Finally. FINALLY. My ulcer grows every time I hear someone quote that list of evil things Monsanto does. Even though yes, they are evil.
imagine
Submitted 2 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/baea38ed-c4a3-40fd-bd5c-a4e06b77a383.png
Comments
Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 2 months ago
RedAggroBest@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yea, they’re evil enough with the pesticides, and the hostile takeover of farms. We don’t need to make the genetic engineering they’re doing, which is actually good work, to also be thrown under the bus
Adalast@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I would agree if they didn’t use their non-sterile plants to take over small farms around their huge ones by suing for theft when farmers used part of the previous crop that had been pollinated with the Monsanto GM pollen. They didn’t buy that genome so it was stolen… Fucking wankers.
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Monsanto doesn’t even exist anymore. It was bought out by the totally not evil company Bayer a while back.
Of course Bayer has suffered quite a bit of indigestion over gobling up that morsel over the years.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yeah, except the vast majority of seeds are infertile, meaning they can’t be replanted, means the “good ol boys” can’t survive.
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Where the fuck do people come up with this shit?
No the “vast majority” of crops are not infertile. They are hybrids. Farmers buy the seeds because of a genetic phenomenon called heterosis AKA hybrid vigor. It takes expertise and a shit ton of money to make hybrid seed. If growers could get the same performance from saving their own seeds only an absolute dumbfuck would buy seeds from a seed company.
Now there are a few species that hybrids can only be made by taking advantage of mutants that have male sterility genes. The resulting hybrids are still fertile (produce viable female gametes) but need an outside source of pollen. Examples: onions, sunflowers and carrots.
The only “sterile” seed sold is seedless watermelon aka triploid seed. Seedless watermelons are only sold because the market demands it thanks to a push by the USDA after being created in Japan pre-WW2. The margins on seedless watermelon seed are often 40-50% less than hybrid diploid seed. And don’t get me started on the research cost - 14-15 generations for a new female line versus 7-8 for seeded types.
P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Most hybrids do not produce fertile seeds. You can test it out if you want but it doesn’t work. I used to work for a seed company. Beyond that, without fertilizer the soil itself is dead in the vast majority of farming land.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Also, most farmers use hybrid crops, which you already can’t save, because they’re hybrids. (You can save them, but they’re not going to produce the same plants you get them from).
deegeese@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Whether a plant species is hybridized has little effect on whether it grows true from seed or only via cuttings.
Wild maple trees for example do not grow true from seed.
earphone843@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Apples are a prime example.
Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Wild maple trees for example do not grow true from seed.
How do they reproduce?
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t think you quite understand what a hybrid for annual crops is. Hybrids in trees are fundamentally different. Same word different meaning.
zxqwas@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Isn’t one argument against GMO that they could spread and outcompete other crops? In that case a terminator gene would even be a good thing?
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s exactly why the original terminator gene was a joint USDA-ARS /delta-pine effort. The USDA-ARS was looking for ways to prevent GMO species from escaping and causing issues.
You know the shit that actually happened. For example -
Creeping Bentgrass
opb.org/…/gmo-grass-oregon-creeping-bent-scotts-m…
Wheat -
www.nature.com/articles/499262a
Corn/teosinte
Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This sounds like the back of a Crichton novel, and I want to read it
Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Does anyone else feel like this entire post and most of the comments are coming straight from a Monsanto bot/shill factory?
kerrigan778@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Source that research was banned since the 90s? All I’m aware of is that they aren’t available commercially and sale and field testing of terminator seeds has been banned since the 00s.
Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 2 months ago
Yeah they weren’t banned in the 90s. They were developed in the mid 90s with a patent filed in 1998. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a moratorium in 2000, recommending that governments block field testing and commercial use of terminator seeds, but didn’t yet ban research. In 2006 they expanded the moratorium, explicitly prohibiting field trials and emphasizing risks to biodiversity and farmers rights.
brianary@startrek.website 2 months ago
The moratorium is actually since 2000, but only since 2006 in its current form.
Thankfully, no country, much less any multinational corporation, would ever dare cross the UN’s nonbinding, unenforceable moratorium. Can you imagine how stern the tone of the statement of condemnation would be, once it was worded such that a reasonable plurality of countries would agree to back it?
lemmyseizethemeans@lemmygrad.ml 2 months ago
This hard, sugarless, unripe tomato sure is red though
boonhet@lemm.ee 2 months ago
At this point, I barely even buy tomatoes to put into food anymore. If mom’s been growing them in her greenhouse any given year, I’ll eat a few off the vine. The stuff in stores? Ehh, it barely has flavour.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Don’t we already have enough real shit to worry about?
Juice@midwest.social 2 months ago
GMO skepticism or not, Monsanto is one of the most evil companies in the world and a perfect example of what makes the profit motive such an inefficient organizer of production and distribution
grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
I’m the guy on the left just because until for-profit corporations are reigned in I don’t trust them with control of anything.
Omnipitaph@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Companies DO irradiate non organic ginger though, sterilizing it, before shipping it to stores.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They make more money suing farmers for accidentally growing patented crops from natural seed dispersal mechanisms.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
No they don’t. There’s never been any lawsuits filed for accidentally growing GM crops
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They make their money from royalty payments for GMO traits. It’s up to 3x more profit than they get off the seed alone.
Steve@startrek.website 2 months ago
What about seedless watermellon
TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s treated with a chemical to keep it from making seeds.
The_v@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Not even close.
Seedless watermelons are a triploid. These are hybrid between a tetraploid female and a diplod male. The plant has three copies of every chromosome and is unable to produce fertile gametes aka completely sterile.
Fruit formation is triggered by fertile diploid pollen (planted in the field In a 4:1 ratio). The fruit then continues to grow without embryo formation in the fruit seeds (pips).
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 months ago
So, the same applies to seedless grapes?
Steve@startrek.website 2 months ago
Seriously? I assumed sterile hybrid
joyjoy@lemm.ee 2 months ago
They’re not sterile, but they will sue you if they find you’ve been growing seeds from last year’s crops.
Taleya@aussie.zone 2 months ago
Or if your neighbours crops have germinated in your lands
IMongoose@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t think they’ve successfully sued anyone for that. The few cases I saw last time I looked people were intentionally germinating or saving/selling seeds.
culpritus@hexbear.net 2 months ago
or if/when your neighbors pollen blows onto your crops and you grow from those seeds, and then they sue you for being a pirate of their IP
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 2 months ago
Why invent technology to control people when you can just use the law?
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
No they won’t.
They will sue you if you take your neighbors pesticide resistant seeds, sow them, douse them in pesticide so only the resistant ones survive, and sow your entire field with them.
Nollij@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
Yes, they will.
You’re taking the approach of an independent farmer that didn’t sign a contract with Monsanto. What you said mostly aligns with that scenario.
For the farmer that did sign a contract with Monsanto, that is a standard and required clause, and they do enforce it.
joyjoy@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Classic piracy. The original product is still there; you’re just making a copy.
Atlas_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You should be allowed to do that.