Chemical Company Bullies

[winston]

I heard that a couple of employees (maybe now ex-employees) of a prominant manufacturer really tied into a couple of famers at a meeting concerning new GMO crops and herbicides. The employees attitude was quite beligerent and seemed to be targeted towards those farmers who attended a meeting where some speakers where opposed to any more new GMO crops.

Any comments

[cowman]

All I know is that GMO canola really works. I rent land to my cousin on a crop share basis and he grew Roundup ready canola a couple of years ago. It really cleaned up the weeds and especially the quack grass. It was the heaviest canola crop I've ever seen and also the cleanest. The next year he grew barley and sprayed out the volunteer canola and it was a very clean crop too. I guess we basically have to rely on our govt. when they say GMO's are safe.

[countryguy]

Technology is the master of disaster.This whole gmo thing is getting out of control.We are getting volunteer round up ready canola plants in our fields and have never even grown the stuff.Who ever thinks they are growing non gmo canola varieties these days are fooloing themselves.Cross pollination is taking place contaminating fields while Monsanto is sitting back laughing their butts off patenting the solution to the problem they created in the first place!It's a win win situation for them.Yes the technology works,but so does dumping sewage into a river and we can see where that is getting us.When I sit back and think 20 years into the future I can't help but wonder why people aren't putting a stop to this now before it's too late.

[cowman]

countryguy: I won't try to convince you GMO's are the answer...I don't think any of us know where they will eventually take us. But I would point out that roundup is a very safe chemical compared to just about any other, in terms of toxcicity to mammals, birds, insects and residues. So by using it we don't have to use the more lethal varieties of chemicals.
I also saw an experimental patch of roundup ready corn this summer and it was very clean. Now I don't know if they sprayed it with something else too but it sure was clean. This should mean less weeds next year and hopefully less spray. So maybe by using GMO's we can actually help our environment.

[Muttley]

Being out of grain farming the last couple of years has left me a liitle out of the chemical loop. When I sit a listen to farmers I have heard them talk about the volunter canola that is in their fields, they say it's a problem when they grow pulse crops as many chemicals that can kill the canola also gets the crop. It's not a consern if you spray before planting, but I know in my area alot of weeds and voluntary crops were not growing when they seeded early.
This all gives me concern as I also rent out land and am a little nervous as to what else may be a problem in the future for my land.
I remember product called glean that was used a number of years ago, we were told after using it that they determined planting restrictions would be adviced. This is not in use anymore.

[Steve]

Technology is here to stay because in most cases it helped the human race to a better and longer life. I like to compare new ideas and chemicals to proven ones, which tells me all things are not necessarily good or bad, but have to be proven.

Some people change with the flow and others are against things that are new to them, and see no need to do so, because they feel bad things could happen. People were against the tractor because they thought the horse was more efficient and easier to maintain.

Technology in medicine helped us in many ways. Smallpox vaccine was first used not known if it would come back to hunt us in the years to come.

Penicillin is a good antibiotic and saved many lives, but some germs are getting immune to it: therefore we constantly have to try new antibiotic to kill the new germs.

I remember when there was no herbicide to control wild oats and unwanted weeds. Now some of the wild oats are resistant to different groups of herbicides but the chemical companies are constantly trying to come up with new ones. Some farmers don’t understand how genes in plants protect the plant from some herbicide but not from all chemicals and that is why they kill some and not others.

Nature as a way to protect all living things so every organism tries to build a defense against intruders and over time will build a resistance gene.

People that are accusing chemical companies of making herbicides to last a short time better take another look at how much money and time it takes to develop a new one. I am sure they could make more money over time by just selling the old product. Some farmers do a lot of coffee shop talk about GMO canola tolerant to roundup, but don’t seem to realize that most any other broad leaf herbicide would kill it same as conventional canola.

At one time the chemical companies had to develop an herbicide that the plant could tolerate but kill the unwanted plants at the same time.

Now they found a easy way to transplant a resistant gene into a plant to protect it from the chemical. I don’t see anything wrong with this idea providing it is controlled. I also can’t see it being a health risk and am sure we can destroy anything we can make.

It should not be done to too many plants with the same gene so it will cause a problem in crop rotations.

Our Government is also doing tests on all chemicals to make sure they are safe for public use and it takes years before they are approved.

This is the way is see GMO plants and chemicals.

[winston]

My point was that it was unusual for the company reps to act in such an unprofessional way. Theose guys are usually trained to be polite and respond in a more mature way.

I personally think that GMO crops bring us a lot of benefits especially in canola. I'm not too excited about RR Wheat though. The volunteer problem scares me!

[cowman]

Having attended a few Dow-Elanco "schools" I would have to agree that the reps are very polite and informed. I suspect this was just a case of someone not being trained properly on how to handle problems. We'll always have people who don't agree with the "best" science. This is okay, maybe this is necessary. There have been a lot of screw-ups in the past and I'm sure there will be in the future! I think people need to accept the fact that even though they think they are right, this is just how it is!