Quote:
Originally Posted by elchivito
They're just stocking up on open pollinated seed in advance of the election. After the "free market" is given it's full rein under the new-and-everlasting-tea-party government, Monsanto will patent every seed they can get their slimy hands on.
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Too coincidental. There's been gloom and doom forecast for a couple presidents now. Why the new rush? There's got to be something more imminent. If I get another one, I'm asking him!
Although if the new and improved Rapture date is 10/21 I suppose they've got to get seed in the ground in order to be able to harvest when the rest of us are wiped out.
FWIW, Monsanto is reeling right now. They had all of their eggs in the Roundup basket. Now that glyphosate is off patent the market has all but crashed. They keep trying to come up with different formulations of the same active ingredient.
Scotts Miracle Gro's Roundup Ready bentgrass and kentucky bluegrass is supposedly near market ready thanks to the
USDA's recent deregulation of RR turfgrass (which is dangerous and ridiculous IMHO) but because of the lower acreages involved, I don't see how Monsanto can wield any where near the control they can (I think that is past-tense now) with the Ag market. I just don't see them flying their legal teams all over the country to verify that golf courses and sod farms are using Roundup brand vs. generic. Although they might just have a deal with Scotts for a royalty for the name and may not care what glyphosate gets used.
A frightening prospect to me is the average homeowner buying Scotts RR lawn seed and dousing their lawns wall to wall with Roundup to get rid of any weeds. What gets me is that the golf course superintendents and the products they use are heavily regulated while Joe Schmo homeowner gets a 10,000 sq.ft bag of product for 5,000 sq.ft. or mixes his lawn chemicals at double the rate because "if a little is good, more must be better."
Many of the seed companies that show up on the Monsanto-owned lists circulating the internet have no connection to Monsanto, many others are merely guilty of selling a (non-GMO) variety from a company that was later bought out by Monsanto back when they had money. Thankfully there are still plenty independent sources for garden seed domestically, and even more internationally if it ever came to that. Unfortunately the choices in the commercial Ag market are far more limited.
But Monsanto is a shell of its former self. No tears shed on my part. They've really f'd things up for the seed industry and a lot of innocent folks have gotten caught up in the anti-Monsanto sentiment.