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A comment on Monsanto Owns Us: The Monopoly of Seeds and Intellectual Property Rights. Parent comment

Re:Monsanto Owns Us: The Monopoly of Seeds and Intellectual ... by mcv on Sunday March 16, 2014 @05:22PM (#7411352)
> However, those varieties are just extremely unlikely to be as consistently high-yielding as the latest commercial varieties.

Are GMO crops really consistently high yielding? I've heard of some statistics that showed this wasn't actually the case. I don't have any source at hand, but I recall reading that in Europe, where GMO crops are far more restricted than in the US, crop yields actually grew faster over the past decades than in the US, where GMO crops are common.

Also, monoculture makes your crop awfully vulnerable to new diseases. Genetic diversity is much more robust.

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Re:Monsanto Owns Us: The Monopoly of Seeds and Intellectual ... by manicdee on Sunday March 16, 2014 @05:49PM (#7411524)
Generally speaking, GMO crops are lower-yielding than heirloom varieties, unless you apply the requisite fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides. With the addition of those chemicals the GMO crops perform better since they are more tolerant of excess nutrients, and better able to convert the excess nutrients into the desired product.
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Re:Monsanto Owns Us: The Monopoly of Seeds and Intellectual ... by mcv on Monday March 17, 2014 @04:46AM (#7413866)
So if you want to reduce reliance on chemicals (which I do), then GMOs are a bad idea?

Personally I'm a big fan of projects that use more natural ways of fighting weeds and pests. I've read about some very effective programs that reduced pests by planting a specific plant around the crop fields, or (re)introducing a predator of that pest.

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Re:Monsanto Owns Us: The Monopoly of Seeds and Intellectual ... by onetimeonly on Monday March 17, 2014 @05:51PM (#7418358)
What do you mean by chemicals? all food production uses chemicals.

If you want to reduce monoculture, then monoculture is a bad idea :)

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Re:Monsanto Owns Us: The Monopoly of Seeds and Intellectual ... by mrerrormessage on Sunday March 16, 2014 @09:02PM (#7412251)
Maybe someone could research and patent a fungus or virus that only attacks roundup-ready plants? I wonder how much Monsanto would pay to bury that...
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