GMOs

[Saint Frankenstein]

True.

My biggest concern is Monsanto's 10 year effort to undercut the smaller seed producers and replace them with their own seeds. Monsanto, as rumor has it, can make seeds with a kill-switch. Basically, what could happen is that you have to buy seeds only from them, but the seeds can only produce one generation crops. This would be extremely dangerous since all crops would eventually depend on one company's production of seeds. If something happens to their production or the company, a whole world could be starving within a year. We're not there now, but I don't like the potential threat.

Indeed! See my post here: http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/3639987-post58.html

Everyone should watch that documentary.

There is also the issue of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and its ties to biotech corps like Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont:
Center for Food Safety | Issues | Seeds | Seed Banks
How Bill Gates, Syngenta and Rockefeller Became Custodians of the Doomsday Crop Diversity Vault - The Gaia Reports

This whole thing stinks.

 

[mycorrhiza]

True.

My biggest concern is Monsanto's 10 year effort to undercut the smaller seed producers and replace them with their own seeds. Monsanto, as rumor has it, can make seeds with a kill-switch. Basically, what could happen is that you have to buy seeds only from them, but the seeds can only produce one generation crops. This would be extremely dangerous since all crops would eventually depend on one company's production of seeds. If something happens to their production or the company, a whole world could be starving within a year. We're not there now, but I don't like the potential threat.

They can make a kill-switch, but they have promised not to, and with their current contracts it wouldn't make much sense to release it. They're not the good guys, but they're also not evil. Monsanto was one of the first companies to grant free licences for Golden Rice, for example.

There would still be other seed companies even if Monsanto did introduce a seed with a kill switch.

 

[Simurgh]

Yes! You're on our secret mailing list now, but don't tell anyone about it.

oh, so then the surveillance van out front is to be expected. but that whole kill-switch thing sounds like a conspiracy... then again, when there is world domination involved and tons of money...

still, monsanto is a symptom of our obsession with control, greed, and worst of all short-term planning because we are greedy and don't want to do anything to jeopardize our "stuff".

what i would like to know is while we are scrutinizing monsanto, what else is going on in the field of x-resistant breeding programs?