Posted on 02/25/2011 5:31:05 PM PST by bronxville
Monday, February 21, 2011
Scientists warn of link between dangerous new pathogen and Monsanto’s Roundup
Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
A plant pathologist experienced in protecting against biological warfare recently warned the USDA of a new, self-replicating, micro-fungal virus-sized organism which may be causing spontaneous abortions in livestock, sudden death syndrome in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy, and wilt in Monsanto’s RR corn.
Dr. Don M. Huber, who coordinates the Emergent Diseases and Pathogens committee of the American Phytopathological Society, as part of the USDA National Plant Disease Recovery System, warned Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that this pathogen threatens the US food and feed supply and can lead to the collapse of the US corn and soy export markets. Likewise, deregulation of GE alfalfa “could be a calamity,” he noted in his letter (reproduced in full below).
On January 27, Vilsack gave blanket approval to all genetically modified alfalfa. Following orders from President Obama, he also removed buffer zone requirements. This is seen as a deliberate move to contaminate natural crops and destroy the organic meat and dairy industry which relies on GM-free alfalfa. Such genetic contamination will give the biotech industry complete control over the nation’s fourth largest crop. It will also ease the transition to using GE-alfalfa as a biofuel.[...]
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=nDs6otWyLpk&feature=related
http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/daily_updates/article_e589627c-9996-11df-9e96-001cc4c03286.html
etc etc
Monsanto also produces seeds which grow into plants genetically engineered to be tolerant to glyphosate, which are known as Roundup Ready crops. The genes contained in these seeds are patented. Such crops allow farmers to use glyphosate as a post-emergence herbicide against most broadleaf and cereal weeds. Soy was the first Roundup Ready crop, and was produced at Monsanto's Agracetus Campus located in Middleton, Wisconsin.
(Post emergence herbicide = sprayed on leafy plant)
Read all about it here: Roundup Herbicide
Really. They spray the crops. Often.
I hear you. I find that I’m more worried about the people who ignore the problem, because not only will they want a handout later, because they didn’t see it coming, but they tend to be the ones who have an entitlement mentality later. As I talked to a friend today, he asked if I thought things would get bad fast or slow. I told him I think they’re bad and will vacillate from bad to worse over and over, but that it’d probably be accurate to never experience a lifestyle that was prevalent in the last century. After WW2, most of the world’s manufacturing base was destroyed and the U.s. could sell anything, because someone was willing to buy. As other countries have developed infrastructure, they won’t be willing to trade their labor for our resources at such an unfavorable exchange rate.
We’ve been essentially subsidized by the Chinese through bailouts etc. I don’t see it happening again, and I think the people of the U.S. will have to learn to live within their means, which may be well below the level of their comfort. A domestic energy plan (drill here and build nuclear plants) would help, but people have to go back to old fashioned work, not a service society. At least, that’s what I believe to be the case.
Maybe we should be calling for necropsies on the aborted calves to see what exactly killed them?
All I ask is some scientific sources for this purported “new organism.”
I repeat that this would be the biggest biology news in decades, an entirely new form of life! Yet the good doctor just mentions it in passing as convenient ammo in his campaign against the evils of GMO. This is absolutely not the way any real scientist would address the issue.
I would gladly bet a significant sum that the Dr. Don M. Huber of Purdue did not write this letter.
With all due respect, that is patently false. The entire “Roundup Ready” line of crops was produced to be sprayed by Roundup, and be the only crop to make it through the process. And if you didn’t know that, you may be even more surprised, that they have been working on (I don’t know if they acheived it yet or not) making crop that cannot germinate, EXCEPT in the PRESENCE of Roundup. Feel free to research more on the topic.
See my post at #68. If I read correctly, other have stated that they thought it was a hoax, and if I read correctly, the USDA has confirmed receipt of the letter, as reported by Reuters. I may have misread, but I think that’s accurate.
Ah yes, the infamous "Terminator Gene". By far one of, if not the, stupidist thing ever created by man. This one will bite us in the ass and hard.
More about the terminator gene here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/465222.stm
There are hundreds of links to this guy but most of them are pretty much the same because this story has gone viral.
However, this link takes you to a page that has several links to his papers on other Roundup subjects and it is obvious that he has a hate on for Roundup and apparently has devoted a lot of time to discrediting it on various levels.
The fact that he has all of those degrees and holds an exalted position in the academic world does not mean that he could not be another Goddard (NASA Global Warming hoax).
Nor does it mean that he is.
This is talking about Roundup-ready plants, not Roundup itself.
So it looks like there’s a virus that infects certain plants AND cattle. I’d never heard of any virus like this before. It would be even scarier if the virus infected people. Is there a doctor or veterinarian in the house?
Yeah, dittos. If not for Roundup, I wouldn't have a yard.
Not to quibble about it, but I wasn’t referring to the terminator gene. The terminator gene was their second stage (Roundup Ready being the first), the terminator gene produced sterile offspring, so seed must be bought each and every planting. However, after that, Monsanto began to work on a new gene, that the seeed must not only be purchased anew each year, but you have to buy Roundup and spray it, or it won’t germinate, if that gets into the supply, there may be seed everywhere, but we’ll have to buy the Roundup to get it to grow, perhaps worse than the Terminator Genes, if “worse” is even possible (at least with only onw abomination, you know the ones that do sprout should produce more viable offspring—since it did germinate the second go around, in the other case, you have no idea what to expect). That having been said, I agree with you no matter the case, It’s going to bite us and hard. A while back everyone was saying that God would punish us for genetic manipulation (of this type, selective breeding is a whole other story). It could be the case that He merely allows us to punish ourselves!
That is not the basic reason for the terminator gene.
Its purpose is to make the seed of the crop sterile so farmers will have to purchase all seed from Monsanto, thus assuring that their patent is not violated.
Oops, make that a virus sized fungus. I guess that could be the fungus among us, couldn’t it?
I’ve just read it JDW - thank you. I was looking it up to check for fraud while you were already posting your much more informative info. I’m leaning towards the -> I just got punked by the greenies scenario however we’ll have to wait and see.
Just a technicality Red, but it’s referring to what they think is a fungus, the size of a virus.
I’m willing to be convinced, but have been unable to find anything, on a scientific site rather than a nut-nut site, about this most remarkable discovery of an entirely new type of life.
The posts on this thread are quite instructive. When people want to believe something, because it reinforces a pre-existing world view, their normal BS detectors just shut down.
This is why liberals are so anxious to accept AGW as fact rather than theory. If true, it means we must turn all power in the world over to them. Or they think that’s what it means, anyway.
Apparently quite a few freepers are equally anxious to believe in a government/industry conspiracy to destroy our food supply.
As I said, I’m willing to be convinced, but I’d like to see something resembling evidence, not just a letter purportedly written by “a real scientist,” with no real evidence he even wrote it. Even if the real Dr. Huber wrote this letter, it’s still not evidence that the claims in it are true.
Certainly several of the references in the article to Dr. Huber’s background are inaccurate. Which casts considerable doubt on the rest of the article.
It’s a mushrooming problem, isn’t it? (duck’n & runn’n)
I never know what to believe these days. There’s virtually no one left to trust anymore. Let me know if you find anything, while I try to scour for the facts, there’s so much garbage to wade through. Thanks for your insight, it’s nice to know there are people thinking! :)
I’d certainly think there’s evidence of government/industry incompetence and bumbling.
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