Do you know what's in YOUR hay?

[shellyr]

More toxins in our feed!

U.S. District Court ruling suspends planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa

5/03/2007, 4:56 PM CDT

A U.S. District Court has ruled that farmers will not be able to resume planting Roundup Ready alfalfa until the USDA completes an environmental impact statement. Roundup Ready alfalfa that was planted by March 30, 2007, can still be grown, harvested and sold as forage.

The injunction was issued by the court following a lawsuit brought by the Center for Food Safety and others against the USDA as Geertson Seed Farms, Inc. et. al v. Mike Johanns, et. al.

In a company release, Monsanto says it petitioned the court to become a party in the case to defend grower choice to use the technology. The company is reviewing its options, including the possibility of an appeal of the courts decision. Monsanto licenses its traits for Roundup Ready alfalfa to Forage Genetics International who sells Roundup Ready alfalfa seed.

One of the plaintiffs' claims against Roundup Ready alfalfa was that it would cross-pollinate with organic alfalfa. Monsanto and Forage Genetics International have shown that with proper stewardship and planting the two types of cropping systems can successfully coexist, stated Monsanto officials. Don Cameron, a Helm, California, farmer grows a number of organic and biotech crops including organic and Roundup Ready alfalfa.

"Proper stewardship makes it possible to grow both organic and biotech crops," he says. "We've successfully accomplished this for nearly a decade on our operation and plan to continue."

"The last decade has shown that biotech and organic crops have successfully co-existed," says Jerry Steiner, executive vice president for Monsanto. "We support a farmer's right to choose biotechnology, organic or conventional crops with the proper stewardship practices that make coexistence feasible. We have heard from farmers across the country who are disappointed they can't access this technology."

Do you know what's in YOUR hay?

[gratefulknits]

I'm woefully ignorant of this stuff. Does Roundup Ready alfalfa actually have Roundup in it? Or is it a genetically modified crop? I'd certainly appreciate any info you have on it. The world is getting scarier and scarier!

[shellyr]

The "Round Up Ready" crops that Monsanto (manufacturer of Round Up) is promoting and selling are genetically modified to withstand Round Up being sprayed on them. The weeds in the alfalfa die, but the alfalfa itself does not. Sounds great at first thought, huh?

There are several things that concern me about this though. I don't believe a genetically modified food source is in anyone's best interest long term. How can we hope to improve on Mother Nature? The main thing that concerns me here though is the fact that they cannot guarantee that these genetically modified crops will not cross pollenate with organic crops. In fact, there are studies that have been done that are already proving they CAN and do cross pollenate, and now the non-Round Up Ready varieties are showing the DNA strands from the Round Up Ready variety. What this means long term is that it will become more and more difficult to find a truly organic product that has not been tampered with.

Alfalfa is not the only food source that Monsanto is tampering with in order to promote the sales of Round Up. There are already Round Up Ready varieties of soybeans, beets, and corn too. Growers aren't required to disclose if they are selling the Round Up Ready variety either, so even if we don't want it, how do we know we are not getting it?

Here is a video about Monsanto contaminating our milk supply:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwkwhJuZtbw

One last thought.........did you know that Monsanto is the company that developed Agent Orange?

[agilitygal]

Oh, man. I'm with you. Genetically engineered anything is bad news! I had no idea it had now extended to alfalfa. This is not good.

[gratefulknits]

Yeah, and it seems that if they are trying to make an alfalfa that can withstand Roundup, wouldn't you guess that they'd feel free to spray the alfalfa with Roundup, and then sell it to us to feed to our horses? Can roundup be good for animals to ingest?? What are these guys thinking?

[shellyr]

That is EXACTLY what they do, and why they advertise these crops as "Round Up Ready". They spray the Round Up directly on the crop itself, and because they have changed the DNA, the Round Up does not kill the crop.....only the weeds in the crop.

Another thing I can't help but wonder is how much of the toxic residue is left in the plant when they harvest? EWWWW!!!!

I also heard they are patenting the seeds they are developing and then when they cross pollenate with farmers crops that do not have the Round Up Ready variety, Monsanto is then suing those farmers for patent infringement, and winning settlements against the farmers who never wanted Monsanto's Round Up Ready seeds to begin with. I have to do more research on this though, because I'm not sure if the source I heard it from is completely correct.

gratefulknits said:

Yeah, and it seems that if they are trying to make an alfalfa that can withstand Roundup, wouldn't you guess that they'd feel free to spray the alfalfa with Roundup, and then sell it to us to feed to our horses? Can roundup be good for animals to ingest?? What are these guys thinking?