Question for farmers
 

So, I just saw Food inc. on TV. I leave wanting to do everything possible to not support Monsanto companies. So, to you farmers out there, is it really that bad? Agents checking to see if you save seeds, etc.?

The show made me want to call up Monsanto and tell them I'm stealing seed from farms and selling it, then kill ( or choke out) the agents they send. Is it really as bad as the show made it out to be?

Out of that entire documentatary, that part bothered me the least.

I've never been checked. Ever.

Some jackass got caught selling seed wheat here locally but that is the Kansas Association of wheat growers and state law for public genetics I believe.

Almost everything on those dumbass documentaries is blatant stupidity.

Let me preface this. NOBODY on this board has more reason to hate Monsanto than I do. Massive dollars have left my family on goddamned high ass margin chemical and genetics. One of the best days our farm has seen was when the patent expired on Roundup chemistry. Back onto topic though, as much as I hate Monsanto, they're not an evil company. They don't run the EPA. They're not using shotty science. They're just an innovation company and they're very good at.

The result of that is me sending them a shitload of money. Why? Because the products are worth it. There are public varieties of corn that I can bin run. But I don't. Because the seed is worth $300 for 80,000 seeds. It just is. And I can operate without chemical. My grandpa didn't spray any chemical until he rented it to dad as far as I know. But I spray chemical. Why? Because it works. Monsanto makes money. But it is because they have good products and they're good at business.

I really think that before anyone hates on Monsanto they should tour the facity in St Louis.

/rant

Now that my rant is over, I would love to explain food production and if anyone wants to they can visit my farm any time. Bad science, agenda driven, or just dumbass discussion about production agriculture Is, in my opinion the biggest threat to the industry.

Some ****ing Stockholm shit right there...

Businesses that refuse to sell obscene cakes to gay people, bad; businesses that work within the real rules of the market...bad, because they make too much money.

That's a wacky world you live in Sybil.

Concur. The yield numbers and production costs are crystal clear. I'm sitting on a lot of corn and beans starting to take some to market as the prices are coming around. And the ability to do that is in part due to these seeds. Barely got beans in due to wet fields this year and weather is the traditional wild card so if Monsanto could solve that......

Don't do it, its a trap. They will put you to work. #slavery

I keep saying, farm use of Roundup in on its way out. There are other products out there that is getting the job done better than Roundup. Soon, the only ones using Roundup will be city people spraying weeds out of the cracks of the driveway.

Yeah. No. In point of fact I don't buy much from Monsanto or Monsanto companies. But all of the corn I planted has the roundup ready Gene and Some of it has the Bt gene. All of that stuff was licensed by Monsanto. On top of that, I already mentioned that there are public genetic out there that I can use.

Besides that, look at the wheat. All of my wheat varieties were Agripro or KState varieties. None of which were licensed by Monsanto, who is in the wheat market (it's either west bred or Lima grain. I think it's west bred)

On the chemical side I still spray some glyphosate, but at this point it's just a chemistry. It would be like you taking acetomenophen and saying you have Stockholm syndrome to Tylenol. I think that's as far as I go with Monsanto chemistries. They may have been at the forefront of HPPD inhibitors but I think that was Bayer. Either way, all those are such different formulations that it is hard to claim that it is Monsanto chemistry.

So no. I don't have Stockholm Syndrome. But I do recognize Monsanto's innovation and those innovations' effect on my profitability.

They bought a giant ass weather data company for huge monies. Lord knows what for. I think if I had to guess they're going to sell a variety selection service based on projected weather patterns but I don't know.

Either way, you're up in the Dakotas, right? I didn't know they had that much rain. Glad you got it in.

The days of glyphosate only treatments are Long gone. And have been for years. Here anyway. However glyphosate remains the cheapest and easiest solution to a BUNCH of weeds. Namely grasses. Glyphosate resistant weeds are a problem, but it is unlikely that a lot of grasses will become resistant very soon due to the manner in which their genetic material is transferred doesn't allow it to adapt very quickly. Unlike kochia marestail and palmer amaranth.

As a side not, it is unlikely that the "roundup" dudes are spraying on their driveways is the roundup in the sense that you are thinking. Monsanto managed to brand glyphosate as a consumer product thinking they would leverage all the name recognition from the ag industry. But I don't think they sell straight glyphosate anymore which is what Roundup is.

The Roundup crap at Home Depot is not anywhere close to what dad would get on the farm.

buehler-my wife works at Syngenta Corporate here in the cities. Guess what the buzz there has been?

What?

I'm anti-GMO and Monsanto. Most farmer's aren't but I consider them a vested interest who make a living from this stuff as well. So I don't think their position is objective and they're not nutritionists. No offense intended to any of them. My daughter's aunts and uncles are in this camp and they're good people.