Has Monsanto been sneaking into your garden and onto your dinner plate? Keeping the biotech giant and its competitors out of our lives is becoming increasingly difficult. Since 2005 the GMO seed and chemical pesticide maker has bought up more than 40 percent of the seed market in the United States – and 20 percent of the global market.
As hard as you may have tried not to, you may have unknowingly been putting money into the pockets of Monsanto. Because the company provides the genetics from 75 percent of tomatoes, 55 percent of lettuce, and 85 percent of peppers now available on the shelves of grocery store shelves, it is almost impossible not to ingest the work of the biotech industry giant.
To a lesser but still significant percentage. Monsanto also provides the genetics for spinach, beans, melons, peas, cucumbers, squash, cabbage, and broccoli.
Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, and Dow have been buying up every seed company they can get their hands on for well over a decade. Bayer controls at least 29 percent of the world seed market and 24 percent of the chemical pesticide market, too.
Do not expect the seed companies to advertise on their packets that they are linked to a biotech corporation. Nope, it would just not do at all to have the bucolic gardening scene and prose on the packet to also showcase just how closely related they are to the GMO manufacturers.
Monsanto now not only holds either the established or registered trademark for a bevy of GMO seed varieties, they also have established the same for heirloom seed varieties, as well.
Even if you do your research and buy heirloom seeds to avoid having your family ingest GMOs, you could still be lining the pockets of the biotech giant that now nearly holds the world’s food in its hands.
Because Monsanto owns the trademark name on copious amounts of heirloom seeds, any time these seeds are sold, they make a profit.
Biotech companies like Monsanto boast they are creating more sustainable seeds to feed the masses and have developed seeds with the most advantageous traits known to man.
But in all reality, they are merely walking on the backs of generations of American farmers, taking the work they have done to increase drought tolerance, enhance nutritional value, and improve growing traits in general. Once the Monsanto or other biotech corporation slaps their trademark or proprietary gene onto the see, they in own it – then sell the seed back to farmers, homesteaders, and gardeners, with stringnet patent restrictions.
Here is a (current as of this post) list of all the seed trademark names Monsanto owns. If you purchase any of the seeds below, the biotech corporation grows more powerful and wealthy.
Beans Varieties – Alicante, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema
Broccoli – Coronado Crown, Major, Packman
Cabbage -: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty
Carrot – Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III
Cauliflower – Cheddar, Minuteman
Cucumber – Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega
Eggplant – Black Beauty, Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel, Lavender Touch, Twinkle, White Lightning
Hot Pepper – Anaheim TMR 23, Ancho Saint Martin, Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Caribbean Red, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichen Itza, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Habanero, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierra, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot, Ixtapa X3R, Lapid, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Mucho Nacho brand of Grande, Nainari, Serrano del Sol brand of Tuxtlas, Super Chile, Tam Vera Cruz
Lettuce – Braveheart, Conquistador
Melon – Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno
Onion – Candy, Cannonball, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Vision
Pumpkin – Appalachian, Harvest Moon, Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Phantom, Prize Winner, Rumbo, Snackface, Spirit, Spooktacular, Trickster
Spinach – Hellcat
Squash – Ambassador, Canesi, Clarita, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Papaya Pear, Peter Pan, Portofino, President, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM
Sweet Corn – Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obsession, Passion, Temptation
Sweet Pepper – Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Biscayne, Blushing Beauty, Bounty, California Wonder 300, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Cubanelle W, Dumpling brand of Pritavit, Early Sunsation, Flexum, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West, King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight, Satsuma, Socrates, Super Heavyweight, Sweet Spot
Tomato – Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Better Boy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui
Watermelon – Apollo, Charleston Grey, Crimson Glory, Crimson Sweet, Eureka, Jade Star, Mickylee, Olympia
Monsanto Owned Companies
Below you will find a list of seed companies Monsanto owns. But beware, the list is growing all the time and the names of the seed providers have been known to change somewhat frequently as well – perhaps because buyers find out they are connected to Monsanto and sales decrease.
- Acceleron
- Asgrow
- Channel
- Corn States
- De Ruiter
- Degree Xtra
- Dekalb
- Deltapine
- Fontanelle Hybrids
- Harness
- Hubner Seed
- Jung
- Kruger
- Lewis Hybrids
- Monsanto BioAg
- Monsanto Traits
- REA Hybrids
- WestBred
- Warrant
- Stone Seed
- RT3
- Seminis
Burpee seeds is not owned by Monsanto but has admitted to “buying a small number of seeds” from Seminis.
In 1999, a group of seed catalog companies, led by High Mowing Organic Seeds, teamed up to create the Safe Seed Pledge. The pledge solidified their commitment to remain unaffiliated with Monsanto owned seed providers and to steer clear of genetically modified seeds in general. Since the first seed catalog companies signed onto the pledge, more than 70 others have followed suit.
Related: 10 Beautiful Plants That Are Secretly Killing Your Garden
Safe Seed Pledge Companies
Below are some of the largest and nationwide retailers of heirloom seeds that are not linked to Monsanto or its affiliates. For a complete list please visit FarmWars. Seed companies are under a lot of pressure to comply to the new agricultural world order, so the companies on the list can change without notice. I have had great luck with seeds purchased from several companies on the list, and most frequently purchase medicinal herb seeds from Baker Creek.
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
- Botanical Interests
- Bountiful Gardens
- Comstock Ferre & Co.
- The Cook’s Garden
- Ed Hume Seeds
- Fedco Seeds
- Ferry Morse Seed Company
- High Mowing Organic Seeds
- John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds
- Johnny’s Selected Seeds
- Lake Valley Seed
- Nichols Garden Nursery
- Horizon Herbs
- Organica Seed
- Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
- Uprising Seeds
- Renee’s Garden
- Seed Savers Exchange
- Select Seeds
- Territorial Seed Company
- Victory Seed Company
- Amishland Heirloom Seeds
- Seed Trust
- Wood Prairie Farm
- Family Farmers Seed Cooperative
- White Harvest Seed Company
- Sow True Seed
- Wild Garden Seed
- My Patriot Supply
Since the Bayer merger with Monsanto in 2015, the options for buying seeds without aiding biotech companies in their quest for world seed domination, are getting exceedingly fewer. The takeover reduced the small amount of competition in the agricultural food market from both the growing and grocery store product end.
In the same year, the World Health Organization finally declared the glyphosate in Monsanto’s lucrative Roundup Ready chemical pesticide is “probably carcinogenic” in humans. That should have caused great alarm and a decrease in sales right? Wrong.
The power Monsanto has over our health and our lives is staggering. But, all is not lost, not yet at least. There are some steps we can take to keep Monsanto out of our gardens and kitchens.
Monsanto’s products are strictly regulated in a host of European countries, but here in the USA the federal government continues to approve both genetically modified seeds and carcinoid laden weed killing products. Just like people can build up an immunity to antibiotics, plants can do the same with weed killer.
Some blame biotech companies for the growth of superweeds that are incredibly hard to kill and grow at startling rates. The GMO seeds are equipped with a special coating to protect them from the chemicals being sprayed. What is in the seed coating. I am not sure, but I am willing to bet my farm that they are not based upon natural ingredients.
Keeping the biotech giants out of your garden and off of your dinner plate will take constant diligence each growing season. Never assume simply because a seed is labeled “organic” or is an heirloom variety that purchasing it will not help Monsanto or its competitions beef up their bottom line.
Always read each seed packet carefully, comparing the trademark name to the Monsanto owned ones on the list above.
Get into the practice of saving your own seeds from season to season to ensure you know exactly where they are coming from and what they have been exposed to during the creation process.
Check to make sure the seed supplier is currently on the Safe Seed Pledge list. When in doubt, take the time to call the company and asked specifically if the seeds they sell are linked to Monsanto, Seminis, Bayer, Syngenta, or Dow.
You may also like:
The 5 Seeds That You Need to Stockpile in Your Pantry
This Homemade Device Can Power Up Your Entire House 7 Days In A Row (Video)
Post Apocalypse Gardening: Living From a Small Piece of Land in Tough Conditions
I breathed a sigh of relief after reading the list of seed varieties and companies. No seeds from Monsanto are in my storage, and the two companies I buy from are on the Safe Seed list!
Good Post! …And thanks for the list of Safe Seed companies; I’m going to check them out.
Looks like someone needs to put away the black nail polish and mascara and get out of their moms basement.
I want the best of everything I own or use. And if that means some $$$ goes to Monsanto, so be it…
Not buying the best because of the big scurry evil companies is for the liberal snowflakes…
Stan, the reason for not buying product made from Monsanto is to stay away from the GMO seeds that are known to be cancer causing, destroys bee populations, and does not produce viable seed to be used next year. That is why I use 100 percent non Hybrid plants/seeds. There is a reason many European countries either limit the use of gmo plants or have it outlawed altogether. It’s not a knee jerk reaction it is a real threat to the healthy production of viable nutritious life sustaining crops that don’t kill pollinating insects such as bees. Without the bees there is no food.
Wannabe,
Can you cite actual scientific evidence of cancers caused by GMO foods? Like the anti-vaxxers, these are just beliefs that propagate on social media to no end and with no credible evidence.
Stan,
While we may both get flamed, I agree with you. I live in farm country and suspect that many of my farmer neighbors use seeds that are GMO, since those characteristics make the seeds produce more, be more drought or insect tolerant, etc. I think in general that the GMO scare is similar to the anti-vaxxers who think vaccines have some sinister purpose and cause problems like autism. Because of these scientifically ignorant people, we have epidemics of once eradicated diseases like measles in Washington state & others..
As for lining the pockets of Monsanto, it is a public company and anyone can purchase shares and share in those profits. While I don’t currently own that stock, a large part of my retirement income is based on quarterly dividends from numerous ”evil” corporations paid into one of my IRA’s.
Ohio Prepper: Thanks for your sane and real life experienced post. In my book there is nothing like real life experience to prove or disprove theory. “Yeah, I’ve done that and I can testify that square wheels just don’t work.” kind of empirical experience is so valuable. This list does come up with enough real life and hands on experience to make it a valuable site for idea exchange.
You are right about moving the hives around the state in the PDRK. I can’t tell you how many thousands of bees I have wiped out with my car on the highway because the hives were too close to the road and the bees flying in the roadway were being slaughtered by the traffic. Several hundred bee carcases on the front end of my van when I reach my destination sure didn’t help hive population and Roundup had nothing to do with it.
left coast chuck,
That’s interesting and something I hadn’t thought of. The animal vs. vehicle accidents around here usually involve deer and the occasional insect; but, I hadn’t thought of that vector wiping out a significant number of bees, since our hives tend to be more sheltered away from major roads in mostly permanent locations.
The problem I’ve been told about with moving the hives, is the ability to pick up infestations like Varroa mites or hive beetles. Also, since the stress of constantly moving the hives keeps the bees from establishing dedicated flyways and constantly making new orientation flights, I think they are also more susceptible to other insects attacking and robbing the hives or in a constantly weakened state more susceptible to viral, fungal, and bacterial infections.
If any of us were kept constantly on the move and always organizing and reorganizing, that stress would eventually be harmful also.
Unfortunately, most of the GMO modifications are made so that farmers can use more pesticides and herbicides on the plants without killing them. Not to make them more resistant to pests and diseases or to improve their yields.
Earthbuilder,
It doesn’t mean they can use more, just use some, without killing the planted crop, by keeping the weeds (that compete for the same soil nutrients) to a minimum. Pests that would either destroy the plant or eat the product, e.g. grain are minimized so the humans get the food instead of feeding the insects. .
Some modifications do increase yield and others help the plant be more drought tolerant. Farming is often a crap shoot at best, with all the expense and prior planning sometimes shot the heck with a turn in the weather that can either decrease or completely ruin the yield for the year. Keep in mind that many farmers only get a few shots at a paycheck, spending a ton of cash (often borrowed) and time planting in the spring. Whatever gets harvested in the fall, costing more time & money is sold for a lot of cash, with a big chunk of that cash going to pay back the “Production Credit” loans. You then have to take the rest, often quite a lot, and budget it out to run your household for another year, when you get your next paycheck, paying for your own FICA (double of a wage earner) and benefits.
Many family farms go wanting for people to run them, since many farm children go off to higher education and easier, more secure jobs in the cities.
As of the last numbers available (2017) the US population was 325.7 million people, all being fed by 2.1 million farms or 155 people being fed by each farm for all meats grains and dairy. That 155 is probably low, since a lot of product is also exported.
Farmers live on the same land where they work, and I know of none that would “poison” that land on purpose; but, I suspect some would give up the GMO’s and the weed and insect control if they could get higher prices on a regular basis for their products. All you have to do is convince “everyone” that $5.00 is a good price for 12 eggs, $7.00 is a good price for a loaf of bread, and $8-10.00 per gallon is a good price for milk.
You could of course purchase enough land and equipment to grow all of your own foods, being as organic and heirloom as you can; but, until you try, most people have no idea how much work that would be. In our area we have some of those people, the “Amish” who work harder than most of us would know how to do, heat with wood, and have virtually no modern technology, although a few now have a shared cell phone out of necessity, since there are no pay phones around anymore. They still manage to maintain old horse drawn equipment as well as maintaining their horses, all of which are constant hard work.
Also, unless you have your own salt mine, raise bees or tap maple trees, you’ll need some way to make the hard cash to purchase the salt and sugar you’ll need.
Thanks for posting this article and please pass on my gratitude and compliments to Tara on a well researched article.
If anyone has a process or device for removing glyphosates from our water, that would be interesting and useful. We filter our water with a Alexapure, but I doubt that does the job for this substance.
Thanks
Dan
According to Natural News, Zero Water, AquaPail, and Big Berkley water filters did a good job at removing glyphosate from drinking water.
Tony,
Big Berkley should read Big Berkey.
Rather than spending the $200-300 on a Big Berkey, you can purchase the Big Berkey filter elements for around $100.00 and build your own with a few Food Grade 5-gallon buckets.
Distillation should remove glyphosates from your drinking water, especially if you run the distilled water through a carbon filter after distillation.
eft coast chuck,
You should not need the post filtering; but, make sure the distiller runs wide open to the air for the first few moments of operation. Good ones will do this automatically, to boil off any VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) that evaporate at a lower temperature than water, and should be eliminated from the condensate.
Hello Dan. Navigate to https://newstarget.com and search “Water filter glyphosate removal lab test results” released by Natural News. Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, operates a 2 million dollar ISO accredited laboratory in Dallas and his test results are very reliable. Several water filters that he tested actually removed 100% of glyphosate.
I can’t say about glyphosate, but I filter the water I use for drinking or cooking with a Clearly Filtered pitcher. This system takes out 98-99% of both chlorine and fluoride (as well as many other contaminants). Fluoride has a very small molecule and is hard to remove. So I’m thinking if that system takes out F, it may well remove glyphosate as well. I encourage you to visit their website (just add .com to the name — no space of course) and browse. You could then click the Contact button at the bottom and ask them. Good luck.
Flame,
Rather than use a pitcher, we use a Reverse Osmoses system for our well water that contains no Chlorine or Fluorine to start with. The raw water runs through 10 micron particle filter, then through a water softener to take care of the iron and lime, then through a 5 micron particle filter, the R/O membrane, and into a pressurized storage tank. From the tank it passes through an activated carbon filter to the special spigot mounted on the kitchen sink.
These systems can be purchased from places like Home Depot and installed rather easily, and then there is no playing with pitchers
Flame,
Rather than use a pitcher, we use a Reverse Osmoses system for our well water that contains no Chlorine or Fluorine to start with. The raw water runs through 10 micron particle filter, then through a water softener to take care of the iron and lime, then through a 5 micron particle filter, the R/O membrane, and into a pressurized storage tank. From the tank it passes through an activated carbon filter to the special spigot mounted on the kitchen sink.
These systems can be purchased from places like Home Depot and installed rather easily, and then there is no playing with pitchers
The problem with RO is that it wastes 2-3 gallons of water for each gallon filtered. In a dry climate with water shortage, that is not acceptable and very costly. I’m happy with my pitcher and will continue to use it.
Flame,
It can actually be as many as 4 gallons wasted (25% efficiency); but, in our situation that is more than acceptable, since we have a pretty much endless supply of water from our well.
It comes down to the essence of being prepared by knowing your local and regional resources and potential threats, and dealing, using or mitigating them as your budget and skills allow.
Also, you say you are filtering well water. In a large city, a person is filtering public utility water that is being found to contain more and more contaminants, such as Rx drugs, that are not adequately removed in the sewage treatment process. Water that has had years of time to percolate through the soil (nature’s filter) will be purer than most municipal water supplies.
Thanks for the list, but I didn’t see Annie’s Heirlooms..
They moved their gardens to an island off the coast of
Michigan, so they could keep their seed pure !! Check them out!
Thank you Patti, I had not heard of them but will check them out.
Not to be the grinch, but who is Tara Dodrill and what is her expertise to pontificate on the above topic? I don’t see a c.v. of her credentials in the article. In order to put any real credence in this article it would be nice if she (assuming that the name correctly identifies the sex of the person writing the article) listed some credentials for an article that has significant implications for a very important part of our preparations. While the article give us some signposts to start our own research on a very complicated topic that’s all it does.
Far too many people feel because they read it on the internet it has got to be true. Deep in our inner thoughts, some of us know that is absolute bunk.
Don’t misunderstand my post. I am not saying her article is either right or wrong. I am saying on a topic as important as this, we should have some sort of background as to why she is expressing the thoughts that she has and what her expertise is to express those thoughts.
Any reasonable person who reads the article can see that it is clearly very well researched. While, I agree with you that there is a great deal of pure and often misleading bunk on the Internet, it is also clear that this is not in that category.
I do not see what significance credentials would offer. Were the author to delve into the biochemistry involved, or the ramifications of GMOs that would be a different story. Instead, she has clearly done a great deal of digging to find out which seed companies are still independent and which ones are owned by, or somehow affiliated with Monsanto that the rest of that cartel. So I do not think she has anything to prove to us. If you disagree, then you do the research and present.
Otherwise, I am prompted to ask if you have an agenda that is driving your comment and that you have not disclosed.
I heh to differ. I see at least one glaring misuse of a technical term (carcinoid) that would never get past anyone with true expertise.
While it does seem to be a well-done article, I differ with regard to being vouchsafe as well-researched. There are no footnotes or other methods of citing actual source material for these claims. I get emails all the time that sound genuine (generally for things that will improve your health or the like), but a bit of research finds how little truth there really is in those claims. I’m not saying that’s the case here, but uncited claims, good or bad, really mean nothing, and with the inflammatory title of “4 Ways to Keep Monsanto Out of Your Backyard”, my knee starts jerking a bit, and when my knee jerks on Facebook, it generally doesn’t hold up to a 30-second Google search. This one holds up better, at least.
Dupin: My point exactly. Thank you. When I wrote my article about bicycling as a bug out mode, I listed my credentials that I thought qualified me to write an article about the ins and outs of long distance, load bearing bicycling. While the reader of my post had the freedom to reject my ideas about long distance bicycle riding, at least that reader had a chance to review my real life experience doing long distance, loaded bicycle riding. It wasn’t supposition uttered by someone who had never even ridden further than over to the ice cream parlor for ice cream cones. They further didn’t have to guess about how I obtained my knowledge and experience.
I really think the some articles would have more merit if the author recited his bona fides for writing some of the articles that appear. We have had some articles on firearms that were replete with errors and absolutely wrong information.
Ms. Dodril may be a prolific writer on the preppier circuit but that doesn’t give her any expertise.
According to Natural News, Zero Water, Aqua Pail, and Big Berkley water filters did the best at removing glyphosate from drinking water.
I don’t know where to begin to thank you for a very well done article. Your site is so enjoyed, but this truly hit home! Please keep up the great work and I am grateful to you for keeping us on our toes and informed to the hilt!
Stop bashing Monsanto. It isn’t even a company anymore since it was purchased by Bayer as you even stated in your article. The Anti-Agriculture movement picked it out of the list of chemical companies to destroy first. It will be another company next. The Infamous Round-up has been generic(Glyphosate) for many years and China has been the biggest producer of it. Who knows how similar of a product it even is compared to the Original Round-up. As with any generic product the active ingredient is usually the same but all the other ingredients and Adjuvants can vary making the product quite different. I don’t like consolidation of companies anymore than the next guy but it is up to our government to make those decisions after they have been bribed and lobbied.
Our Govt. is responsible to have independent research preformed to verify the safety of consumer products. Some one will surely comment on Glyphosate causing cancer and everything else…which may be true… but it is up to our Govt. to protect us. That hasn’t worked out to well, has it.
A GMO seed doesn’t get it’s chemical resistance from a special coating as the author states. Some seeds do have a coating for many different reasons. GMO seeds have resistance to specific chemicals through the process of inserting different Genes into the plant. A much more complicated procedure. That’s what GMO stands for…Genetically Modified Organism.
Spike, thank you for your comment, a very refreshing, and not heard often enough point of view. Everyone is a capitalist until some bur gets under their saddle. Suddenly its “big pharma this, and big agra that” What do people want, centralized governmental control of the agricultural and pharmaceutical companies? That is Socialism! In a market economy, companies fight for market share and capital investment. If Bayer (nee’ Monsanto) is the boogie man to many folks so be it. But I won’t support socialist or communist answers to tamping down monopolies. In a free society, its the legal system and the voting booth. If folks don’t like it that they fail there, well that’s a cost to live in the greatest country on earth, evenif Bayer has offices there.
So when the SHTF and all we have are Monsanto seeds do we throw them out and starve in order to protest?
Hacksaw,
Absolutely not!!! You should send them to me ahead of time for proper disposal, which I promise to do, one seed at a time, in my garden or field. LOL.
Ohio Prepper. ?
Plant moringa trees (if you have the room) and learn which “weeds” are actually nutritious, like the common dandelion and mallow. If your seeds are “terminator seeds,” they won’t produce but one season anyway.
This is a ridiculous witch hunt! Don’t want cancer? Don’t spray shitloads of roundup in windy conditions without even a mask on! I swear people are freakin stupid! Roundup was used for years with no problem. Now in the last couple of years, it’s now a problem? And GMO seeds? Who cares? Smh
Coach Jeff, fact- GMO plants kills bees. The pesticide is genetically modified into the plant and when bees go to pollinate the plant they pick up the poison carry it back to their hive and it destroys the insect. It’s desugned to keep insects from eating the crop. They will grow a nice product but the plants seeds are not viable for next years growth and you are putting the same elements into your body that kills insects as you eat it.
It is not the genetically modified plants that kill the bees, it is the Roundup weed killer that can be used on the GMO plants which are not susceptible to Roundup that does in the bees. Actually, as I understand the problems with bees, it is a multiplicity of problems attacking the bees, not just Roundup. Too many of us want a simple answer to a complex problem. I can give you a good example: “If we can just get guns out of the hands of people our violence problems will be solved.” Simplistic solution to a complex problem with many causes. I don’t want to get off into a long winded sociological discussion, so I will end my diatribe against simplistic solutions here.
Wannabe,
The only alleged plant that may do this, is the neonicotinoids found in Canadian Canola, where the original Rapeseed was modified for better oil seed production, and the tobacco gene that creates nicotine was spliced in to make the plant toxic to insects. This compound does not pass to the oil in the seeds; but, may pass to the nectar in the flowers. We have hundreds of acres of corn, soybeans, and others in my area and the bee populations are all doing fine, with record honey production and harvest this last fall.
Interesting assertion; but, can you cite some factual resources instead of often repeated myths?
Are GMO crops killing your bees?
What they are doing almost seems like a violation of the Monopoly least that are still on the books in Federal law…but I guess when laws aren’t actually enforced it doesn’t matter. Unless one is expecting laws enforced in a nation of law ..ijs
Monsanto is no more. It was bought by Bayer last year
An onion by any other name…
Great article. Thanks for these list. I’ve been wishing I had such a list.
Good article, it touches on a lot of concerns I have. By the beginning of the 20th Century most industrial production, wealth and power were becoming concentrated in the hands of a few corporations and their owners. The U.S. Government acted to break up the huge Trusts and Monopolies and return at least some power to ordinary people. The American Union movement also began the battle for the rights of workers, as did the Marxists in Europe. The last battle in the less than successful fight against the mega corporations was the breaking up of ATT in 1982. Critics claimed it would destroy the telecommunication industry, but the industry once freed began 20 years of incredible innovation and growth. Sadly, we’re now back under the thumb of Bayer, Google, Facebook, Halliburton, Amazon etc… with no one left to oppose the bosses who gather every year in Davos to thumb their noses at the world.
Anyway, articles on this site have motivated me to grow an all Heirloom garden this year, just this afternoon I planted my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds in flats in my grow room, nothing from the Mega Corps, thanks to AskAPrepper for all the great info!
A good way to see if Roundup causes cancer would be to use it all over the world for 50 years on all our major crops and then see how many people get cancer from it. One, maybe? You can probably mix up a batch and drink it and never come to any harm. That said, I think one of the most important ways to improve your health, and the health of your children and animals, is to absolutely never ever use any pesticide or herbicide inside your home or on your property. I’ve lived that way for 15 years (yes, lots of spiders in the house) and no person or animal in my household is ever sick.
IvyMike,
By “their owners” I assume you mean the stockholders. I am recently retired and own pieces of about 16 corporations, valued at nearly $500K, whose quarterly dividends help finance a nice retirement for the wife & me.
Once again, all publically traded companies that anyone can purchase a piece of.
We’ve already been using it for 45 years, since its introduction in 1975; but, many of the cancers we see in our society can be attributed to both lifestyle (e.g. smoking) and longevity, since the longer you live, the better chance for exposure to carcinogens or to simply have a DNA reproduction coding error.
Add to that nutrition and exercise and I almost agree. We do use the wasp & hornet spray on occasion (outside), and have mixed the Borax and Sugar solution to kill off ant colonies. We have no roaches, since we keep things clean and don’t keep piles of cardboard in the house. We have some spiders that the cats don’t find and kill; but, those spiders kill off other small insects and don’t bother the people at all.
I don’t care to have fruiting plants that I consume to be sprayed with the likes of round-up. However, I’m not totally convinced GMO products are the work of the devil. ……. for centuries we have selectively bred & cross-bred plants and animals to improve the health and output of our food-chain. Perhaps GMO’s are the 21st century version of making a better pig or tomato ?
Cross-breeding or hybridizing is NOT the same thing as genetically modifying. We have hybridized for eons. We have the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom. A bird can’t mate with a flower from a tree. Indeed, most species on earth cannot cross-breed with other very different species. A cat will eat a fish — not mate with it.
But with genetic modification, they ARE mixing the kingdoms. One example is inserting a gene from the No. Atlantic salmon into a tomato plant with the intent of making the tomato more resistant to cold for a longer growing season.
Do you recall a couple of decades ago when they took tryptophan off the market because some people got sick and 1 or 2 even died from it? I used tryptophan to relax. But the news never reported on what happened. The tryptophan supplement came from 6 companies — all in Japan. One of those companies decided to try to make their product more potent. They did so by doubling one of the genes in the source. This was not a gene foreign to the substance, but one of its own. This doubling of the gene caused the tryptophan supplement to become toxic.
So what do you think happens when they put Bt thuringensis (sp?), a microorganism, into the stalk of corn because the Bt T resists one of the corn pests? Now you are mixing species and even kingdoms. If doubling a normally occurring gene in one substance can make it toxic, don’t you think implanting a gene from a totally different species can have serious consequences?
Also, once you modify and it doesn’t work, there’s no way to “unmodify” it and go back to the original.
I encourage all of you who think GMOs are just fine to read Jeffrey Smith’s carefully researched book “Seeds of Deception.”
@Flame Cross breeding or hybridizing CAN absolutly be the same as genetically modifying. Is it 100% of the time? No, but hybridization and crossbreediing is a subset of genetic modification. GMO’s do not necessarily mean animal dna has been inserted into plant or vice versa. Lets take wine grapes for example. You can take a cutting of a blight resistant variety and splice it onto a vine 4,000 miles away, that would never had crossed paths in nature, and come up with a new variety, which takes time but does work OR you can now insert the specific DNA portion directly into the receptor grape and come up with exact the same grape as the grafted example. The fist method was done with clippers and gauze, the second with electron microscopes and pipets, but they are both genetically modified organisms.
Mr. MMG, you can try as you wish to equate hybridizing with genetic modification. While it is true that not every modification is going to prove deadly, some will. I prefer not to try to blend the meanings of hybridizing with genetic modification because the latter is very often bad while simple hybridizing will not create a dangerous hybrid.
I will also continue to read labels on my groceries (e.g., no more Progresso soup as they even admit to GMOs on the labels), no corn until I’m growing my own, no soy at all, and I will avoid places where wind drift can carry pollen from GM plants, etc.
You call it what you will. I can’t control that, but I will make an distinction to help people grasp that some of this is evil and some is normal.
Most of the intense modification is not beneficial to our health. It’s done for greed (e.g., terminator seeds), or for convenience (knocking out delicious and more healthful varieties in the interest of picking less-than-ripe and shipping to market), or for pest control (like breeding the Bt thuringensis pest killer into the corn so that we have to eat the pesticide with the corn).
I’ll stick with my own fully organic and natural products, and I may just make that 105-YO goal I set for myself when I was a kid.
Flame,
”Evil”?
That’s a bit rhetorically over the top, unless of course you have evidence that people and companies are intentionally trying to harm us.
Are antibiotics or vaccinations evil? Dying from an infection used to be ”normal”; but, human ingenuity has extended our lifespan, as plant manipulation has extended our growing season and crop yields and increased production to feed an ever growing global population.
@Flame You lost your temper there a bit but it served a useful purpose for this discussion. You are obviously triggered by the word GMO. If you feel that the millions of lives saved by GMOs in the more agriculturally challanged regions of the world are not worth you having to worry that the word GMO appearing on your soup can, and avoiding “wind drift” so you can make it to 105??? well that’s on you. All I can suggest is that there are decafinated choices that are just as tasty as the regular brand. Just be sure to check the labels for a GMO warning.
My temper is just fine. While I may not have fancy degrees or credentials in this field, I’ve studied it for a decade now. One of the details I’ve learned is that GMOs may not be saving “millions of lives.” In fact, one of the things being done incorrectly is for organizations like the Gates Foundation to send seeds to places that need food (e.g., Africa) only to find that those seeds are not native to the area and do not thrive well. So their “good” intentions actually produce bad results when local weather conditions destroy the crop. (I’m departing slightly from the GMO discussion here.) I do know from Jeffrey Smith’s well documented book that in India farmers were committing suicide when they could not afford to purchase new seeds from Monsanto (aka Mt. Satan) each year and the seeds they harvested turned out to be terminator seeds that would not germinate. Creating terminator seeds is purely and simply a means of control for profit.
I’m also aware that Mt. Satan (and the company that has recently acquired it) also mounted lawsuits against some farmers where fields planted with GMO seeds lay next to or close to fields with non-GMO seeds, but wind drift carried pollen to the non-GMO fields. So farmers were “benefiting” from Mt. Satan’s product without paying for it. (Also reported in Smith’s book.)
I’m a coffee lover, but I will forgo the tasty decaffeinated choices if there is something negative about them, e.g., the label alerts me to an additive that is not healthy.
You plant and eat what you want. As for me and mine, we will stick with GMO free.
Roundup is a chemical in the organophosphate family of chemicals. Indeed, a great many chemicals used in agriculture are in that family of chemicals. Unless you are growing your own food on isolated land, using your own spring water from deep underground wells, fertilizing only with compost and manure from your own plants and animals, making your own beer and other spirit drinks, drinking milk from your own cows, making your own bacon — the list goes on but you get the idea. Unless you are doing all of that, the chances that you are daily ingesting some organophosphates somewhere along the line are pretty good.
Can anyone remember the alar scare of a couple decades ago? Wow! We were all going to turn sterile and if we did have kids, they would monstrous freaks. In addition we would all die from raging cancer.
Same thing with global warming. Just finished reading a book about the Little Ice Age. In the book the author also spends a good deal of time talking about the Middle Ages Warming Period when estimated average temperatures were warmer than they are today based on elevations and latitudes where certain grains and plants could grow that died off when the Little Ice Age commenced, and where those plants have not commenced growing yet.
After building a significant case that there MAY be a causal connection between sun spot activity and climate change on earth, the author goes off on global warming and CO2 concentrations and how we are ruining the planet with our SUVs, of course, leaving out the solo use of multi engine jet planes used by leading proponents of global warming. We have so many Henny Pennys running around crying doomsday for this reason or that reason, perhaps we should sacrifice some virgins to the gods to ward off the evil that pervades. Well, that certainly will present a problem in this day and age. Maybe if we just sacrifice some Henny Pennys whether they are virgin or not the gods will be satisfied.
I would like to put some gravitas to Ms. Dodril’s article, but it just has too little information for me to be able to do that. A list of companies that are supposedly evil and a list of companies that are supposedly pure just doesn’t cut it for me. Sorry.
The main reason for buying non-GMO seeds is that most GMO seeds, as I understand it, will not reproduce for more than a year or two after the original plant and their produce will be greatly diminished with each passing year. For peppers, seeds that only germinate two or three years leave a lot to be desired in the event we are going to be doing Groundhog Day in the eighteenth century over and over again if even one of the dire events we are preparing for come to pass.
However, inasmuch as I still haven’t completed Bonehead Horticulture 101, feel free to completely disregard my understanding.
What the GMO advocates are doing is creating “terminator seeds” that will not germinate after being harvested. This is greed at work because it forces the farmer to go back to the seed source to buy new seeds for the next year — which will also be terminator seeds. This is a secondary result of genetic modification but does not, in itself, cause harm. That said, when farmers in India fell for the GMO seeds that were pushed on them, many could not afford to go and buy new ones each year, and something like 200 farmers committed suicide because the terminator seeds bankrupted them. This is also part of the info in Jeffrey Smith’s book “Seeds of Deception” mentioned above.
Terminator seeds will not affect your health, but some of the modifications those in the labs are doing can kill you. See the book.
left coast chuck,
I attended the First Earth day in 1970 while in college. For me it was more of a social event, protesting, you guessed it, Global Cooling and Snowball Earth. When that didn’t work out, it became Global Warming, and with no data to support that hypothesis, it’s now simple Global Change and any change will do.
In “Dark Winter: How the Sun Is Causing a 30-Year Cold Spell” by former White House national space policy advisor, NASA headquarters consultant, and space shuttle engineer John L. Casey, he lays out a different analysis but, since it doesn’t fit the current religious conviction of the Global Change party, he is no doubt considered a “denier” by the “believers”
I suspect human activity has helped to change things at least a little, and that may be seen when looking at an urban area for all of the “Black”. The highways, parking lots, rooftops, and other black surfaces absorb solar energy all day long, and then release it at night as heat. I’ve watched weather radar and seen storms traveling to the east that break up over a large urban area and then reform after passing that heat island.
Please keep in mind that GMO seed is not ‘for sale’ to the general public. It is only currently available to large scale farmers. That said, this was a very interesting and well researched article. I personally purchase my seeds from companies who have signed the Safe Seed Pledge.
And there is a HUGE difference between HYBRID seeds and plants vs. GMO. Hybrids are interbred within a species (for the most part) whereas GMO introduces ‘things’ not native to a species.
As to the author, Tara is a well respected author in prepper circles. She may be new to THIS group, but trust me, give her a chance. She is not a ‘fluff’ writer.
Grammyprepper,
I agree; but, she still makes numerous assertions without listing any peer reviewed publications, which makes them simple opinions
BTW, interesting to “see” you here, LOL.
GMO = Genetically Modified. No, you cannot “clean” DNA modification. Actually, GMO is not much different from what Luther Burbank, the famed fruit guy did with fruit except that instead of modern methods of modifying plants, he used cross breeding to genetically modify plants. Do you eat nectarines? Oh, golly, you have been eating genetically modified fruit. If you eat canned tomatoes you probably are eating genetically modified fruit that can be picked by machines. Decades ago University of California modified tomatoes so that they could be picked by machine. They have especially tough skins that are not easily damaged by the tomato picking machine. Most canned tomatoes and tomato juice are from those modified tomatoes. In late summer in the PDRK you can see double dump trailer loads of tomatoes headed to the canneries on I-5. Sometimes there will be a long line of such loads. All those tomatoes have extra tough skins which yield in the canning process. They are dumped into the trailers in the fields and when they get to the cannery they are dumped from the trailers into the bins that take them into the cannery. They get the same treatment that potatoes and onions get. The reason they can stand up to the process is that they have been modified to have extra tough skins. You don’t dare throw one of those tomatoes at a politician, you will knock him out cold and even may kill him.
Did you every wonder why there are some many different breeds of cows and horses? They have been genetically modified to develop specific desirable traits through selective breeding.
It’s the old Hitler story. He was trying to develop a super race through genetic breeding. Like Monsanto, he got extremely bad press for his efforts. And like Monsanto, he went about it in an entirely wrong manner. One of the reasons that Monsanto gets such bad press is, according to the news I read, and we all know the news checks and re-checks and then checks again to make sure they only report accurately, Monsanto has sued farmers who inadvertently got some of Monsanto’s GMO seeds on their land and horror of horrors, accidentally grew Monsanto patented GMO corn. Oh, the horror of it all.
left coast chuck,
Bingo!!!! Nuff’ said & well stated.
I think we’re missing the point here. Round up is supposed and dose kill weeds, or better stated, Round up kills plants. Therefore, there is no round up ON you food, or the plants would have been dead before it could produce said food. Round up was not designed to kill animals, insects, or microorganisms, but it does. That’s why it should never be used.
The problem with chemicals on your food is the insecticides that are sprayed on your foods. That you are ingesting. To avoid this buy organically grown foods and even those need to be washed thoroughly because even organic pesticides/fungicides can be toxic to humans. More emphasis needs to be put on biological controls of pests. IE: Lady bugs, nematodes, beneficial naturally occurring bacteria’s and fungus’s that only attack the pests that damage crops.
OG,
Actually Roundup kills only broadleaf plants and when properly applied is rather harmless. To purchase and use it, farmers have to be trained and certified, and handling it requires use of protective equipment; however, too often users get in a hurry and don’t use or apply it correctly, which is technically illegal. As long as citizens demand inexpensive food and push the farming community on prices, farmers will sometimes take shortcuts, just to survive. I have numerous neighbors and relatives who farm; but, often have to have a second job to survive or make ends meet. Often the spouse of a farmer (usually the wife) will work a job with benefits, for the family to have medical coverage. Family farms also often have to compete with mega farms who openly hire illegal’s to work cheap, often off the books.
Roundup is also available over the counter in spray bottles and sometimes used by people who treat it like water.
When everyone can afford $3-5 for a dozen eggs, they will all be free range; but, to feed the nation and the world, shortcuts and technology will continue to happen.
Roundup is not selective. It kills everything it touches. It stops the reaction of chlorophyll, which is dependent on sunlight and is not active in the ground. Roundup is a tame version of Agent Orange from the Viet Nam era. 2-4-D is selective, killing only broad leaf weeds but not grasses.
It kills much that it touches, but I relented some years ago and tried it on morning glory, and apparently NOTHING kills that weed! So Roundup is banned on my property — but the ipomoea keeps on spreading.
Only today I was in Home Depot (looking for an organic weed killer) and saw an interesting sign. If a customer buys one $30/gal. spray bottle of Roundup free, they were to get another gal. of some other Roundup product. Made me wonder if the bans and lawsuits are starting to affect sales for Mt. Satan/Bayer. I hope so.
I goofed above and can’t edit the original post. It should read, ” If a customer buys one $30/gal. spray bottle of Roundup, they were to get another gal. of some other Roundup product free.” Sorry
Round Up has killed both Bermuda and Fescue in my yards. I have the brown dead spots to prove it.
Yep, that’s what it’s supposed to do. It is a non-selective “weed” killer and will kill just about any plant out there.
Dupin,
Actually it’s designed for broadleaf plants; but, can inhibit the growth and kill nearly anything. To be precise:
Since photosynthesis occurs in the leaf of the plant, those plants that need broad (large) leafs to collect energy are affected the most, since the CO2 is used to build the proteins of the plant structure.
Great article. Thanks. In Venezuela the government required every farmer to use Monsanto’s frankenseed.Two years later, their cancer rate DOUBLED! WTH is wrong with out government in allowing this? I believe its all about money and the officials in Venezuela could have been paid off to issue this demand. And some of ours as well. Ive grown organic since the late sixties. I am 77 years old and look 45. Some days I feel 19 again! So many of my friends are sick, dying or dead already. May have good genetics here but I think its more like what I put in my body!
SilverBullet,
What you have with this assertion in lieu of facts is a logical fallacy known as “Post hoc, ergo propter hoc”, a common Non Sequitur which in English translates as: “after this, therefore because of this” This would be similar to stating something like: “the rooster crows immediately before sunrise; therefore the rooster causes the sun to rise.” that we all easily understand is false. The other point of this assertion would often be that had no frankenseed been used, there would have been no cancer, similar to killing the rooster to stop the sun from rising. While this could have been a factor, one needs to look at other living conditions in Venezuela, like toxins in their air and water, poor medical care, and the stress of everyday living where you dig in dumpsters for food and can be hauled off to the gulag or outright killed on a whim of the government.
Also, I don’t know that out government had any way to stop it, short of war.
I prefer to “think” instead of “believe” or “feel”; but, I think you are correct, since a socialist dictatorship always goes where the money is available to allow the corrupt officials to stay in power. This is why the Chinese and the Russians are battling over having influence in that country that is essentially a territory occupied by Cuba.
For some insight here are a few good articles:
https://www.csis.org/analysis/when-investment-hurts-chinese-influence-venezuela
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/30/us-russia-battle-for-venezuela.html
You have almost 10 years on me and it appears we are similar in outlook and spirit even though I suspect we have both had losses of friends and family, often younger; but. You are probably at least partly correct, since at our ages, it’s not only what we put in our bodies; but, also a lot of how we lived our lives. Being an overweight couch potato who smokes and drinks to excess is a sure way to die long before reaching our young ages; however, being financially stable, as in managing what money you have and not trying to keep up with the Joneses, and having a happy perspective on life, helps keep a lower stress level. It’s well known that stress hormones like Adrenaline and Cortisol, while required for life, can play havoc on the body when living under constant stress.
When prepping is your lifestyle, while there is often hard work and some stress, when you sit back at the end of the day, tired from labor, you can really relax and get a good low stress restful sleep, knowing that you are set to handle most things life can throw at us, and that makes for less stress and overall better health.
For a good recent perspective on stress, here’s some good information from the Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037