Please take the time to do this for you and your families future health.

[Gandalf]

VC, there might be 'thousands' of seeds, but when a few companies control the vast majority of seed distribution and then impose stringent rules on things that can and do grow naturally thus seed, then you are into dangerous territory. I don't understand why you are so defensive about monopoly control.

As for farmers being given a rough time by Monsanta. Again, there are articles all over the place saying that this is indeed what they do.

Also when it comes to commodities markets, again you seem to be putting your head in the sand a bit. Clinton deregulated the markets and thus financial players started playing games. Goldman Sachs and many other notorious financial institutions have made a lot of money from playing games with food. Again, on the record. Commodities markets are prey to rampant speculation that didn't exist for much of this century.

Weather will always be a factor, but as I keep stating, it is amazing how these companies are making exorbitant profits on 'superproducts' that are seemingly not so super after all. The seed prices are rampant and the markets more volatile than ever. However, anyone who says so is always anti America it couldn't be that the corporations involved are American and it was the US government that deregulated markets that were working well.

[VictorCharlie]

Miles,

If your posts are just "The U.S. Agriculture per Miles" then fine but you are making some statements as fact that at a minimum I'm not familiar with the supporting references (I'm not just trying to be contrary either. If you have some facts I'm not aware of then I genuinely would like to read them). There is no shortage of options for farmers it is just that Monsanto's products have changed the way agri-business in the US is run. There are a lot of legal issues between farmers and Monsanto but much of that stems from Monsanto protecting their patent which as I said expires in 2014. Speculation does play a role and while I'm familiar with Clinton's deregulation of the financial sector by repealing Glass Steagal I'm not familiar with it in the agriculture sector. So please inform me. All that being said we had pretty stellar job growth under Clinton in the 90s. If the products weren't superior then farmers wouldn't buy them and as I showed earlier Monsanto's price increases have pushed farmers away from them versus simply extorting them. I'm not accusing you of being anti-american....in this instance but I think you just aren't as informed on American specific issues as you think you are.

[Gandalf]

Miles,

If your posts are just "The U.S. Agriculture per Miles" then fine but you are making some statements as fact that at a minimum I'm not familiar with the supporting references (I'm not just trying to be contrary either. If you have some facts I'm not aware of then I genuinely would like to read them). There is no shortage of options for farmers it is just that Monsanto's products have changed the way agri-business in the US is run. There are a lot of legal issues between farmers and Monsanto but much of that stems from Monsanto protecting their patent which as I said expires in 2014. Speculation does play a role and while I'm familiar with Clinton's deregulation of the financial sector by repealing Glass Steagal I'm not familiar with it in the agriculture sector. So please inform me. All that being said we had pretty stellar job growth under Clinton in the 90s. If the products weren't superior then farmers wouldn't buy them and as I showed earlier Monsanto's price increases have pushed farmers away from them versus simply extorting them. I'm not accusing you of being anti-american....in this instance but I think you just aren't as informed on American specific issues as you think you are.

With deregulation the food commodities markets have grown exponentially. They were small pretty well controlled markets prior to Clinton, but since have ballooned and swollen to horrible degrees. Some of the people who I wouldn't trust will argue that you cannot prove the link between prices and speculation, but others will say quite the opposite and that it is perhaps a leading factor.

I'm not an expert on agriculture and don't know that much, but it is something I became interested in a few months ago in a couple of documentaries looking at seeds and farmers in America. I then did a little bit of reading for myself and that is all I know. I think I was in the same boat as most until the documentary in that most are simply not aware about the food and practices that go on in providing food. The same goes for a lot of areas in life. Most live in quiet ignorance and just hope someone is looking out for them, but seemingly nobody really is and that is why Andre is cool for starting this thread. It is something constructive.

This article outlines some of the issues with deregulation and commodities markets, but again I am not a super expert. I read news stories for about an hour everyday and don't bookmark every interesting thing I read. My field is the work I do and news and posts about politics are just a hobby horse. I put forth what I know, but find it hard to post links and stuff sometimes and especially in the final week of a semester when even this post has me putting down 30 papers that should really be getting graded.

UN Pleads for Curbing Speculation in Food Commodities

And sure, if people would seperate the corporatism and the politics which I do always bang on about, then they would see I'm not all that anti-American. If we are talking literature and music, I am into America a lot, but when it comes to old farts and their war rhetoric and lies. Well, I am not so enamoured.