GM crops and a herd mentality (Round 2)

original-gmwatch

GM crops and a herd mentality (28/2/2007)

We recently drew attention to how a herd mentality can affect the uptake of GM crops not just in the developing world, as shown by the newly published multiyear study of the behaviour of cotton farmers in India, but also in the *developed* world.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7575

In that context we noted how the biotech industry in its promotion of GM crops had abandoned the accepted practice in the US of making new seeds available first to extension agricultural scientists, so they could run controlled trials and advise farmers on their use according to the results. Instead, we noted, the companies had gone direct to the farmers with their PR machines at full throttle. See our comment here
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7575

As we've been asked to clarify this point, we've extracted below the comments of a US Extension Specialist, Chuck Hagedorn, from an article written by land agent Mark Griffiths back in January '99 on some of the performance problems emerging with GM crops in the US.

Note, incidentally, that Hagedorn's belief, when he made his comments in Autumn '98, that once a new Roundup resistant weed emerged it would be enough to sober up USDA has proven hugely over-optimistic - see HERBICIDE RESISTANCE OMINOUS THREAT TO COTTON
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7573

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EXTRACT:

Research publicised in 1998 by the University of Arkansas and the agro-chemical giant Cyanamid (whose sales of residual herbicides have been badly hit by the new broad spectrum herbicide resistant GM varieties) revealed reduced profit levels and lower yields for GM soya and cotton compared with unmodified varieties.
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complete article including links to other sources here

We started a flower and gardening co-op partly as a bulwark against big box crap being sold to home gardeners.

http://www.urbanearthcoop.org/

co-op that has not been gmoed. I hear people all the time talking about how they would not put gmo products in their bodies.

It's all done in the name of big money and fool the sheeples.