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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Devil Monsanto, or Combating Scientific Ignorance: CRISPR Responsibly!
 
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Inaction Jackson
Feb 28, 2009

Dr Creflo A Dollar posted:

Nobody's forcing farmers to buy Monsanto seed, and farmers almost always buy their seed at the beginning of the season anyway.
Yeah, I think that a rational debate over potential problems with Monsanto's business practices needs to focus on information asymmetry. If farmers want to collect and re-plant seeds, then they can buy non-patented seeds. If farmers understand the benefits of a GMO seed and want to pay for the better product, it's pretty silly for us to act as if they are being forced to do anything.

Maybe an issue exists with farmers buying a GMO seed and either not understanding or never being told potential susceptibilities of the GMO plant. Or maybe being told untrue benefits. I have no idea if either has happened on a large scale, but that would be a good place to start if people want to demonstrate unethical behavior from Monsanto and/or push for regulations on how Monsanto sells their seeds.

* # ¿ Jun 27, 2013 18:11
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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 06:57
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Inaction Jackson
Feb 28, 2009

karthun posted:

Even information asymmetry doesn't make sense. We have land grant colleges that publish thousands of crop trials free to the public every year. We have county extension offices that hold conference's every winter to show farmer's new best practices. I am not buying that somehow monsanto is able to falsify peer-reviewed research at our land geant colleges.
Yeah that's not really what I was saying could potentially happen. Even if the information is being published here, it's still possible for a farmer to be unaware of it or to be oversold on what it means. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that Monsanto has both more access to information and a better technical understanding of that information than your average farmer globally.

But I'm also not saying that Monsanto is definitely exploiting that information asymmetry. I'm just saying that the anti-GMO crowd needs to demonstrate that this is a problem or else their arguments that act as if farmers don't have the option to buy non-patented seeds are nonsense. That could even be a really good area for talking about consumer protection in developing economies. Even then, Monsanto's actions would not be nearly as insidious as some make them out to be.

* # ¿ Jun 27, 2013 19:37
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > The Devil Monsanto, or Combating Scientific Ignorance: CRISPR Responsibly!