General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: You can't criticize one pseudoscience when supporting another. [View all]countryjake
(8,554 posts)Several years ago, seed growers here in Skagit Co waged a worthy battle against Monsanto Roundup-Ready GM Canola/Rapeseed, simply to stop those farmers in league with Monsanto from contaminating and destroying their century-long livelihoods. Known for producing generations of genetically pure Brassica seed (from veggies such as Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli) and Spinach and Beet seed here, that have provided a majority of the nation's seed for those plants and also a goodly chunk of the world's seed, the viability of their crops was threatened when new start-up farms attempted to introduce GMO Canola biofuel crops, upwind of the fields of long-established seed farmers.
Things got pretty interesting when certain Republicans (representing Monsanto) began dropping in at farms with 150 years of vegetable seed growing in the dirt under their fingernails, trying to present the argument that growing GM Rapeseed could bring a much better "profit" than their time-intensive labor of pure seed farming ever would. I won't say that threats were made, but things did become quite heated out in one of my old neighbor's lanes and that particular Monsanto agent never made it up the barn, ha! The story of their struggle with Monsanto GMOs was written up in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the time.
Since seed growing is one of Washington state's oldest industries and my county's angry farmers were the base for it, the Department of Agriculture and state government were eventually forced to get involved, to actually provide reasonable protection to Skagit's multi-million dollar production of pure unadulterated seed.