wall Street will help to feed Indian and African civilian families. For sure. Monsanto can be bid on.
Fabulous company ... they might even help out those poor, starving cotton farmers in India.
The folks on Wall Street and the speculators will probably come closer to feeding the families around the world than the farmer growing a cash crop such as cotton.
Oops. Bullshit again. Speculators are interested in profits. The guy on
Wall Street is less interested in feeding the world than he is in profits. I will not even discuss this with you. It's akin to your argument that we can just simply send people to the moon 'cuz we have too many here.