I guess they've never heard of George Takei... he tips The Facebook everyday.

Fair enough, but concerning BT Cotton in India, the usage of pesticide overall has stayed fairly steady, again http://ppqs.gov.in/IpmPesticides.htm . The growth trend of Indian cotton planting was already started a few years before BT Cotton, so it's impossible to say whether non-GE crops with traditional pesticide would have been just as successful. I however think that it would have been just as successful - given the higher prices that BT cotton commands, and the small difference in pesticide usage required in the long term.

I stand corrected on Huber and Séralini - however Huber's 2005 study on Mn soil depravation still stands as far as I know.

I must say that GMO crops have been successful and very safe. Certainly it has fed a generation of people and besides a small percentage of allergins it has shown itself to be a highly viable crop. I still say however that it is perilous to develop into a mono-crop culture - even at the expense of a small yield difference it would be far safer to sustain a multitude of crop species.

I can't agree with you on Monsanto however - I still say that they have a history of societal and environmental abuse which will takes years to overcome in my mind. The farmers I know have serious questions on the long-term viability of GE crops considering the retreat and growth of pesticide usage. Only time will tell.

Agribusiness should still encourage a variety and breadth of growing, cultivation, species and scientific inquiry. We can't depend on a handful of companies to always get it right. Monsanto may be the best or worst company in the world - but disasters are inevitable.

Thanks for the discussion, I have learned much!

I'd like to also add that GMO technology isn't the only game in town. In the near future robotic and smarter technological cultivation may be far cheaper, effective and safe than furthering the genetic war on weeds and pests. One of my original hesitations of some GMO technologies has been the unintended consequences which may reduce our ability to produce the food necessary for future generations.

Lastly I stand by my statement that Monsanto is not a good corporate citizen. While I think they have made valuable contributions - they have also shown a clear history of intent to monopolize markets, to profit at the expense of ethics and safety, and to manipulate the proper oversight and standards process which protect consumers.

More on this here:
http://corporatecrime.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/monsanto-lies-again-and-again-and-again/

Fair enough - and I certainly support your skeptical point of view. One would be remiss to NOT fact check.

That said, I consider my point of view on Monsanto to be informed. You may or may not choose to agree - but there are certain points which are troubling for me.

To answer your quotes, I've tried to use neutral news - but I admit that some of these sources are biased.

Corporate evil is nothing new - my first exposure was the Bhopal disaster.
Concerning BT Cotton - well - that rosy success is turning out to be a washout. The Maharashta government has had to bailout the cotton industry, and studies are showing that BT Cotton is depleting the soil of minerals (Roundup chelates minerals, making them metabolically unavailable for some period of time).
http://digitaljournal.com/article/321958

In fact Monsanto said themselves that BT cotton has failed in India for bollworm protection.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Bt+cotton+has+failed+admits+Monsanto/1/86939.html

And also the usage of pesticide in Indian BT cotton has returned to normal levels after the initial lowering.
http://indiagminfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Bt-Cotton-False-Hype-and-Failed-Promises-Final.pdf
(see section CONSUMPTION OF PESTICIDES IN VARIOUS STATES DURING THE LAST FIVE YEARS 2005-06 to 2009-10 )
http://ppqs.gov.in/IpmPesticides.htm

Yes - those are problems, but problems that are solvable with traditional cultivation. My main concern with Roundup is the reduction in essential and rare minerals in foodcrop, thus requiring remediation and supplements. I'm concerned that there may be long-term effects in human and animal health.
http://www.agweb.com/assets/import/files/58P20-22.pdf

I also think that the most important research performed by Princeton's Dr. Huber deserves scientific evaluation. He is a true expert and has made some striking claims on the danger of Roundup-ready crops. Perhaps this is somewhat biased, but his resume is certainly impeccable.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1161030109000628
And an overview of Dr. Huber's presentation
http://www.greenpasture.org/fermented-cod-liver-oil-butter-oil-vitamin-d-vitamin-a/dr-huber-and-the-impact-of-glyphosate-in-the-food-chain/
And Monsanto's rebuttal:
http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/huber-pathogen-roundup-ready-crops.aspx

There are plenty of good GE seeds!! I think there are specific problems with some glyphosate-ready crops and neonicotinoid-treated seeds (which are being linked to CCD in bees). That said - the big seed companies are phasing out Non-GMO seeds and farmers are finding it difficult to buy them in the quantities or at prices to be profitable.
http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/jul08/non-gmo_soybean_seed.php

Sure - there's plenty of rhetoric. Lots of bad and ill-informed rhetoric. But there's plenty of unresolved issues and questions.

First off - pesticide usage has been increasing according to a study of USDA usage reports. This is raising costs and increasing the prevalence of residual pesticides into the grain supply. This isn't a Monsanto-specific problem, but they are a major supplier and should answer to the growing trend.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2009/1221/More-herbicide-use-reported-on-genetically-modified-crops

Secondly - I don't feel assured that Monsanto responded to the mammalian-organ deaths which were questioned by IJBS study. There are several questions still open in my mind, and yes - I did read Monsanto's responses as well. I would like to see independent university studies attempt to reproduce the results.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/monsantos-gmo-corn-linked_n_420365.html

Lastly, I think that the promotion of crop monocultures (elimination of crop variety and genetic diversity) is a dangerous trend. If there is an epidemic, its effects on that strain of crops would may have a devastating effect on entire harvests and perhaps entire nations would go hungry. This has happened in bananas, maize in Kenya, and other crops.

Concerning the history of Monsanto - I highly question their commitment to ethical practices and their attitudes towards a healthy human population:

The PCB disaster (particularly in Anniston) lasted for over 50 years, resulting in numerous deaths that could have been prevented. They knew the ill-effects for decades and still did not inform or protect workers.
Monsanto was fined $700M http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/business/700-million-settlement-in-alabama-pcb-lawsuit.html

They recently lost another class-action suite in Nitro, WV for $93M concerning their production of dioxins.
http://wvgazette.com/News/201202230090

The illegally sold BT Cotton into some Texas counties, for which they were fined $2.5M by the EPA
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/eeffe922a687433c85257359003f5340/6754b55aaec2aee18525775a0061f90b!OpenDocument

They bribed Indonesian officials and were fined $1.5M:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4153635.stm

Recently the Indian government has begun a suite alleging that Monsanto illegally modified local eggplants without proper permits:
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v30/n1/full/nbt0112-11.html

This is not the history of an ethical company, rather this is the history of a company which puts profits before ethics. Sadly, it is a common problem.
With all that said, the safety of Roundup-ready products has a good 40 year record so far. My primary concerns are really about mineral nutrition and crop biodiversity. I would be happy if the IJBS study was roundly disproven and if Dr. Huber's unpublished studies were properly disproven as well.

Seriously?? If you think Monsanto is somehow an upstanding corporate citizen then you've completely delusion... I'm sorry, but there's not much good about Monsanto. There's no other company that I know of that has to invest in a continuous "why we're really not evil" marketing campaign. Google "Most evil company" and Monsanto comes up as 80% of the results. No - that's not proof - but it certainly is a consensus.

Monsanto is not a food company, they are a pesticide company that makes seed crops to sell more pesticide. Monsanto is potentially creating a host of ecological problem which are much bigger than the original problem of weed and pest management. The number of cases showing weed cross-pollination, GM resistant root worm and farm mismanagement which creates these problems is growing every year.

I have nothing against agribusiness or GMO at all - in fact I think there's fantastic work being done to make better crops. Monsanto is not one of those companies. There are thousands of news articles concerning the twisted nature of Monsanto - go read them.

Well, everyone can get an IPv6 address now through Hurricane Electric. If the kids start using it then everyone else will follow. You don't need to legislate restrictions on technology - only provide the better alternative. Once the pressures of using old tech become higher than switching it will naturally occur.

Charging for IP addresses is a fantastic idea in this regard. So is draconian state wire-tapping. Better to have people walk away in disgust than to feel romantic about the "good old days."

Amen brother! Volcker put a spike in that disinflation vampire heart.

It was certainly painful, it hurt a lot of people. but it made good policy and likely saved us from zombie banking.

I wish *THIS* was the nation's political philosophy - because *THIS* is how our nation can grow and mature.

We should all be opportunistically using every political tool we can to get what we want. Political power in the USA is not wholly concentrated in any one person's hands - but one person can make a big difference when given the purpose and support to do it.

Rand Paul isn't going to eliminate the national debt, bring forth the next apocalypse, or clone Ayn Rand - but give the man enough support to overwhelm the Senate and he can chop the TSA.

I donate to the ACLU, the NRA, and public radio. I'm coaching baseball and I'm also teaching classical violin and piano. It's not all or nothing - it's finding a balance of good. There are 6 billion different opinions in this world - it's impossible to agree with everything - so instead find what you think is good and support it.

We have information from the EPA which concludes that the turning-point for the autism boom started in 1988.

This coincides with the decade when many vaccines distributed were newly manufactured from human fetal tissue rather than chicken, pig and other cell lines. For some diseases there is no other option - the varicella virus will only grow in human tissue. Considering what we know about Kuru, BSE, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and other same-species prion diseases it isn't a big surprise that problems can occur along these lines.

So perhaps some of the vaccines contain DNA/RNA/Prion type impurities which are interfering with the neural stem-cells during development. Or perhaps other types of prions are being propagated through human milk, formula, medical equipment or other vectors. Prions are not destroyed during pasteurization and they can have long-lasting latencies. Most labs won't deal with prions as they are highly resistant to sterilization.