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Aclone

Aclone

Well-Known Member
Dec 14, 2007
26,925
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Des Moines, Ia.
Just curious, maybe someone here can help me with this. I have a friend who is very "green", and one of her current causes is boycotting Monsanto because they have gene engineered seeds. Some of the connected rationale sounds fishy to me (rice with human genes?), so I figured I'd come and ask where no one would know better--Iowa State's ag folks.

One link also had something about it about Monsanto now licensing their products--and some farmer getting arrested for "hiding" seed in his barn. Funny thing, I seem to remember that hybrids don't breed true (yeah, I worked in a lab in the Agronomy building a year or two--ages ago).

So, anyone care to help me straighten this out? She's a little upset that I'm not supporting her.

Not to mention "fracking". Sigh.
 
J

Jgraham

Member
May 27, 2012
45
0
6
Ames
My girlfriend works in a corn genome research lab, so if you've got some documentation I can show it to her and see if it looks plausible at all.
 
cychhosis

cychhosis

Well-Known Member
May 12, 2006
1,635
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S.E. Iowa
Soybeans are not hybrids, the genetics from one generation to the next doesn't change. Seed is considered intellectual property and farmers who plant seed from last year's crop are breaking the law.
 
MrOtter

MrOtter

Member
Sep 6, 2010
562
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18
Fort Collins, CO
I can assure you they are not breeding rice with human genes. Well not like they are harvesting humans or anything. Many genes from all different species have homolgous genes in other species so rice and humans certainly share lots of lots of genes.

She is partially correct about the "licensing"and law suits and what not but it's a pretty cloudy area. Monsanto (along with every other biological technology company) has many patents on different gene constructs, hybrids, mutant lines etc. that they either use for in-house development or can sell. So when you buy special lines from Monsanto you have to sign an agreement that you will not save seeds from those plants, distribute seeds to other and whatnot.

The big case she is probably referring to is Monsanto vs Schmeiser which occurred in 2004 and was about Monsanto's claims that Percy Schmeiser (a canadian farmer) had been growing and saving seeds from Monsanto's line of RoundUp resistant canola plants. They were able to confirm through genetic testing that Schmeiser's plants were actually from Monsanto and also that he had knowingly applied RoundUp to them. However, this was only on a few acres of Schmeiser's land and so he claimed that Monsanto's plants must have "invaded" his field, potentially just from blowing off a truck or from pollen distribution from another farm. Eventually the case boiled down to Monsanto's right to have a self-replicating and living plant patented as their own and in the end the Supreme Court ruled in Monsanto's favor mostly based on precedent set by the Chakrabarty case in 1980 that claimed he (Chakrabarty, who worked for GE) could patent an oil-consuming microbe.

Sorry I was a Biology and Philosophy major so I really enjoy Bioethics and have studied those cases a lot. It hard to say whether Monsanto were really the bad guys here but I'll let you make up that decision for yourself.
 
NickTheGreat

NickTheGreat

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jan 17, 2012
10,804
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113
Central Iowa
Save yourself a lot of trouble and don't try to convince her. She wouldn't' believe you if God himself came down and said so.
 
bringmagicback

bringmagicback

Well-Known Member
Dec 3, 2009
7,858
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CF Resident Dog Lover
I would just ignore her. You wont be able to reason with her. People like that thrive on misinformation and hearsay. Much like myself, they make up their own facts and try to argue with others that are actually educated in that area.

Also, it is illegal to plant say pioneers stuff that you grew. However, sometimes you run a little short nawadimsayn.
 
HFCS

HFCS

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2010
75,828
66,275
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LA LA Land
DistrictCyclone said:
Is this thread an attempt to troll rebecacy?
Click to expand...

It's a safe bet the truth lies somewhere in the vast region between rebecacy and people chaining themselves to grocery stores wearing hazmat suits.

rebecacy if you read this, I do like you and enjoy your CF contributions :)
 
rebecacy

rebecacy

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2007
4,507
270
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Aclone said:
Just curious, maybe someone here can help me with this. I have a friend who is very "green", and one of her current causes is boycotting Monsanto because they have gene engineered seeds. Some of the connected rationale sounds fishy to me (rice with human genes?), so I figured I'd come and ask where no one would know better--Iowa State's ag folks.

One link also had something about it about Monsanto now licensing their products--and some farmer getting arrested for "hiding" seed in his barn. Funny thing, I seem to remember that hybrids don't breed true (yeah, I worked in a lab in the Agronomy building a year or two--ages ago).

So, anyone care to help me straighten this out? She's a little upset that I'm not supporting her.

Not to mention "fracking". Sigh.
Click to expand...
quick, get a new friend.
 
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D

DistrictCyclone

Guest
rebecacy said:
quick, get a new friend.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, there he is.

file.php
 
K

kberyldial

Well-Known Member
Mar 20, 2006
1,265
58
48
When friendships hinge on things like religion, race, gay marriage, who you cheer for in football, RICE SCIENCE, whoever is still watering the yard, etc. - then that person isn't really worth the time. Fringe wingnuts will find other fringe wingnuts that agree with them and everything they say and believe and then they feel good. Sigh.
 
Acylum

Acylum

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2006
14,338
15,017
113
There's a really good Penn & Teller vid about this somewhere I think. It may have been posted here before.
 
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