Debt Rattle January 14 2016

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

DPC Oyster luggers along Mississippi, New Orleans 1906 • Asia Stocks Extend Losses, Japan’s Nikkei Falls 3.67% (CNBC) • Oil and US Stocks Tumble Over
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 14 2016]

[Greenpa]

“Glyphosate was developed by Monsanto for use with its GM crops.”

That statement is so flatly totally wrong as to make me seriously question everything else this writer says. Also the ability of Guardian editors to catch errors. That one is really glaring to anyone vaguely working in “agriculture”; glyphosate is decades older than even the potential for GM crops to exist.

The inverse is actually true; Monsanto GM crops were specifically developed for use with glyphosate.

[Greenpa]

Monsanto’s role in Indian farmer suicides- it is alleged that many suicides have been triggered by failures of Monsanto GM cotton. This is “boll worm” resistant, with genes from Bacillus thuringiensis; known as “bt”.

GM cotton must have irrigation, and now that boll worms are resistant to the bt toxin, must be sprayed with insecticides; and seed cannot be saved, but must be bought each year, at prices about 4x that for natural cotton seed.

When it works, the crop looks wonderful. When it fails, the farmer cannot pay all the debts.

Monsanto says no, you don’t understand, it’s not our fault. Loudly. Monsanto is immensely powerful and spends millions on “defense”- speaking out against them is not recommended.

[Greenpa]

Aha. At the bottom of the Guardian article; this: “This article was corrected on 13 January 2016 to say that glyphosate is sold and promoted by Monsanto for use with its GM crops. It was not developed by the firm for such use.”

Better. But the article still has the flawed statement in place.

[Author]

Posts