Hey! Don't worry be happy - GMO Foods Allow Reduced Plowing of Soil...

[bridgit]

Run time: 04:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46z355TTKX8   Posted on YouTube: September 16, 2006 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 12, 2007 By DU Member: bridgit Views on DU: 620

 
least that's what Monsanto says :) no wait, maybe better make that :(

'Four experts and seven farmers discuss how biotech crops help farmers globally eliminate plowing or tilling the soil -- thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions, erosion and fuel use. http://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo/asp/videogallery.asp '

[60TrenchesGone]

1. If GMO foods make the environment safer

I'm all for it.   It's the Bush regime that promotes
anti-science and hides its head in the sand from innovation
and intelligence.  Can't spell progressive without progress.

[bridgit]

2. welcome to du, 60TrenchesGone...

:) the environment is clearly one thing and i'm all for that there's no argument there, but i think it's the manipulation of millinea old, aeons old protein based food stuffs along with other compounds & structures, and our ability to ingest modified foods long term that benefit Big Agri's bottom line first that is the concern,

i live just down the road from UC Davis, and the programs developed there will effect these matters in short order; here's hoping they effect them for the benefit of us all

[enki23]

3. they're basically right

whether it's monsanto or not, it's actually quite true. instead of cultivating (in this sense, meaning going over the rows with a cultivator that digs up the soil between the rows of soybeans) several times a season. i was fortunate to do as a farm kiddie) you just spray with glyphosate. roundup is fairly benign, so far as pesticides go, so it's a relatively safe bet that using it is actually less harmful to the environment than is all the driving, fuel usage, and soil loss associated with previous methods of weed control.

although, they are being slightly disingenuous showing someone with an oldschool "plow" and saying that's how you kill the weeds. seasonal plowing was not, mostly, for weed control.

(oh, and driving all damned day every day for close to a week with your neck craned around watching behind you all day long is hell on your back. not to mention your sanity. but that's a another issue entirely, i suppose.)

[bridgit]

4. oh yeah, gangs of money are saved as well in pesticides...

insect infestation and the like, more resiliant plants, etc...that seems a good thing :thumbsup: