Monsanto

[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.

[rkaiser]

Wow. I thought I would post this as my effort rather than joining the march today.

However, after reading your post "sumsmartguy" and doing a little reflecting on people I know who have left this plane a little early, we are HEADIN TO RED DEER.

Anyone else want to join us, the march starts at about 2:00 p.m. at the Red Deer City Hall.

There is information on the web for any of you who live close to one of the close to 500 cities in numerous countries around the world where we hope to make this the most recognisable world wide day of awareness ever.

All the best to every one of you and your families.

[agstar77]

I am not a fan of chemicals in farming , but they are a necessary evil to feed the world at a price they can afford. There should also be a march against sugar. It is a known killer of millions of people.

[grefer]

We have the choice to eat sugar or not. Good
point.

[ColevilleH2S]

I have nothing but questions for this
rkaiser poster.

If your your so worried about safety why
are you driving to Red deer? Don't you
know motor vehicle accidents are a
proven leading cause of death? Shouldn't
you be protesting that instead of a
company who's products provide
sustenance for hundreds of millions of
people? Or are you a sadist, who would
enjoy seeing poor people starve?

Agriscience allows us to provide food
for everyone on this planet, and these
protesters are against it? Am I missing
something? Me not get.

[Hopperbin]

i for one am getting sick of anti monsanto crap
there is no glypho sprayed on wheat used for
planting so where does it get connected to
fusarium plenty of times a field does not get its
pre seed burnoff cause there is no weeds there
is no connection we test every bin now so tell us
again how were not educated the red deer show
should be a freak show so if someone wanted
organic wheat they should have bought it before
it sold for chicken feed

[sumdumguy]

I feel it is imcumbent upon Health Canada to be
testing for chemical residues and the correlation
between days to harvest after application. In light
of the fact that we dont hear about any statistics
regarding late fall desiccation and many farmers
are adopting this practice, I tend to suspect that
there is a possibility our wheat, lentils, canola
and whatever else needs a shot of chemical just
before harvest could be unsafe for consumption.
I could be wrong but please prove me wrong
before its too late. If I have to choice to eat a hot
slice of organic bread or a conventional loaf, I
will take the organic one with butter and a slab of
organic spanish onion grown in our garden. You
too?

[ColevilleH2S]

I have no such concerns sumdumguy.
Maximum residue limits are backed by
replicated science and strictly enforced
by importing countries.

Anecdotal evidence means squat.

[ado089]

Summum, I would suggest you request the
same of your precious organics, you just
may be surprised what you find. If
roundup were toxic at sub clinical
levels most of us would be dead by now
from long term concentrated exposure,
I've likely consumed a couple once today
alone.

[Hopperbin]

we were using glyphosate and min tilling long
before our juniors in maniroba and fusarium
was there long before here.

[Hopperbin]

we were using glyphosate and min tilling long
before our juniors in maniroba and fusarium
was there long before here.