Germany Bans GM Corn - Monsanto Suing Germany

[Dr.3D]

But what if I want to plant GM on my property? I thought you were all such fans of property rights.

That would be fine with me, just as long as you keep the pollen from your crop out of my field and my non GM crop.

 

[specsaregood]

That would be fine with me, just as long as you keep the pollen from your crop out of my field and my non GM crop.

Exactly. IIRC, a few counties in the US have this stuff banned as well.

 

[James Madison]

But what if I want to plant GM on my property? I thought you were all such fans of property rights.

This is true. Not that I'm a fan of Monsanto, but GM crops aren't necessarily a bad thing. I planted them for years, and they produce just as well as non-GM crops.

 

[BenIsForRon]

Some regulations are good, some are bad. Banning Monsanto is a good regulation. End of discussion.

 

[Mini-Me]

Some regulations are good, some are bad. Banning Monsanto is a good regulation. End of discussion.

Taken in isolation, I'll grant that this regulation will do much more good than harm. It's one of the only regulations I've ever seen that I can say this with confidence about. That said, you need to understand where the principled hardliners are coming from too, because I think you're overlooking the broader issue:
The very power of a government to create any arbitrary regulations at all is prohibitively dangerous and inevitably results in an overwhelming ratio of destructive ones to good (or even halfway decent) ones. It's one thing to make isolated value judgments on your own and decide a particular regulation happens to be a good thing from a utilitarian point of view. However, actually supporting the power of a government to regulate entails supporting the general unlimited power of politicians and their masters to make value judgments that you have no control over and which everyone must abide by. That is something I cannot support, and that is why I must take a principled stand against all regulation and in favor of property rights...but I'd obviously save fighting this one for last, and only after Monsanto's not around anymore and its board of directors have been thrown to the raptors.

 

[devil21]

I hate to say it, as much as I hate Monsanto and their practices. A government should not have the right to restrict trade of goods.

I'd have no problem with Monsanto, as evil as their products are, if they didn't participate so egregiously in regulatory capture and revolving door political appointments.

Great documentary on Monsanto:
http://twilightearth.com/environment-archive-2/the-world-according-to-monsanto-full-documentary/

 

[Dianne]

There is legislation now to prohibit you and I from growing our own garden. Rather, we must purchase Monsanto cancer crops, genetically modified s*** to be certain we die an early death. You would probably be safer drinking water from the BP cancer causing disbursements, then the s*** Montanto aka the World Government is forcing us to eat.

 

[steve005]

I'm moving to germany

 

[ProBlue33]

I didn't know just how evil Monsanto was until a watched "Food Inc."
That company defines corporate greed run amok.
This is an example of capitalism gone bad, they make the strongest case for government intervention on a corporation on behalf of the average farmer joe, who could never afford to take them on.

 

[amy31416]

I didn't know just how evil Monsanto was until a watched "Food Inc."
That company defines corporate greed run amok.
This is an example of capitalism gone bad, they make the strongest case for government intervention on a corporation on behalf of the average farmer joe, who could never afford to take them on.

Is it capitalism gone bad? They do have a lot of lobbyists and friends in DC. There's also the issue with the judicial arm, that keeps ruling in their favor in cases that it really sounds like they should have lost (I could be wrong, or just ignorant of the laws particular to the cases.)

That said, why is it bad for Germany to ban Monsanto? If they've determined that Monsanto may put their food supply at risk, or somehow harms their farming industry, it seems to me that that's a matter of national security and a legitimate function of even a limited state.

Didn't India have massive issues after Monsanto swept in? Farmer committing suicide, grain shortages, etc.? I say good for Germany and I don't see how Monsanto has a case.

 

[speciallyblend]

Ftm

 

[Mini-Me]

I didn't know just how evil Monsanto was until a watched "Food Inc."
That company defines corporate greed run amok.
This is an example of capitalism gone bad, they make the strongest case for government intervention on a corporation on behalf of the average farmer joe, who could never afford to take them on.

Heh. Look up Tom Vilsack, the current Secretary of Agriculture, and where he came from. Monsanto is a textbook case of a large corporation building its dominance on the force of government and using government to attack and outlaw its competition. In general, the more the government is authorized to intervene, the more Monsanto can use it to terrorize everyone else. This German regulation is a huge lucky exception; Monsanto just doesn't have the presence in their government that it has in ours. We can't really count on lucky breaks like that as a long-term strategy though (especially in the US, the country where Monsanto is strongest), and we'd be better off eliminating the government's power to regulate entirely rather than praying for their benevolence and wisdom in using it.

 

[Gleaner]

First a few facts about my qualifications to post about monsanto:
1 I am a Kansas Wheat Farmer
2 I will not purchase any product from the monsanto company because they cheated my nephew on one of their "guaranteed products".

Having stated that I resist a governmental "ban" on monsanto but I would require all food and feed sold in America to have COOL (country of origin labeling) on it and also state if it contains GMO material.

Wheat is the last major crop grown in America that is not a GM crop however there is great pressure on us to go the way of corn and soybeans. Companies like monsanto say that crop production will almost double. Ofcourse the price paid to the farmer will fall dramatically. Look at the Corn farmer, $280 for one bag of seed, fields produce 200 bu per acre so you make more trips to the elevator. The only ones who benefit from GM crops are the seed company, fertilizer company, grain handlers (they collect on volume), and machinery manufactures as more bushels makes the combine wear out faster. But the Farmers bottom line does not increase with production.

The American Farmer would be better off without GM crops. I have always said I'd rather raise 30 bu per acre wheat at $5.00 than 50 bu per acre wheat at $3.00

I believe companies like monsanto are the enemy but what is the proper way to fight them? What American liberties do we want to compromise on to control them? I think proper labling of product content will do the job. We need to know what we are eating and what the animals we consume were fed.