Must see movie

[Paul Schrimpf]

Didn't mean to insult anybody, but as I said, I did not think I could convince any of the posters here of anything. Just to respond to a couple things...

- Of course Monsanto is in it because it's profitable. Bottom line is, it's good technology that's kept millions of pounds of pesticides out of the environment. That is something that they SHOULD do.

- When I talk about corn and soybeans, I am talking about 120 million acres of farmland in the midwest. It's just not possible to meet the food needs of the country, let alone the world, without "conventional" farming, including use of pesticides and biotech seed.

- I think we should have as much organic available as the market will bear. Demand is good and going up, and that's a good thing ... altho, I'm kind of waiting for the organic movement to segregate itself into the "real" organic movement and the "corporate" organic movement, but that's the price of success, I guess.

- Buying local is not only good for local economies, but patriotic as well ... uses less fuel, supports local farming, etc. Biotech is not at all at play in that discussion.

- Glyhosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, degrades rapidly to water. This is one of its main appeals ... very low environmental impact.

- I could only find one study, from 2000, on bees and biotech. Who's done the studies and where are they accessible?

- Affect on bees, as well as many other organisms, are integral parts of the registration process for any new chemicals being introduced on the market. In fact, EPA went back and re-registered all "older" chemistries, including some they banned (dursban and diazinon to name two). So chemicals have been checked and double checked. It takes on average 10 years and $50 million to bring a new chemical to market, which means it better work and it better be "safe." So, in fact everything introduced by the chemical companies today is, by law, "bee friendly."

Again, I will acknowledge that it's not perfect and there have been problems. But it's good stuff.

Paul