Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
The average Brit isn't living in poverty to pay for it though, at least not yet.
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Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4224
what's the difference between rich and poor when there's a very real threat of nuclear war?

i mean okay, criticize pakistan all you want. but it's probably the 'hottest' border in the world. just seems a little irrelevant in the GMO discussion. they are not exclusive either/or propositions. you can develop agriculture and have nuclear bombs.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Both sides political leaders are douchebags, and thus their people are starving in poverty.

Lack of GM food is not the problem here.
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Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4224
i don't really know why medium brought it up in the first place, tbh. it has the same logical loopiness as people who mention "the third-world" when white westerners talk about suffering. yes, okay.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
'The third world' generally has much of the most fertile land.
Its overpopulated and undermanaged, and the people seem to prefer fighting over farming, thats why its 'third world'.
Just look at 'Zimbabwe'.
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Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4224
well you know, again i don't really want to get into a discussion of the third-world with Dr. geopolitics, PhD. you prefer to simplistically explain their current civil- and political- states as being "barbarism" or "genetically determined" or something. you're a bit of a crackpot when it comes to political analysis.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Well never mind that.

Generally speaking, if a population has not been able to live within its means, to the point its perpetually overpopulated and undernourished, what would changing the means a smidgen actually achieve?

The population would just expand until they are undernourished again, would it not?

Setting up a pension scheme and basic healthcare, so every family doesn't think it needs to have 8 kids to guarantee 2 to look after them in old age, would be, according to my calculations, about a bazillion times more useful the GM foods and without the risk of creating killer bees with laser eyes.
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Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England

Dilbert_X wrote:

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

I don't presume to mess with things we don't yet understand.
If everyone thought like that we would still be doing cave paintings.
Um no.

There's a big fat difference between making incremental technological changes to systems that we can control, and throwing radical and unnatural changes into a system completely outside our control, such as the ecosystem.
But it IS incremental change. They aren't completely reinventing wheat from scratch, they are just splicing genes for three very specific purposes: making their crops 'Round-Up Ready', adding defenses to the plants to thwart pests, and neutering them so they can't reproduce on their own. The former two are meant to improve output by getting rid of weeds and insects. This allows farmers to plan better and reduce risk. As an engineer, you should be wholeheartedly in favor of this, as it's what gives us wet dreams at work.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

we don't have a very loud france threatening to wipe us off the face of the earth.
I wonder what on earth you guys would possibly go to war over. Wifi rights in Brittany?
Extra Medium
THE UZI SLAYER
+79|4165|Oklahoma

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

i don't really know why medium brought it up in the first place, tbh.
Because it's a fucking shit hole where people starve to death.

Next time I'll reference Nottingham.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

Extra Medium wrote:

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

i don't really know why medium brought it up in the first place, tbh.
Because it's a fucking shit hole where people starve to death.

Next time I'll reference Nottingham.
Really? So Errol Flynn or Kevin Costner?
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4224

Extra Medium wrote:

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

i don't really know why medium brought it up in the first place, tbh.
Because it's a fucking shit hole where people starve to death.

Next time I'll reference Nottingham.
... nottingham?

also is there a famine in pakistan? are you confusing pakistan with sudan, or something? i thought pakistan struggled with natural disasters, but not starvation.
globefish23
sophisticated slacker
+334|6294|Graz, Austria

Extra Medium wrote:

How dare those fucking bastards, trying to genetically modify food crops to be more resistant to fungus, virus, insect and climate in order to produce more food to meet the demands of a world population rising on an exponential curve!

The fucking nerve of some people.
That's all fine and dandy, but Monsanto deliberately make their seeds INFERTILE, for the sole purpose that you can only use them ONCE.
In the next seedtime, the farmer needs to buy it again and cannot keep part of the seeds that he grew for that purpose, like farmers have done for thousands of years before.
Plus, they can sell their pesticide along with it.

And if the farmer dares to buy seeds from somewhere else, that have the same resistancy gene AND are fertile, he'll get sued.

Besides, as if Monsanto really cares about world hunger.
Selling infertile seeds is the exact opposite of helping starving populations.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

Jay wrote:

But it IS incremental change. They aren't completely reinventing wheat from scratch, they are just splicing genes for three very specific purposes: making their crops 'Round-Up Ready', adding defenses to the plants to thwart pests, and neutering them so they can't reproduce on their own. The former two are meant to improve output by getting rid of weeds and insects. This allows farmers to plan better and reduce risk. As an engineer, you should be wholeheartedly in favor of this, as it's what gives us wet dreams at work.
Making a change from selective breeding to gene splicing is absolutely not incremental change.

I don't dream about creating the next uncontrolled global disaster, no. If Monsanto had to do a peer-reviewed risk assessment this wouldn't even get past being a paper exercise, the only reason its going anywhere is they have the money to bribe every responsible person.
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Extra Medium
THE UZI SLAYER
+79|4165|Oklahoma

globefish23 wrote:

Extra Medium wrote:

How dare those fucking bastards, trying to genetically modify food crops to be more resistant to fungus, virus, insect and climate in order to produce more food to meet the demands of a world population rising on an exponential curve!

The fucking nerve of some people.
That's all fine and dandy, but Monsanto deliberately make their seeds INFERTILE, for the sole purpose that you can only use them ONCE.
In the next seedtime, the farmer needs to buy it again and cannot keep part of the seeds that he grew for that purpose, like farmers have done for thousands of years before.
Plus, they can sell their pesticide along with it.

And if the farmer dares to buy seeds from somewhere else, that have the same resistancy gene AND are fertile, he'll get sued.

Besides, as if Monsanto really cares about world hunger.
Selling infertile seeds is the exact opposite of helping starving populations.
Yeah?  Perhaps they make those seeds infertile so they can't spread a GMO naturally via animals and wind etc.  It's a smart thing to do.  If you make a wheat that is resistant to everything and can grow twice as fast it could be a bad thing for it to start reproducing and choking out natural species of flora in the area.  What if there is something we find to be adverse about the species later on that we don't know now?  If the GMO's are fertile, well FUCK US because now they are everywhere and we can't eradicate it because it's resistant to everything.

IF they were fertile people would be bitching about that as well.

This is the kind of nonsense I can't stand.  People put their hopes and dreams into science to provide answers to the worlds problems.  When it does or tries,  the FIRST thing people do it is complain and bitch and moan about how fucked up it is and how evil the people who made it are.  I honestly don't know why anyone even tries to make scientific breakthroughs anymore.


Also, most farmers in the first world DO re-buy seeds every cycle, this is nothing new.  Read a fucking book or go experience something first hand FFS.  Bitching about things people have done for decades as if it is something new and sinister.  Laughable.
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
Monsanto aren't doing it for the good of the planet.

The most probable outcome is they fuck up the infertility part and we end up with super-weeds resistant to everything - then we'd all be fucked.

Chemical companies don't exactly have great track record when it comes to farming.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England

globefish23 wrote:

Extra Medium wrote:

How dare those fucking bastards, trying to genetically modify food crops to be more resistant to fungus, virus, insect and climate in order to produce more food to meet the demands of a world population rising on an exponential curve!

The fucking nerve of some people.
That's all fine and dandy, but Monsanto deliberately make their seeds INFERTILE, for the sole purpose that you can only use them ONCE.
In the next seedtime, the farmer needs to buy it again and cannot keep part of the seeds that he grew for that purpose, like farmers have done for thousands of years before.
Plus, they can sell their pesticide along with it.

And if the farmer dares to buy seeds from somewhere else, that have the same resistancy gene AND are fertile, he'll get sued.

Besides, as if Monsanto really cares about world hunger.
Selling infertile seeds is the exact opposite of helping starving populations.
Because they spent billions on research. People get sued wbenever they violate a patent or copyright. I know You and most of the people who hate monsanto are post-napster people who think everything should be free or have a generic knockoff, but the world reallu doesn't work that way, nor should it.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX
They're going well beyond that, they're basically out to prevent anyone farming anything but Monsanto product.

They're out to make money never mind the consequences.

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-06-03 04:35:24)

Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England

Dilbert_X wrote:

They're going well beyond that, they're basically out to prevent anyone farming anything but Monsanto product.

They're out to make money never mind the consequences.
You're free to plant normal seeds, You just won' t be competitive because of yield loss. They make a superior product, Design an alternative instead of complaining about it.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
Winston_Churchill
Bazinga!
+521|6709|Toronto | Canada

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

They're going well beyond that, they're basically out to prevent anyone farming anything but Monsanto product.

They're out to make money never mind the consequences.
You're free to plant normal seeds, You just won' t be competitive because of yield loss. They make a superior product, Design an alternative instead of complaining about it.
But you can't, they own most of the patents for an extremely long period (which is a whole other topic, patenting life)

Being an engineer, if you built a building that's going to last for 10 years then fall to pieces instantly and said "that's the way it is, now pay me more to make a new one" do you really think that'd fly?  And not only that, but you own the only engineering firm in town and had a monopoly on employing engineers.

Either they need to have better business practices or they need less protected patents (through lower scope or length). Right now they have their cake and have been eating it nonstop.
Extra Medium
THE UZI SLAYER
+79|4165|Oklahoma

Winston_Churchill wrote:

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

They're going well beyond that, they're basically out to prevent anyone farming anything but Monsanto product.

They're out to make money never mind the consequences.
You're free to plant normal seeds, You just won' t be competitive because of yield loss. They make a superior product, Design an alternative instead of complaining about it.
But you can't, they own most of the patents for an extremely long period (which is a whole other topic, patenting life)

Being an engineer, if you built a building that's going to last for 10 years then fall to pieces instantly and said "that's the way it is, now pay me more to make a new one" do you really think that'd fly?  And not only that, but you own the only engineering firm in town and had a monopoly on employing engineers.

Either they need to have better business practices or they need less protected patents (through lower scope or length). Right now they have their cake and have been eating it nonstop.
Microsoft owns a lot of patents but I still see a bunch of different operating systems and browser software out there............
Winston_Churchill
Bazinga!
+521|6709|Toronto | Canada

If we're going into programming analogies it would be more similar to Microsoft owning the for, while and if loops. And you can only program in one language (aka DNA).  Good luck with making a successful program.
Jay
Bork! Bork! Bork!
+2,006|5328|London, England

Winston_Churchill wrote:

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

They're going well beyond that, they're basically out to prevent anyone farming anything but Monsanto product.

They're out to make money never mind the consequences.
You're free to plant normal seeds, You just won' t be competitive because of yield loss. They make a superior product, Design an alternative instead of complaining about it.
But you can't, they own most of the patents for an extremely long period (which is a whole other topic, patenting life)

Being an engineer, if you built a building that's going to last for 10 years then fall to pieces instantly and said "that's the way it is, now pay me more to make a new one" do you really think that'd fly?  And not only that, but you own the only engineering firm in town and had a monopoly on employing engineers.

Either they need to have better business practices or they need less protected patents (through lower scope or length). Right now they have their cake and have been eating it nonstop.
If I told you up front, and it was in the spec sheet, I'd be absolved, no? It's basically how most businesses operate. You design a car to run for X number of hours or miles, you design a razor blade for so many uses. Any idiot can build a brick that lasts for a hundred years given infinite resources, it's an engineers job to build to certain tolerances in order to minimize cost, weight and materials. That's what we do. If someone wants to pay for a building that lasts only ten years it's their problem, not mine (this is all if we ignore building codes, of course).

Anyway, monsanto doesn't own the biological patent on the soybean afaik, but they probably own patents on certain splicing practices and modified genes. Plenty of room for competition.

This all reminds me of the microsoft furor from a decade and a half ago... Compare MS and Apple stock prices today.
"Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough."
-Frederick Bastiat
Dilbert_X
The X stands for
+1,810|6076|eXtreme to the maX

Jay wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

They're going well beyond that, they're basically out to prevent anyone farming anything but Monsanto product.

They're out to make money never mind the consequences.
You're free to plant normal seeds, You just won' t be competitive because of yield loss. They make a superior product, Design an alternative instead of complaining about it.
Em no, if you don't buy Monsanto, and any Monsanto seeds happen to blow onto your land, they sue the crap out of you for intellectual property theft.
Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй!
Uzique The Lesser
Banned
+382|4224
jay has an almost religious faith in the good deeds and benign will of corporations. must be a residuum of all that rand.

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