Farmers are not forced to use GM products. They can make their own choices. If GM seeds are too costly or perform less well than other seeds, they won’t be used. The provision of insurance discounts for GM products is not “strong arming” farmers into doing anything, it is a just and rational reflection of perceived risk. For the same reason, it’s not “strong arming” to charge smokers higher health insurance premiums, either.

It is a false dichotomy to oppose the “diverse knowledge and practices of farming” and biotech as solutions to climate change. They are not mutually exclusive, and we’ll probably need both.

And third world farmers definitely don’t need self-appointed champions such as Kathy and Hope to protect them from themselves. Let them – and our own farmers in Australia - make their own choices about whether to use GM crops.

Bravo Rhian.

Oh, and Kathy and Hope, spare us the neo-religious drivel about climate change will you? The globe is not warming so you can shut your pious cake-holes now. Go off and gabble the rosary beads in a monkery, that would be just as mindless, but a good deal less fraudulent and fascist.

Kathy and Hope

The conservative Western Australian government and Premier, Barney Rubble, have recently succumber to pressures from Monsanto and GM crop trials will soon be carried out on secret farm locations despite the alarming revelations on Roundup (glyphosate):

“We have evaluated the toxicity of four glyphosate (G)-based herbicides in Roundup formulations, from 10(5) times dilutions, on three different human cell types. This dilution level is far below agricultural recommendations and corresponds to low levels of residues in food or feed. The formulations have been compared to G alone and with its main metabolite AMPA or with one known adjuvant of R formulations, POEA. HUVEC primary neonate umbilical cord vein cells have been tested with 293 embryonic kidney and JEG3 placental cell lines. All R formulations cause total cell death within 24 h, through an inhibition of the mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase activity, and necrosis, by release of cytosolic adenylate kinase measuring membrane damage. They also induce apoptosis via activation of enzymatic caspases 3/7 activity.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19105591?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

And in simpler English:

“Residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and even death, even at very low levels. The authors of a study on the subject say their research "... points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny.

”Roundup herbicides are among the most commonly used in the world, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Roundup resistant. Their residues are among the major pollutants, and they are authorized as residues contaminating GM foods and feed at the tested levels.

”The researchers studied toxicity mechanisms of four different Roundup formulations in human cells. The formulations were diluted at minimal doses (up to 100,000 times or more), but they still caused cell death within a few hours. The researchers also noted membrane and DNA damages, and found the formulations inhibit cell respiration.”

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/07/Monsantos-Roundup-Residues-in-GM-Food-Cause-Cell-Damage.aspx

“Control the oil, you control the nation, control the food, you control the people.”

Unfortunately another piece where well fed westerners want to tell poor third world framers how to farm.

Ron Herring discusses the activities of anti-GM NGOs in India in a recent paper. http://www.agbioforum.missouri.edu/v12n1/v12n1a02-herring.htm The relevant material for here is the image propagated by people like Kathy Jo Wetter and Hope Shand of the third world farmer as a gullible peasant. We have to believe that third world farmers are gullible peasants just waiting for someone to take advantage of them, otherwise there would be no role for Wetters and Shand to call for their protection. In fact framers in the third world, like farmers in the first world, are highly astute. The difficulty for farmers in the third world is lack of opportunity. Farmers in the third world use technology when it works for them. If seed is too expensive they won’t buy it.

Protagoras quotes “Residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and even death, even at very low levels…” Except that the compound in the Roundup formulation that causes the damage when cells are bathed in it is POEA, a surfactant. This experiment was the equivalent of bathing cells in dish washing liquid and then claiming that washing dished would be dangerous to you. In reality, there would be no POEA present as a residue in food because it doesn’t get absorbed by the plant and doesn’t get moved into the grain. The only way placental cells could be damaged by Roundup is if the placenta was bathed in it.

Sadly, this sort of misinformed drivel gets propagated all too widely round the internet.

Agronomist

I see an "AND" and an "OR" in the following paragraph which to my mind conflicts with your argument. In addition, "*All* R formulations cause total cell death............."

The formulations have been compared to "G alone" and with its main metabolite AMPA "OR" with one known adjuvant of R formulations, POEA. .........*ALL" R formulations cause total cell death within 24 hrs, through an inhibition of the mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase activity, and necrosis, by release of cytosolic adenylate kinase measuring membrane damage. They also induce apoptosis via activation of enzymatic caspases 3/7 activity.”

You're not up to your usual industry greenwashing are you Agronomist?

protagoras,
reading a little more, which tends to make me think agronomists view isn't far of the mark:

"G provokes only apoptosis, and HUVEC are 100 times more sensitive overall at this level. The deleterious effects are not proportional to G concentrations but rather depend on the nature of the adjuvants."

apoptosis: "is the process of programmed cell death (PCD) that may occur in multicellular organisms." wiki.