Subject: Re: Roundup and genetics

From: Jack Rowe <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 12:12:24 -0400

Our friends at Monsanto chemical company (makers of Roundup herbicide) are
doing more than taking a merely passive approach to creating
genetically-engineered disasters. Monsanto is not just a chemical company
-- it is also one of the largest seed companies in the world, following a
trend over the last 3 - 4 decades of chemical companies buying-out seed
companies. The interaction between seeds and chemicals is clear to
Monsanto, who makes both agricultural toxins and chemical fertilizers. Just
ONE of their recent genetic-engineering coups: a cotton plant which can
survive more than twice the previously-toxic levels of Roundup, so that
farmers can use ever-more of the persistent herbicide in a vain attempt to
keep apace with weeds' increasing resistance to the "drug". As many of
those who lived through the 60's and 70's know too well, addictive need
increases faster than physical tolerance -- hence overdose. Too bad that
humans, frogs, etc. don't build resistances to these agricultural "drugs"
as quickly as the weeds and insect pests do! Overdose time!

Some quotes of interest, taken from the most recent Seeds of Texas Seed
Exchange's member's Directory:

"While insecticide use increased tenfold since the 1940’s, crop losses to
insects doubled..." Pimental, et al, 1983.

"In North and Central America, cotton production is seri-ously threatened
by the worst record of superpests of any crop worldwide... resistant to
chlorinated hydrocarbons, organophosphates, and carbamates, and fast
becoming resistant to pyrethroids..." Piper and Soule, ‘91

“The chemical DDE, a breakdown product of DDT [banned in 1969], was still
found in about 40 percent of the food sampled from US grocery shelves in
1983”... Fenner, 1984.

"In California alone, 22 different pesticides have been detected in
groundwater as a result of normal agricultural practices..." Alternative
Agriculture, 1989, National Re-search Council.

Wish us luck!! Jack