Some of you guys are so much smarter than I am

[mikey2much]

Hi guys,

Every now and then I get to reading these threads and I find myself being so impressed by the amount of knowledge that is available on this site. Myself I am a high school drop out and find myself humbley admitting to myself that you guys are smarter than I am.
Tonight I watched a movie that has me thinking that I would love to hear your opionions on the subject. The movie was, "The Future Of Food"

It talks about the way our government has pushed for the acceptence of genetically mosified foods.

Few movies have ever scared me this much.

Have any of you seen the movie? If so what did you think, I mean is it really as bad as they say it is? If it is, what can we do to stop it?

The movie gives a website. I haven't checked it out yet but will as soon as I post this. The site is www.thefutureoffood.com

This movie is time well spent, we need to know about this and we don't.

mikey

 

[R. Richard]

I haven't seen the film. However, I know a great deal about gentically modified foods.

Since man first began to plant and harvest food [as opposed to gathering,] man has genetically modified food. Early on some real genius discovered that, if you planted seeds from large, desirable food, the next crop would contain more of the large, desirable food. This process went on for some time and the results are now almost all of the food we eat.

Other real geniuses found that certain food plants did well in specific conditions [climate too hot/cold, climate too dry/wet, soil too salty, etc.] The genius planted the seed from the food that was best and the next crop would contain more of the good stuff. This process went on for some time and the results are now much of the food the world eats [the US frequently changes the conditions, not the plants.]

BIG DANGER!
There are relatively few food plants that actually produce commercial food. If something wipes out those plants, we are in big trouble.

When I lived in San Diego, I met a guy who ran a most unusal farm. He raised food crops that nobody wanted to eat. Even if people wanted to eat the food plants, the crop yields were so low that the crop could never be commercially viable [he made out only because of government subsidy.]

What the guy did was to raise a crop and select average yield and save the seed from those plants. He then swapped same seeds with other people who did the same thing.

Why he did this is illustated by some corn he raised. The corn was found in an isolated valley in Mexico and is probably pretty close to the first wild corn the Amerinds found when they got to the new world. The ears are tiny and the stuff is long on tough and short on taste. However, someday a disease will attack the commercial types of corn and they will breed back in the small, tough little corn this guy raises. Then the little, tough corn plants will stand tall and help the world survive the 'corn blight' [or whatever.]

Now, science has found ways to go way beyond what farmers have been doing for the last several milennia. However, there will always be guys raising the 'old style' for the reasons I outlined.

 

[mikey2much]

RR I can always count on you

Hi RR,

This film was more about how the government has been used by Monsanto to bring about a revolution in how we farm. They talk about the native corn that you are telling me about and how the farmers down there will plant their crops next to where the wild corn grows so that they can get some of the toughness of the wild breed. Later they tell about how that same corn had become geneticly crossed with the stuff that monsanto is pushing.

But it is mostly about the politics and how it was forced on people who did not want it. It is well worth the time it takes to watch it. I hope that you can find it and see it for yourself. I would like to here how you might see it through your eyes.
What if we were on the same side in something.
Roxanne and pure would be next.
thanks for the post,
mikey

 

[jomar]

Myself I am a high school drop out and find myself humbley admitting to myself that you guys are smarter than I am.

Stop. I have not read this thread but want to, I don't know, say stop. Listen, the higher education is the process of learning more and more about less and less until you finally know nothing at all. Schooling had nothing to do with smarts. So stop it.

 

[mikey2much]

I didn't say I was stupid, I just said you guys were smart

Stop. I have not read this thread but want to, I don't know, say stop. Listen, the higher education is the process of learning more and more about less and less until you finally know nothing at all. Schooling had nothing to do with smarts. So stop it.

I was hopeing to get you guys who can really 'fly' your computers to check into this thing and tell me what you thought. I know what you are saying, and I agree with you about the higher education. It seems to me that you almost lose your soul there if you are not careful.

But this food thing hits pretty close to home since I love to eat. But I thank you for your kind words.
mikey
PS When I say guys, I am including the ladies also.

 

[R. Richard]

Hi RR,

This film was more about how the government has been used by Monsanto to bring about a revolution in how we farm. They talk about the native corn that you are telling me about and how the farmers down there will plant their crops next to where the wild corn grows so that they can get some of the toughness of the wild breed. Later they tell about how that same corn had become geneticly crossed with the stuff that monsanto is pushing.

But it is mostly about the politics and how it was forced on people who did not want it. It is well worth the time it takes to watch it. I hope that you can find it and see it for yourself. I would like to here how you might see it through your eyes.
What if we were on the same side in something.
Roxanne and pure would be next.
thanks for the post,
mikey

Mikey:
If you want to meet real conservatives, talk to farmers. A farmer never wants to be the first guy to try something new, the danger of crop failure is too high. However, once a few guys have been bribed into trying the 'latest and greatest,' every farmer in the area wants the 'new, high yield seed.' There are two factors in the farmers decision. First, farmers like big profits [no shit, RR, where did you come up with such marvelous insight?] Second, farmers realize that they can't make a living if their crops yield 50 bushels per acre and the next field down is yielding 100 bushels per acre.

The 'forced upon' process usually goes through several steps.
1) I aint gonna' try no wild idea some college kid from the state ag bureau thought up.
2) Old Clyde, gettin 100 bushels per acre, where the hell did you hear that?
3) Mr. tractor man is it true that old Clyde came in here and bought hisself a damn new six row tractor?
4) Heyull yayus, Cletus, I done planted that there new seed the college kid from the state ag bureau been talkin' up. Do it work? Have you seen my brand new six row tractor?
5) Ol' John so dumb he still plantin' the old 50 bushels per acre stuff. You gotta' wonder how a guy that dumb survives.

 

[mikey2much]

No,RR, this is something else all together

One thing that happens in the movie is this.
A farmer in canada has grown with his own seeds for generations. I mean by this that he saves seeds that he, himself has grown. A truck goes by on the road by his fields with a torn tarp that should be covering his grain. Some of the grain blows out onto the farmer fields. Later Monsanto comes by and tells this farmer that he has monsanto's genes in his grain and that they want him to have to pay them for it. He refuses to pay so they take him to court and make him destroy all the seed that he saved from the last ten years.

It shows others who settled with monsanto but are not allowed to talk about it under penalty of law.

Thes are smart sucessful farmer who have been fucked over by big business.

The movie is full of facts and seems to be telling a story that every american should know about.
mikey

 

[amicus]

Nice Post, RR...but Mikey two shoes in an alt for one of the 'usual suspects' here, baiting you, and others...for political purposes...

amicus

 

[mikey2much]

What?

Nice Post, RR...but Mikey two shoes in an alt for one of the 'usual suspects' here, baiting you, and others...for political purposes...

amicus

Are you talking about the movie baiting me or am I missing something?

I wached two movies this week, one was 'This movie is not ratet', it was about how the movies are censored. The other movie was 'The future of food'.

Both showed how the laws that effect us are so secret that we don't even know that they are happening. Did you know that Judge Thomas had worked for Monsanto before he went to the supreme court? Where just after he arrived he helped change the law so that living things could recieve a patent.

You maybe knew this, I didn't. The leaders of the FDA have come from Monsanto before major rulings that have changed the way farming is done.

This movie is an education in how government and big business have worked together to take away the safety net that used to protect us from the greed of big business.

I would've thought that you would have had something to tell us all about this issue.

mikey