Apparently, it is now illegal to sue Monsanto.

[Lamplighter]

Washington State has an Initiative #522 on the next ballot to require
food products containing genetically modified products to be labeled.

What is strange are the TV ads being run in opposition to this labeling...
This one is a woman on a "family farm" that is "a certified non-Genetically Modified farm"



...but notice the small family farm sponsors at the end of the ad...
Monsanto
Dupont Pioneer
Dow Agrisciences LLC
Bayer CropScience

[Griff]

William Leggett would not be a fan of these special privileges, it may be time to listen when the lefties talk about revoking corporate charters.

Governments have no right to interfere with the pursuits of individuals, as guarantied by those general laws, by offering encouragements and granting privileges to any particular class of industry, or any select bodies of men, inasmuch as all classes of industry and all men are equally important to the general welfare, and equally entitled to protection.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Leggett rocks.

[Lamplighter]

Washington Post
Brady Dennis
10/18/13

A new method against genetically modified salmon:
Get retailers to refuse to sell it

Consumer and environmental activists, facing likely defeat in their bid to block
government approval of the first genetically engineered salmon,
are trying a different tack to keep the fish off America’s dinner plates:
Getting retailers not to sell it. And they’re making headway.

Some of the nation’s most recognizable chains
— including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Target —
have agreed in recent months to steer clear of the fish.
A spokeswoman for Safeway, the nation’s second-largest grocery chain,
said the chain doesn’t have “any plans to carry GE salmon.”
Activists are pressing Kroger, the country’s largest grocer, to make a similar commitment.
<snip>

Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies first applied for
permission to sell its genetically altered salmon in 1995.
Its AquAdvantage salmon consists of an Atlantic salmon containing a growth hormone
from a Chinook salmon and a gene from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish.
The result: A fish that grows to market size in about half the time as a traditional salmon.

For years, opponents have argued there’s not enough data to prove the salmon is safe to eat.
They have also warned there could be devastating environmental consequences
if the fish were to escape confinement and breed with wild salmon.

Of course, people could refuse to buy it.

.

[Lamplighter]

This couldn't happen to a better company.

Monsanto Weedkiller Is  ‘ Probably Carcinogenic,’ WHO Says
Bloomberg News - Jack Kaskey - 3/20/15

Monsanto Co.’s best-selling weedkiller Roundup probably causes cancer,
the World Health Organization said in a report that’s at odds with prior findings.

Roundup is the market name for the chemical glyphosate.
A report published by the WHO in the journal Lancet Oncology said Friday there is
“limited evidence” that the weedkiller can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lung cancer
and “convincing evidence” it can cause cancer in lab animals.

The report was posted on the website of the International Agency for Research on Cancer,
or IARC, the Lyon, France-based arm of the WHO
<snip>

Even if it is not the case, I hope this article scares the bejesus out of farmers and the public
...enough to break this litigious corporation in it's march towards monopoly over food crops.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And Monsanto says... besides fuck you...

[tw]

From The Economist of 15 Sept 2015:

IN THE early 1970s Asia’s rice farmers faced ruin. The brown planthopper, an insect up till then found mostly in Japan, began to appear across the region. It fed on young plants and transmitted grassy stunt virus, causing crops to shrivel and brown. As it swept through Asia’s paddy fields, yields crashed. By the end of the decade it had caused damage costing over $300m—more than $1 billion in today’s money.

Scientists raced to find a solution. They screened over 6,000 samples of rice and its wild relatives until they found a unique sample from central India of a wild species called Oryza nivara that was resistant to the virus. By crossing it with domesticated rice strains, plant-breeders transferred the resistant genes into a new variety. Today, millions of farmers across Asia grow rice derived from such crosses.

Also called genetically modified. Today, most every food we eat is genetically modified.

Today's tools do same faster. But it is still doing same. Nothing but fear says GM foods are dangerous. Genetic modified foods were once called hybrids. That was not as emotionally fearful as the expression Genetic Modified. So people once did not fear technology.

We can also discuss Hilary's e-mails if conspiracy is the purpose of life.