Posted on 06/06/2013 6:33:04 AM PDT by Renfield
Countdown to Monsanto defenders & HMO lovers......
They’ll be here in 3...2...1...
“But but but think of all the starving children Monsanto has saved!” says the Monsanto bootlicker. “Monsanto ended world hunger?” I reply. “No,” says the crony capitalist lover, “But it would be a lot worse without Monsanto!” “Really? Wouldn’t it be better, and actually follow conservative principles, if we stopped paying farmers to dump milk and not plant fields? Couldn’t we also stop sending money and food to third-world dictators so that their subjects would feel the need to rise up Funding Fathers’ style and end their own problems?” Says the Monsanto fan to me, “Ron Paul lover!”
*I can’t stand Ron Paul, but that’s a catchy comeback for them.
I guess I would want to know whether he was feeding them fishmeal and GMO soybeans before and just switched to the non-GMO to get the effect?
Or did he add in fishmeal and was that the confounding effect?
It’s the people who work with the animals who know best. Always. If this turns out to be true, and not an anti-gmo nut, then people really need to be taking a hard look!
I would suggest sticking with Ford!
“The widespread illnesses were burdening the farm with extra costs, including medical costs to deal with rampant stomach problems. Following 12 months of GM-free feed, Mr Pederson now uses half of the national average of antibiotics, compared to above average usage prior to the feed conversion. The savings made by reducing medicinal use by two-thirds was sufficient to cover the extra expense of GM-free feed which has totalled 28,500 DKr. Further, with an extra 1.8 piglet weaned per sow, and 12 less sows dying from stomach problems per year, the farm is making an extra profit of 250,000 DKr a year, translating to roughly an extra £55 per sow.”
Capitalism at work!
Of course we’ll be here. This is FreeRepublic, not some site for kneejerk leftie corporation bashing.
There is a wonderful conservative solution for those who are hysterical about Monsanto, though. If they don’t like their products, then they can not buy them.
You are correct. Taken at face value, this is not a valid experiment from which to draw conclusions. "Change one variable at a time", i.e., add fishmeal to GM soybean, and/or replace GM soybean with non-GM soybean with no other changes.
HuH?
marked for later
Easier said than done.
I think some of what we are doing in our food growing, processing and delivery systems need to be examined closely. If testing GMO against non GMO products to see if provable differences exist in health and production in farming operations, why not do the testing?
How easy would it be for those wishing to create harm, do so by messing with our food systems? Not necessarily profit motivated, but with other goals in mind?
When things go from science to dogma, it creates doubt in any rational examiner as to the data being presented. To me, it would seem natural that a crop which is designed to be resistant to a pesticide regimen and is heavy coated with that pesticide would naturally contain that same pesticide in some amount especially in animal feed. And it seems to be contrary to logic to feed animals an herbicide and expect no reaction from the animals.
So there appears to be multiple vectors in this study; is the genetic modification the actual difference? Supposedly it is less nutritious; that would be an issue. Did the pigs get a far lower dose of herbicides and pesticides due to the change? And how much of an effect did the extra nutrition from the fish meal change all of this?
It would seem to me that it would not be hard at all to conceive and implement actual testing of this theory. Three populations of pigs, each given a very specific feed, and see what the difference is. According to the farmer, the results of the change were dramatic once the switch was made, so it doesn't even sound like it'd be a long study.
I suspect I know what the various results would be, but would certainly welcome a surprise.
I am no fan of GMO foods but I want them to stand or fall with decent data.
Hmmm, you know...maybe we should just let God do that...
Danish farmer? I thought GM plants were pretty much banned in Europe. The EU could not compete with the product so they smeared and banned.
“why not do the testing?”
If you’re worried, then do the testing. This is not any kind of test, though, this is just anecdotal fluff that can’t be verified. Get a control group and controlled environment, follow proper methodology, and then show us the GMO stuff is actually bad. Otherwise, it’s just hysteria.
For this accomplishment they have received exactly what they sought: money.
You don't like the methods, you don't like the crops.
Fine.
Buy a farm and grow ones you like, or buy from a supplier that you do like.
I'm not sure what farm subsidies have to do with this - supporters of farm subsidies would argue (in my opinion falsely) that the subsidies are the only things enabling them to compete with Monsanto.
If they went away, Monsanto would survive.
While we can debate the merits of ending the international grain trade, food shortages do not cause people to "rise up Funding [sic] Fathers' style" - the Founding Fathers did not take up arms because they were hungry.
In fact, they would probably have been more worried about food than suffrage if they were hungry. It was their prosperity that enabled them to sustain the long war.
BTW when an article begins with "...A Danish farmer has gained huge public recognition.. you pretty much can appreciate what the point was all along.
...ya do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around...
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