Neil Young embraces GMOs to prolong his life, but tries to block benefits for others [Flashback August 11, 2015]

Forbes via geneticliteracyproject.org ^ | August 11, 2015 | Kavin Senapathy

[grundle]

Neil Young: Grammy-award winning musician and GMO-hater?

That’s the clear message from Young’s latest album, released earlier this summer.

“The Monsanto Years,” opens with “A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop.” “Yeah I want a cup of coffee but I don’t want a GMO,” croons Young—and the hypocrisy is rich.

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child, Young’s life depends on insulin which is produced using genetic engineering. Prior to the 1970s, insulin was harvested from the pancreases of slaughtered pigs. Today genetically engineered microbes are used to “manufacture” insulin that’s far safer, more humane and cost-efficient.

“Monsanto, let our farmers grow what they wanna grow,” sings Young. Yet non-organic farmers on large and small farms overwhelmingly maintain that they choose to use GE crops in their fields because of the benefits they provide. After all, a meta-analysis shows that GM technology increased crop yields, reduced pesticide use, and increased farmer profits. Forced to grow these crops against their will? Hardly.

In addition, Young released a YouTube documentary as a follow-up to his album. Titled, “Seeding Fear: The Story of Michael White vs. Monsanto.” “It’s just not morally or economically right to be able to patent anything that reproduces,” White laments in the video. In reality there are thousands of patented plants including organic varieties. The documentary is just emotionally-tinged hype.

Every scientific oversight organization in the world agrees that GMOs are safe and environmentally friendly. Denying the evidence is no better than paranoia. Neil Young, don’t succumb to paranoia. Speak with farmers, mothers, and science advocates. Learn about genetic engineering. And remember—GMOs keep you and millions of other diabetics alive every day.

[grundle]

I absolutely love Buffalo Springfield Again, Deja Vu, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and Tonight's the Night. I disagree with his hypocrisy on GMOs. I'll keep listening to his wonderful music because I love it, and I am against cancel culture.

[billorites]

Are we going to see him smoking a doobie with Joe Rogan anytime soon?

[shadowlands1960]

I agree. I have all of Neils 70s albums on vinyl and they don’t gather dust... also CSNY and Buffalo Springfield. I love listening to Young’s music still.

It’s a ‘love / hate’ sort of thing.. love his music, despise his politics. I have no problem listening to music made by people I disagree with.. if I did, there wouldn’t be much music left to listen to.

[discostu]

There’s not really any hypocrisy there. His problem with GMOs isn’t that they exist, it’s how the business is run. Monsanto puts some pretty awful clauses in their contracts.

[Magnatron]

It’s a ‘love / hate’ sort of thing.. love his music, despise his politics.

Mental illness drives art, whatever the form.

Enjoy what they produce, but don’t expect their ideas to be cogent or be words to live by…

[P-Marlowe]

I’ve see the needle and the damage done.

[FlyingEagle]

He smokes dope every day.

Not a health guy. Brain is probably completely fried.

[dforest]

He truly is a horrible person. He will be easily forgotten as he should be now. Don’t cancel, just turn your back.

[dangus]

As much as I hate much of the anti-GMO nonsense, There’s a difference between using a prescribed GMO for a prescribed medical condition and wanting our basic food chain to be free of GMOs.

[dangus]

>> There’s a difference between using a prescribed GMO for a prescribed medical condition and wanting our basic food chain to be free of GMOs. <<

>>>> He smokes dope every day. <<<<

Now THERE’S your absurd hypocrisy.

[dfwgator]

Stephen Stills was the real talent in CSNY.

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

Winnipeg produced many good things. Things like ‘The Guess Who’, Randy Bachmann, the Jets, etc.

Unfortunately, it also produced bad things, like champagne socialist, Neil Young.

[OrangeHoof]

“A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”

Thanks, Lynnard Skynnard.

[Tell It Right]

My all-time favorite Neil Young song was neither written by him nor recorded by him.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I sang it, including singing his very name. LOL

[RinaseaofDs]

Sweet Home Alabama?

A Southern man don’t need him around, anyhow.

[subterfuge]

How do you know that he smokes weed everyday? I don’t doubt it, just wondering how you know.

[Quentin Quarantino]

Poor old guy is mired in the tar pits of hippie Gaia worship and feeding Moloch’s furnace.

Thus he is, by definition, insane. Insane by choice. Freakin’ goofy freak. He’s hasn’t lived in the real world for 60 years.

However, his best music stands apart and also the test of Time. I don’t think of him when I hear it so much as I think of me and my life while loving the song for its own self.

I don’t do Spotify but for me, it’s Rogan and Young.

Let’s go Brandon!

[1Old Pro]

How do you know that he smokes weed everyday? I don’t doubt it, just wondering how you know.

There's a new documentary on you tube, called something like "The Barn". Before he starts practicing with the band he walks over to the stage and says he needs a smoke and fires up a joint. That tells me he's probably a regular smoker.

[Roadrunner383]

Shut up and play is still pretty good advice for muscians. Starting with the album ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ and going through ‘Live Rust’, there’s not band or artist that can match what Young did in that era IMO.