Hehe I was getting ready for bed and realized I hadn't posted tonight. I spent most of the evening watching almost two hours of The World According to Monsanto on YouTube. Sure it's biased, but man is it damning... One must agree that if you own the seed patents such that any crop grown with that seed or any crop grown from that plant seed ever, you own the world. Food=Life Now they're buying up water rights in countries known for water shortages to force small farmers out of business such that huge farming companies that buy their product can take over.
The other day I saw on Yahoo a series on the Doomsday Vault. Yep, I've been spending more time on the internet than watching the boob-tube... Another interesting series. Who knew that one unforseen consequence of the Iraq and Afghanastan wars that their national seed repositories were destroyed or raided. The impact was the same. Thousands of years of seed history is gone. Also, 100 years ago there were 7,500 different apples grown in the U.S., now there are less than 200. Over 7,000 apples are extinct.
Between the Monsanto series and the Doomsday Vault series, I now see the benefits and lure of heirloom seeds. I may have to look into that next year. The final word on that is who knew in buying Round-up I was promoting the destruction of non-genetically modified seeds. Grrr.
The only other thing I've got for tonight is that I read that in Seattle we've had the coldest first week of June on record. They started keeping track in 1891. The peas liked it, and I guess the greens did, but my beans and corn have done nada this week. And Judy said my beans would take off right now. They started to shoot up, but then just stopped. I'm guessing they'll start back up again if the weather heats up soon. Not sure if 67, 63 and 63 count for heating up, but those are the expected highs for the last part of the week. I guess it beats the mid 50s. /sigh
Enjoy your garden and may it be pest and disease free. Tis the season for pests it seems. It may sound bad but I'm glad I'm not the only one. It would be painful if I was in my first year.
Hi Sinfonian! How are you doing?
ReplyDeleteI watched that same series (World According to Monsanto) last week! That is one of the first things I did when I got my computer back up. I watched the entire series in one sit down! It is amazing..... I had heard of what they were doing with the corn and cotton before but didn't really know the details. It is awful that they are suing farmers whose corn has become cross pollinated with the Monsanto corn -- these farmers aren't even trying to grow Monsanto corn.... I think everyone should watch this series. And it's really bad that this genetically modified corn is contaminating all the open-pollinated varieties of corn!
There is also some videos on milk and Monsanto. Watch those if you get a chance -- it is about the Monsanto hormone that they give to cows to make them produce more milk. It's scarey!! And what is crazier is that they do not have to label the milk cartons about the milk coming from cows who have been injected with this hormone.
I haven't watched the Doomsday Vault series -- I will have to go and check it out too. There is another series (can't remember the name of it) and it is about our food supply. I will have to find out more about it and I'll let you know.
I've also seen a program on Monsanto and it's tactics with regards to its round up ready crops. I don't really understand how this company thinks that there genetics would not end up in other crops, the bees and wind do not know the difference. I also don't see how Monsanto would have a legal foot to stand on when there is no intent on the farmers part to infringe on there product, they are just replanting last years seed. These companies are as bad as the tobacco companies and we all know how the table has turned on them.
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