Thursday 2 February 2012

Monsanto

This is probably the one of the biggest controversies of all time in the GM food industry. For those who do not know what "Monsanto" is, it is a company that is about a bunch of farmers that have a pledge to "produce more food. To produce more with less, conserving resources like soil and water. And to improve lives." as it says in their official website. And how do they do this? They do this by "selling seeds, traits developed through biotechnology, and crop protection chemicals. In other words, genetically modifying food and pesticide things. They are the world's leading producer of herbicides called Roundup and GE seeds. Of course, many people think is is wrong. Monsanto has been sued many, many times for damaging the health of many people through pollution and poisoning. There was a report that was released in June 2011 that linked the herbicide that Roundup is made of, glyphosate to birth defects in frog and chicken embryos.

The Monsanto GM's are made to be resistant to herbicides, Roundup. Some people are afraid that the herbicide-resistant genes will spread to other plants and that they will be resistant to the herbicides.

For all you soybean consumers, here is something you should be aware of. One of the GM foods that they (Monsanto) sell are genetically modified soybeans, called Roundup Ready. It is grown and sold in South Africa yields by 173% over 5 years until 2005 and soya production by 75%.  This made lots of money for farmers in Argentina, so they decided to sell just these GM soybeans. They relied on this as their only produce. Then, in 2004, a question came up about the actually benefits of the soybeans: are they safe? Some scientists say that growing Roundup Ready soybeans can add up to many consequences. This caused many people to stop buying RR and the farmers became bankrupt.
Farmers need to rotate crops so that the soil won't get damaged, and overtime the soil can get back to the normal form. However, the farmers did not  rotate crops because they just grew RR soybeans and the soil became damaged. Monsanto "claimed" that the damage of the soil and use of pesticides was not caused by the RR soy.

More soon, and please comment about what do you think. Stop Monsanto, or are they doing the right thing?
Follow me on Twitter, @gmfoodopinions

1 comment:

  1. We should all stop Monsanto. In the name of well being they are feeding GM crops that includes a "significant fragment of a viral gene" known as Gene VI, a new viral DNA in GMO foods causing food contamination - Sources(daily express). Here I have found some of the shocking facts about GMO corn risks & problems with GMO foods

    ReplyDelete