tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post2180564241316278714..comments2024-03-29T02:19:19.866-04:00Comments on Mike Norman Economics: Alexander Hagelüken and Alexander Mühlauer — TTIP Documents Revealedmike normanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03296006882513340747noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-7844440072955141032016-05-07T14:26:51.254-04:002016-05-07T14:26:51.254-04:00Yes, Ryan,
There are always a small % of extremi...Yes, Ryan,<br /> There are always a small % of extremists within every organization, which get noticed once it reaches a sizable # of people.<br /><br />Please do NOT use that as an excuse to promote violence against all members of any classification. Such violence only promotes the very prejudice we all start out opposing.<br /><br />Roger Ericksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17515506247888521516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-74360828598474131722016-05-07T13:29:23.525-04:002016-05-07T13:29:23.525-04:00This is the type of work, that infuriates environm...<a href="http://news.irri.org/2016/05/irri-scientist-recognized-for.html" rel="nofollow">This is the type of work, that</a> infuriates environmental conservationists. They think these GMO varieties should be stopped at all costs. Last year, Greenpeace, whose budget is 100 times larger than the non-profit international rice research inst, physically went into the plots of land where the IRRI were developing rice varieties and stomped them to kill them. Because the IRRI is evil or whatever these environmental conservative groups want to cling to using their anti-science agenda. Look at the donors for the IRRI, do they look like a Big-Ag conspiracy to eliminate heirloom varieties? No. No. No. The whole-foods peddling fear and selfishness mentality is toxic to society. People should boycott Organic-only outlets until they stop this madness.Ryan Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04815033054435303399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-48845468811296105582016-05-02T22:50:34.536-04:002016-05-02T22:50:34.536-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ryan Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04815033054435303399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-44424306700381780912016-05-02T22:17:12.150-04:002016-05-02T22:17:12.150-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Ryan Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04815033054435303399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-80028280751435021892016-05-02T21:59:25.312-04:002016-05-02T21:59:25.312-04:00Ryan,
The issue of resiliency is parallel to cro...Ryan,<br /> The issue of resiliency is parallel to crop productivity. The reason lower crop yields is associated with heirloom varieties is precisely because all subsidized efforts to breed useful new traits into diverse varieties ceased back in the 1920s, with the corporatization of Big Ag.<br /><br />Yet it's easier to do than ever. <br /><br />So rather than going with fewer & fewer monocultures, it's easier every year to "rescue" the diversity found in heirloom varieties. Crop diversity WILL make a come back, either before or after our demise. :(<br /><br />Humans always rushing to make overly simplistic assumptions. "Let's shoot off another foot, since it seems to be in the way!"<br /><br />It's our descendants who'll learn from our mistakes, if we don't preclude their survival too.<br /><br />Roger Ericksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17515506247888521516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-8865971537391071832016-05-02T21:39:35.406-04:002016-05-02T21:39:35.406-04:00Hi Roger, I haven't seen you posting much late...Hi Roger, I haven't seen you posting much lately, I hope you are alright.<br />I wasn't presenting a defense of Monsanto or Syngenta. I didn't write that. I love seeing humans and other animals and plants helped with gene tech, and buying those products at the supermarket or farmers market! But that doesn't mean I think, RR2 soybeans are a panacea. IOW GMO is about alot more than Monsanto or Syngenta. Monsanto is the largest producer of organic seeds. Organic-industrial complex is big business because of the high profit margins and dubious claims and scare tactics that get people to pay more. Organics have about 30% lower productivity on average and require more land, more water and often greater quantity of natural fertilizers to produce. Nitrogen runoff from manure is just as damaging to a stream for example as nitrogen from ammonia injected into soil. The point is the loss of heirloom varieties and species aren't caused by GMO or modern ag but by the economics of mass producing food for billions of people. If people produced the old varieties in the old ways, people would have to starve to death. <br /><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CglWPcBXEAQ-JQe.jpg" rel="nofollow">Yields have skyrocketed</a>, faster than population, <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.AGRI.ZS/countries?display=graph" rel="nofollow">reducing land in cultivation.</a> Counter intuitive given what we hear in the mainstream media. But it illustrates why we can't go back to heirloom varieties on a mass scale without condemning people to die of starvation or converting lots more land to farms and killing off the wildlife. The trade offs are stark. And I 'get it', I see the parking lot at whole foods market! People don't care about their neighbors or wildlife. They just want their family to be healthy!<br /><br /> From golden rice, to resistant cocoa, to saving the Hawaiian papaya to boosting corn and soybean yields, GMO has been a useful technology, able to solve problems faster than breeding, sometimes saving species and successfully preventing the outbreak of diseases like the recent mutated Phytophthora late blight you mentioned. There are thousands of successes now in virtually every crop. But it is only one tool in the agriculture tool box, probably not even as important as fertilizer and basic soil and water conservation techniques. Problems of genetic diversity, crop diversity and various breeding technologies are tangentially related but are not primary. They are more related to the existence of agriculture and cities in general than the use of GMOs in particular, so I think you were conflating some problems.<br /><br /><br />African farmers are raising productivity, smaller percentages of the population are remaining on the farm as a result, cities are flourishing but at a high cost, as you pointed out. I don't know much about Gambia. I mostly follow the news out of Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Kenya.Ryan Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04815033054435303399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-82735713542839906182016-05-02T21:18:03.119-04:002016-05-02T21:18:03.119-04:00still think Monsanto/Syngenta et al & the Comr...still think Monsanto/Syngenta et al & the Comrades behind the Noodle Curtain know what they're doing?<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QceID-Vb64&feature=youtu.be<br /><br />they're just betting your farm ... using YOU as the guinea pig<br /><br />Roger Ericksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17515506247888521516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-81824066373088724562016-05-02T20:32:07.681-04:002016-05-02T20:32:07.681-04:00But people continue to maintain seed banks, just i...But people continue to maintain seed banks, just in case.Peter Panhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09473311771939167712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-89332199961029250642016-05-02T19:57:00.502-04:002016-05-02T19:57:00.502-04:00Bullshit, Ryan.
100 yrs ago, there were regional...Bullshit, Ryan.<br /> 100 yrs ago, there were regional varieties of most every fruit & vegetable grown in nearly every county in all 50 states.<br /><br />Now we're reduced to a few dozen, similar to the entire population eating iceberg lettuce shipped from California.<br /><br />Introducing Monsanto/Syngenta GMOs to Africa is destroying the wealth base of native farmers and totally destroying crop species diversity.<br /><br />Was just talking to a guy from The Gambia. When he was a kid, The Gambia had their own, ancient, flavorful, unique strain of native rice. Now it's off the market. Disappeared. Thanks to Monsanto et al.<br /><br />Monsanto/Syngenta are after concentrated profits, not the general welfare of the people, and DEFINITELY not agricultural resiliency.<br /><br />This will not end well. May well turn out like the Irish Potato Famine.<br /><br />Roger Ericksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17515506247888521516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-51074227886496900912016-05-02T18:42:57.400-04:002016-05-02T18:42:57.400-04:00China needs ag tech
Have a long way to go to on yi...China needs ag tech<br />Have a long way to go to on yields and livestock while improving safety and quality. Makes sense there. The good thing is they will bring to Africa too, raise productivity, save endangered mega fauna.Ryan Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04815033054435303399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-72065533856939470452016-05-02T17:16:54.853-04:002016-05-02T17:16:54.853-04:00Ryan the Chinese govt just bought out Swiss firm S...Ryan the Chinese govt just bought out Swiss firm Syngenta which is similar to a Monsanto... kinda' the Monsanto of Europe... this added to Chinese govt purchase of Smithfield Foods (Virginia Hams/Bacon, etc...)<br /><br />Matt Frankohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11978352335097260145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2761684730989137546.post-77715927751290513612016-05-02T16:41:08.385-04:002016-05-02T16:41:08.385-04:00Surprising stance on GMOs with all the money he ha...Surprising stance on GMOs with all the money he has taken from environmental activists and the organic industrial complex. Probably because GMOs are strongly supported by his Academic base, that count on economic rents from the sale of genetic technology to support their research. Monsanto is primarily based in Missouri, an important battle ground state in the Obama election, so maybe he owes some back scratching there but that was a lifetime ago. Just Unexpected to have Obama, the fundraising god, take a position that is unpopular, highly progressive and in the public interest with little financial benefit except from one or two obscure ag seed companies. Obama's top US Trade rep is from San Fran area - but of course being the top man is a Harvard/Princeton guy with all the baggage that implies and tie$ to establishment elite, the first deputy is from Microsoft's Business Software Alliance, and the second deputy a democrat aligned technocrat political appointee that specializes in "Intellectual property and AGRICULTURE." So That's where it comes from.Ryan Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04815033054435303399noreply@blogger.com