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http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/articl...al+harvest
Interesting read .... the bad news - the end of the romantic sugar cane era
The good news ... Dow Agrow is taking over the land for corn seed production.
Nothing mentioned about genetically altered seeds, yeah or nee. Maybe in next weeks paper
http://www.dowagro.com/usag/corncentral/
edit = added link to dow corn
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All their seeds are modified to some degree. They could be hybrids, GMO, or even chemically enhanced.
The question is this just a production seed farm or a test site for new GMO or chemically enhanced seeds?
A seed production farm, as distasteful or worrisome as some may see it, is just another legitimate business. They passed the EPA requirements for production and they are required to have controls in place. This would be just like a company who manufactures pesticides.
A test field is another issue. The seeds have passed the laboratory and lab-rat phase and have moved to the uncontrolled environmental test. These fields are having problems on the mainland. Farmers, ranchers, and communities are reluctant to allow what basically is a "let's see if bad things happen when we take it out of a lab". It would be like the pesticide manufacture completing the lab studies and is now spraying it in fields to see if anyone gets sick or something bad happens when no longer in a controlled laboratory setting.
Which it is, is a question someone should provide.
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Dow Agro is another Monsanto (or wannabe). I have some real issues with this industry and their practices. It's literally unnatural.
-Blake
http://www.theboysgreatescape.blogspot.com/
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a142ry4nNfNM&refer=home
Here they are through bloomberg. Islands are such perfect testing areas for this technology.
.... Its wild their marketing website talks about genetically "building" tough corn for the tough farmer very jurastic (sp?) park ish in a way.
In spite of guarantees, the gene modifications have expressed in "pure" seed stock... good or bad ... its getting out of the pen.
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"...many people may not realize that corn seed is now the top crop in the state. The seed industry has hit the $100 million mark, surpassing pineapple and sugar."
http://www.kitv.com/news/16803083/detail.html
And that was over a year ago! I never realized corn (seed) was so big here.
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The tragedy is that agricultural land has basically been turned into an agri-business test tube. Every time an acre of agricultural land goes out of production in Hawaii, the state loses an another acre to feed its people. Hawaii needs to reduce its food importants, make its own milk, eat its own papayas and avocados and its own sugar and pineapples. Go to the farmer's markets. Check those boxes. Mexico????!!! That is insane.
This is the fault of a government that thinks of itself as an adjunct of the mainland, rather than an important experiment in independent living, through local production.
This is a loss. Grow food locally. Cut out the mega-middleman. This is a step in the wrong direction.
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My issues with this are with the subsidies for corn (a subject for another discussion) and the fact that farmers are losing control of their business. Before long it will be illegal to plant anything because some company owns the rights to the seeds. Then there is the fact that science is playing with our foods. Where is Fitz when I need him :-)
-Blake
http://www.theboysgreatescape.blogspot.com/
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From the Bloomberg report:
"The U.S. planted 73 percent of this year's [corn] crop with seeds produced from biotechnology, up from 61 percent last year, the USDA estimates."
Looks like the Luddites are too late.
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This corn isn't grown to eat. In fact, most of ut us inedible. It's grown to make that crap they put everything: high fructose corn syrup.
Buy local.
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And feed cattle which fattens them up but is not good for them. E coli does not exist in grass fed cattle ya know. And now they are feeing corn to fish. So it is in the food chain no matter how you look at it even if you avoid crap like high fructose corn syrup. This is what I referred to about corn subsidies. It is a major health concern.
-Blake
http://www.theboysgreatescape.blogspot.com/
