EcoFarm Blogs

The EcoFarm Blogs seek to nurture and support sustainable and organic farmers and food system change agents. Through sharing entertaining and informative essays, we hope to promote important voices to a wider audience, create a platform for interactive dialogues on important issues and increase communication among diverse groups.

Monsanto 7-State Probe Threatens Profit From 93% Soybean Share and Monsanto faces fight as probes bolster critics

Posted on March 11, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

“In order to get the large rebate [MONSANTO] would give you, you had to minimize your sales of other companies’ seeds,” Stine said. “The rebates were so large that for all practical purposes you had to do it.”
“The portion of the price of soybeans that Monsanto is taking has gone up precipitously even as the amount of acres planted of those seeds has also increased,” said Peter Carstensen, a former Justice Department antitrust lawyer who teaches law at the University of Wisconsin.”

Switzerland stands strong against GE

Posted on March 11, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

The Swiss Parliament has just extended its ban on the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) plants for three more years. Originally enacted in 2005, Switzerland will stay GE-free until at least 2013.

GM CROPS: research documenting the limitations, risks, and alternatives

Posted on February 26, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

The scientifically demonstrated risks and clear absence of real benefits have led experts to see GM as a clumsy, outdated technology. They present risks that we need not incur, given the availability of effective, scientifically proven, energy-efficient and safe ways of meeting current and future global food needs.

A maverick geneticist may be poised to launch a revolution in agriculture

Posted on February 25, 2010 in the Farmer Blog

A maverick geneticist, whose countenance evokes that of bison from the Kansas prairie to which he is native, may be poised to launch a revolution in agriculture like no other since the inception of cultivation itself ten millennia past.

Agricultural Practices and Carbon Sequestration

Posted on February 25, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

One of agriculture’s major opportunities to help mitigate the effects of climate-warming gases lies in management of soil to increase organic content, thereby removing carbon from the atmosphere.

GM CROPS FAILING TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE

Posted on February 23, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

On the day of the release of annual industry-sponsored figures, a new report from Friends of the Earth International reveals that claims made by the biotech industry that genetically modified (GM) crops can combat climate change are both exaggerated and premature.

Monsanto Submitted “Fake Scientific Data” Says Former Exec

Posted on February 19, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

Monsanto’s former managing directior of India operations is talking, and it’s not pretty for the behemoth of genetic modification. Tiruvadi Jagadisan is accusing his former employer of faking scientific data with the intent of evading the government’s regulatory requirements.

USDA stance on GM alfalfa threatens “fabric of organic industry”

Posted on February 19, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

Agency said to be protecting Monsanto while ignoring concerns of the fastest growing segments of American agriculture A draft environmental impact study (EIS) on genetically modified Roundup Ready alfalfa released by the US Department of Agriculture ignores the threat of GMO contamination on organic and non-GMO farming and says organic consumers don’t care about GMO contamination.