Post your random thoughts.

I don't like Monsanto because they helped develop rBST which does horrible things to cows. I like cows quite a lot. And yes, I will readily admit I am biased because horrible things happen to other animals and I don't really care. (I never said I was a good person)

And they've been involved with quite a few other nasty products as well, so there's that.

Oh yeah and the whole chemical weapons thing.

@177022: I couldn't find the episode on youtube.

I just sat here yelling at the trope page for The Turnabout Intruder for the past 5 minutes or so.

I should probably stop looking at it...

Phys: There's a clip of it in here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVvUSP5ANRI

Cracked did an article on Jasmine Revolution. I wish I could send it to my history teacher, but giving how she read her emails at school...

I'm sorry, I've skipped the last 4 to 5 pages, what is going on now?

Monsanto does some sketchy things for purely profit-driven reasons. But I hate when the argument that all GMO is bad is backed up with "because Monsanto".

Nah GMOs kick ass, supercorn is amazing.

Fuck Monsanto though.

edited 16th Sep '14 7:41:03 PM by LeGarcon

I'd rather not genetically modify plants to produce one generation of seeds for selling and then stop reproducing so farmers have to buy seeds again, or see Monsanto claim that they had no idea weeds could develop resistance to herbicides when their herbicide-resistant products got the resistance from breeding with naturally resistant strains, but I'm all for any properly vetted way to tinker with the code for bigger yields and more appetizing/healthy for you produce.

It's just what we've been doing with artificial selection, only now we can do it with much less trial and error and generational incrementation.

I disagree with Monsanto's practices, but just hate on GMO because of Monsanto is asinine. I don't find Agent Orange a valid reason to hate Monsanto. By that logic you should also hate Texas Instrument for making the guidance system of the Minuteman missiles and University of California for the nuclear bombs.

"You would like to manage a government agency."

Yes. The pay is absolute crap but I would. Now why would you have that as a question when that isn't even an option in the career choices later on?

I dunno, those missiles and nukes are never meant to be used. Built only for deterrence.

Agent Orange was/is a chemical weapon that was/is used in great quantity and is still causing major health issues in Vietnam to this day.

Hate to bring up Godwin's Law but it's sort of like saying Tesch & Stabenow did nothing wrong. I mean all they did was make a pesticide

There is a Holocaust memorial where the majority of traffic to it was at least at one time mainly graffiti. The company that was contracted to provide the cleaning agent to remove the spray paint turned out to be the company that supplied Zyklon B poison gas to the Nazis. Is that bad taste, or a company atoning?

I'd say it's an urban legend because Tesch & Stabenow no longer exist as the owners were executed for crimes against humanity.

But to go along with the metaphor I'd say it'd be a nice gesture of the company. Unless of course they were having people go vandalize it in the first place so they'd be contracted to clean it.

Monsanto couldn't give less of a shit about promoting better plant growth or healthy food or any of that good stuff. They just see it as a opportunity to sue farmers out of businesses, expand their monopoly, and make money.

I fully agree that Monsanto's current business practices are pretty much evil, but Agent Orange I lay at the feet of the military brains who wanted to use it and use it extensively. Monsanto happened to be the one who got the contract.

I dunno, Agent Orange isn't just some weed killer. It was specifically engineered to destroy all plant life and poison people. Monsanto knew exactly what they were producing and what it was being used for.

edited 16th Sep '14 11:08:09 PM by LeGarcon

And again, you'd have to condemn pretty much every military contractor ever on that argument.

edited 16th Sep '14 11:10:59 PM by tparadox

Eh, maybe.

There's a difference between a rifle and a very questionably legal chemical weapon.

Wait, it was made to poison people? I thought one of the reasons it was used was because they thought it didn't.

It's primary use was a defoliant, yes. But they knew damn well it killed people and poisoned them for generations.

Nevermind that our boys had to walk through the stuff. They're expendable.

We were not good people back then.

From Rational Wiki's Monsanto page.

Petting one of my dogs and I find something crawling in her fur.

With four dogs in my bed, I wonder else is crawling in it now...

Agh, I have the painful urge now to wash everything.

edited 16th Sep '14 11:19:49 PM by Keybreak

From the proper Wikipedia. They were heavily testing it in the 60s, they knew what it did.

Why on Earth are you reading Rational Wiki?