BA, great post. No need to defend yourself or your credentials. Many of us who posted here have been attacked by Neoliberalnot. His favorite comeback seemed to be an attack on our credentials. “Where do you work?” “Have you ever worked in big ag?”
Where we work doesn’t change the facts. I don’t need to be an astronomer to observe and point out that the sun rises in the east or to read and article and quote the fact that Pluto has five known moons.
I have observed that Neoliberalnot’s last 40 posts were all on this thread. That’s pretty obsessive. If I had to guess why, here are my top guesses:
1. He has major financial ties to Monsanto. Either he works there, he is heavily invested in their stock, he is being paid to defend them, etc.
2. He has been a heavy user of their products and has a deep psychological need to defend that. (Kind of like a sports fanatic who defends bad behavior by his favorite player.)
I am also pro business and anti fascism. I am pro capitalism, but not crony capitalism.
I have great concern for the environment, but would like the EPA disbanded. The EPA does little to protect the environment and does much to play favorites and harass those who don’t pay to play or who are out of political favor.
There is a huge spectrum with totally organic and chemical free agriculture at one end and massively chemical-based at the other. I prefer a common sense balance that leans toward the former end. For example, I don’t believe we should routinely and prophylactically administer antibiotics to livestock, but if an animal gets sick, prudent use of modern medicine is warranted. I would not want to drink the milk of either a diseased cow or one that is on antibiotics. But once the antibiotics are out of her system and she is healthy, the milk is fine.
Nope, I just conservation farm on the side. Having been inolved in the Ag industry most of my life it is easy to see the arm chair critics that have never no-tilled an acre of ground. Where you work simply opens the door on where you attack from—try attacking your own livelihood. I have no stock in Monsanto but have used their glyphosate preparation as well as their competitors. Monsanto manufactures valued products that have revolutionized the industry worldwide.
Everybody has concern for the environment and glyphosate and glyphosate resistant crops, have saved millions of tons of topsoil,reduced pesticide use by millions of gallons, and reduced fuel consumption by millions of gallons.
Finally, someone who works for a benchtop chemist is no expert in production agriculture in my mind, but if lawyers and arm chair experts represent those you would seek advice from, then I question the value of your judgement. Snake oil does have a market.
BTW, all businesses of any size do have lobbies, but the biggest lobbies are government workers, unions, and now illegal aliens.