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Monsanto's Cruel, and Dangerous, Monopolization on American Farming (2008)

96 points · 38 comments · kamaraju

  1. KennyBlanken · · focus · HN ↗
    I can't wait for all the usual Monsanto fanboys to start popping up with comments that show how wildly ignorant they are, with comments like "we need this tech to feed everyone!"

    1)Hunger is entirely artificial and is a problem of US farm bill policy and trade policy (not to mention using food to produce fuel that provides less energy than the energy required to grow it.) We pay farmers to grow and then till the food into the ground. Or to ship it to a warehouse where it rots. Massive amounts of food are thrown away by supermarkets. The list goes on.

    2)European farmers, who cannot use Roundup or a large swath of other pesticides and herbicides, *have greater per-acre productivity.

    1. opo · · focus · HN ↗
      >2)European farmers, who cannot use Roundup or a large swath of other pesticides and herbicides, *have greater per-acre productivity.

      That depends on what crop you are talking about and the reasons have more nuance than you are implying. In terms of corn, the USA averages almost 50% higher productivity per acre (174 to 120 bushels).

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;farmdocdaily.illinois.edu&#x2F;2020&#x2F;11&#x2F;the-changing-distribution-of-world-corn-production-in-the-21st-century.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;farmdocdaily.illinois.edu&#x2F;2020&#x2F;11&#x2F;the-changing-distr...

      On the other hand, I have read that Europe has higher productivity per acre for wheat.

      On both of these crops, the differences at least partially are due to the climate differences between the two regions.

    2. lithocarpus · · focus · HN ↗
      Not to detract from your point that chemicals are not necessary for high food production.

      But just to point out that Europe does use glyphosate, on something like 1&#x2F;3 of crops.

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.3390&#x2F;su12145682" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.3390&#x2F;su12145682 Antier et al. (2020) Glyphosate Use in the European Agricultural Sector and a Framework for Its Further Monitoring, Sustainability, 12(14), 5682.

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