Monsanto

[oneoff]

Is it necessary to say that herbicides and insecticides are not meant to betreated casually or with lack of respect? Read the labels which clearly warn about their non-intended uses and restrictions.

They are poisons; which have been chosen for use on selected plants and insects.

Daring a human being to drink these poisons; or challenging anyone to consume these herbicide and insecticides; is the height of ignorannce.

In fact; perhaps such persons should be denied possession of these important tools which are an considered an acceptable and arguably necessary tool to produce the food which the world currently needs.

Accidental poisonings have already provided more than enough data.

Talk about being dragged down to having to state the obvious.

[oneoff]

So now thereis a claim that fusarium would go away if only non contaminated seed were used.

I would be more than suprised if that would have much effect in the future; or if it was the only cause of its widespread expansion inthe last decade.

Equally as unfounded is the insinnuation that glyphosate is tied directly through some unproven mechanism.

But both theories tie in nicely to promote organic production; which is promoted with its own set of unproven benefits.

Oh wait; can we all rely on that dubious "soil analysis" of GMO corn from a couple months ago.. Any need to repost that dispicable data that should have been roundly denounced by everyone; including every organic proponent.

[furrowtickler]

Oneoff, ever have a bohemian ?? Kinda like round up

[grefer]

I wonder why there is little to no research being done in farming without chemicals?Could it be that there is no money in feeding the hungry only in getting all of you to grow it?

[SASKFARMER3]

http://beyerbeware.net/2013/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-monsanto-gmo-food.html

[freewheat]

Trouble is, when you farm, you HAVE to offset the exports from your soil
with something from off farm, or it is not sustainable. That is why
research dollars are not funneled into that segment of agriculture so
much.

When we export all these nutrients off our farms, the soil does not
magically rejuvenate; We need to replenish it. Not by tilling, or
"resting" it, but by importing nutrients from somewhere else.

I don't think there is a choice. Productivity has gone through the roof,
soil is being rebuilt. There always will be fuzz problems leaf disease,
sclerotinia:

It is called rotation. Glyphosate is one of the MANY MANY tools I can
choose or not choose to use. Use it wisely, use it sparingly. Many guys
like an aesthetically clean field, not economically clean. An example is
if you are growing LL canola. Most guys still do a pre-burn. For what???
You can zap everything out there when the canola is emerging, save some
cash, save herb rotation issues, etc. But no, it has to be as clean as
Geralds out there for the two weeks between seeding and in crop time...

But no, the fields need to look like a weed free place for the neighbors
to see, economics be dammed. Who is the better farmer, the guy using
glyph sparingly, or the guy rotating properly? Yet the guy with the
short term "messy" looking fields gets laughed at, gets landlords
talking...

Cover crops are all the rage in the states right now: Last year, I had
one unseeded 1/4. I could be like everyone else, and panic and spray the
crap out of it 4 times, or I could take advantage of the situation, and
allow for some green on the field, and spray only when absolutely
necessary. I ended up spraying it once to prevent weed seed production,
got a cover crop in the process, and my soil says thank you!

I think glyph is definitely being over used. Some guys spray it on their
wheat as a matter of course, needed or not for perennial weed control.
Some guys spray fungicides as a general rule, or spray for "bugs" cuz
the neighbor did.

We as farmers need to get off our duffs, get out in the fields, and see
what they need, not relying on coffee row gossip, perceptions of others,
or worse still, relying on crop scouts cuz we have grown so dang big we
no longer have the time to scout. Like, are we serious? No time to
scout??? lol!

End rant. It is just I was talking to my neighbor. He plans to spray for
"that disease" in his canola this year, cuz Clem down the road did last
year. How some of these guys operate is beyond me. How they have gotten
to the point where they are farming big acres, driving flashy machinery,
with the lack of knowledge they have about farming can only be answered
one way. Thankfully their wife has a high paying job! lol

[ALBERTAFARMER4]

So everyone here would feed their family a crop
that they sprayed with one liter/acre of
glyphosate before they harvested?

[sumdumguy]

Dear Slapshot, gotta tell you this story: in about
1985, we were spraying lentils by air with
Reglone. No precautions. My brother said this
chemical and Roundup so safe you could drink it.
Yepper, sure thing, we went back to swathing, he
continued with no precautions. He died in 1988 at
44 years of age with pancreatic cancer. We still
swath. Of course, you cant be sure of what
caused the cancer, but I am not convinced that
we are going the right direction with no-till
chemical cocktail farming.

[sumdumguy]

By the way, my brother was a fantastic guy,
community leader, 6 foot 3 , left a beautiful wife
and 4 children. Man we would give it all to have
him back.

[hobbyfrmr]

One off and sumdum, there are some insights you
have provided in which I can see that making a
little fun about consuming herbicides are not the
way to reach a practical conclusion. I will have to
look for more factual pros and cons.