11 March: Monsanto Protection Act Slipped into Senate Bill

[liquidambar]

Whew!
Thanks Wild Watcher -- I am very glad to hear about the table corn, esp. the Kandy because that is what my Dad wants me to plant! AND I have year after year.

I gave up on corn syrup, 20 years ago after I ran across a girl on the internet that had her son in the Cincinnati Hospital. There was a group of us that were talking about things(health problems in children) back and forth. Her son was having seizures and she swore when he ate certain things like candy bars he had seizures. She finally gave her son a candy bar right in front of the doctor and he had a seizure.

They found out he was allergic to corn syrup -- hmmm allergic for lack of a better word. But in those days we were all trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle and every last one of us paid attention to that piece of information.

Corn meal though I regret greatly they are doing this--- again after the pellagra mess.
Cornmeal is something that shouldn't be messed with -- like Equil said so eloquently it will be the most poor that will be affected by cheap tampered with food.

[Equilibrium]

BTW…. ‘Monsanto's Hometown Paper Takes Missouri Senator Roy Blunt to Task for Monsanto Protection Act', Monsanto's Hometown Paper Takes Missouri Senator Roy Blunt to Task for Monsanto Protection Act, "Two weeks after the passage of the Monsanto Protection Act, Monsanto's hometown paper, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has come out with a blistering editorial titled "Blunt's 'Monsanto Protection Act' Undermines Legislative Process'", taking Missouri Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) to task for sneaking the provision, Section 735 into H.R. 933, the must pass continuing resolution that funds the U.S. government for the next 6 months.
The editors of Monsanto's hometown paper were appalled enough, something rare these days, to take the time to write a scathing editorial, calling the Monsanto Protection Act, "a sleazy bit of business", noting that the crop biotech and factory farm industries both took advantage of the funding emerency and "larded up" the continuing resolution "with a lot of special interest deals"….In a way, none of this is a big deal — the Monsanto Rider may be thrown out, and even it’s not, it will have to be revisited later this year….But it is a big deal. Damn the committee hearings. Damn political philosophy. Damn the public interest. Damn the constitution. Use the funding crisis to take care of the donors. Do the deals in the seams, and if at all possible, do it in secret.” Too little said too late, it made it through…. a precedent was set…. the rider won’t be thrown out…. it’ll be strengthened when it’s “revisited” next year….. we’ve got waaaaaaay too many foxes guarding our hen house.
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liquid> Eeesh…. you literally meant ‘Kandy Corn’…. I just saw it in the seed pack aisle at the feed store. Good catch ww!!! Sorry liquid…. I’m newer to growing corn and wasn’t familiar with that variety and assumed you’d had a typo and meant the candy corn that used to be given out at Halloween.
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The sweet corn suunto had good luck with was ‘Lancelot’. I didn’t but then he’s down your way and I’m up north so that could have something to do with it. He’s really good with veggies so if you’re looking for another sweet corn…. you might want to try ‘Lancelot’.
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I’m trying a variety new to me called ‘Peaches and Cream’ this year. Other varieties I’m checking into are ‘Incredible’, ‘Ambrosia’, and ‘Honey Select’. If I can…. I’ll try another variety this year…. maybe ‘Kandy Corn’. Can you ask your Dad if he thinks ‘Kandy Corn’ is a good 1 for somebody up north to try? I can go back next Friday and pick it up.
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“it will be the most poor that will be affected by cheap tampered with food.” Sorta…. I actually think it’s the most vulnerable who will be affected…. like…. the very young… the very old… the infirmed and…. most everyone on a fixed income. Think children in schools (when’s the last time you heard of an “organic” option in a cafeteria) and the elderly in nursing homes and assisted living centers. Come to think of it…. I don’t think most university cafeterias even offer organic…. I’ve seen vegetarian and gluten free offered and even kosher but not organic. I think NEWisc hit the nail on the head when he offered up a reason for why so many people keep buying invasives that can be applied to why so many people keep buying “cheap” tinkered with foods, Sterile Butterfly Bush Coming This Spring, “I really think that is the core of these kinds of situations. It's not that there is a lack of good information sources, or scientific support for not using invasive species, or a lack of intellect; it really boils down to a determination to ignore reality. It's less pleasant for the person (the butterfly is just a tool in the argument) therefore they refuse to acknowledge that contrary information exists. Simple logic is also rejected”. Now…. apply that same reasoning to the tens of millions of people out there conscientiously choosing to buy GMOed and pesticide laden foods. There are tens of millions of people out there who can still afford to buy organic who…. don’t. There are even more people who could be growing at least some of their own food who… don’t. What’s that term Cirsium used….. Shades of Green: Well-Informed Futility Syndrome, “Well-informed futility syndrome”.
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ww> The pancake syrups are all GMOed now…. is there anything that isn’t. The work around for that is buying maple syrup from locals or from farm stands. I don’t know what they charge for maple syrup down by you but it’s gone through the ceiling up my way…. almost makes me want to plant a few native maples and take a class on making maple syrup so when the trees are mature enough in 15 years to tap into…. I’ll be ready….. almost.

[liquidambar]

Well-informed futility syndrome - that is probably it. If people went and Marched in Washington, or wrote their Congressman - would it help - and the answer is No, even in large numbers -- because it would take really - really large numbers.

it really all depends on the media seems to me.

But not just any media. it has to collect and gather until it makes it on the TV nightly news.
So we are all waiting for it to be on the nightly news and then it has to be more than just one time on the nightly news too - it has to be gone over and over and over again.

Not because people don't know, or too stupid, but to keep the attention focused on the problem until those in power feel pressured, by the media.

That is why any puff pieces the media does is really - morally wrong. Sure people are interested in a famous football player killing his wife, but they just might be as interested in a rock star researcher that embezzled money the CDC gave him to research to see if vaccines cause autism. he bought a couple of big homes and fancy cars down in Atlanta GA. I wouldn't mind seeing those homes.


So there you have it the people - what they think - don't really matter.

I saw maple syrup in Kroger just last week, as a matter of fact. It was 15 dollars which shocked me!

I really like sorghum -- I have a few people that actually still grow their sorghum -- and crush it.
This whole family a couple of counties over has made a good living making it and selling it at all these craft fairs. They really work it though -- they still bring their mule and equipment to show people how it is done. People flock to them but they are probably buying it more for show than for health.


I had to laugh at the Candy corn thing -
Peaches and Cream -I've raised that it is very good
Ambrosia I've raised that - it was fine too
Honey Select -I've raised that too and it was fine.
Raised Silver Queen too --hmmm; corn should be yellow in my humble opinion.
I never heard of Lancelot, or Incredible.
Kandy is the best.

[Wildlife_Biologist]

The rider was a result of years of one-sided assessment and publication.

[Equilibrium]

I saved something in 1 of my files after seeing the term “grantsmanship” a while back….I forgot who mentioned it…. be back… I think you’ll like it being as how my guess is you’re a private sector scientist…. a Little Greenie….. by your username and blunt posts.
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Liquid> I bought some ‘Kandy Corn’. We’ll see how it goes. It could be another 1 like ‘Lancelot’…. good for southern growers…. not so good for northern growers.

adding....
Here goes…. it’s got to be 1 of the best explanations for why much of our science no longer serves us that I’ve ever read…. it’s an oldie but a goodie, 'Grantsmanship' Distorts Global Warming Science', http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/...global_wa.html, "Perhaps it has less to do with actual species' population trends and other such noisome facts and more to do with a novel nexus between the news-media and "grantsmanship" among academic researchers who have hit upon a winning formula: if one ties one's research project somehow -- even via the most tenuous and flimsy grounds -- to global warming, one's grant proposal will have much greater chance to be selected for funding, one's chances of appearing on 60 Minutes or NPR are greatly increased, and as a consequence of this positive PR for one's project, university and funding agency, one's grant is more likely to be renewed.

In contrast, if one continues to toil on relatively obscure scholarship where actual scientific data is important, trend lines have meaning, and logical debate is allowed, the chances of winning funding for one's work are greatly reduced. Scientists have learned therefore that they will be rewarded handsomely by identifying any tangential connection between their favorite studies and "global warming" alarmism. Like Pavlov's dog with a PhD.

Scientists are people too and, like anyone, crave a moment in the limelight, with his or her work celebrated in the news-media as being "relevant". Thus a moose expert who has toiled in anonymity for decades will find that if he or she mentions that the moose might be "threatened" by global warming, he or she is suddenly lionized by the media as another "expert" chiming in about the dangers of climate change (cf. first link above). And being an "expert", it is difficult for the layman (i.e. your average person who has not toiled for decades studying moose) to refute the assertion no matter how spurious the moose-expert's "science". We should acknowledge that even moose experts can be taken in by the anthropogenic global-warming hoax. A plant expert sees the moose expert win enormous attention and acclaim and thus inspired concludes "suddenly" that his or her favorite plant is somehow also affected by climate change in the hope of drawing similar positive attention -- and grant money”
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So beautiful in its simplicity…. don’t you think!!!!

[liquidambar]

Ah, very good Equil.
That is about what I spent my youth doing - reading journals as a student and one was on the hole in the ozone layer affecting frog eggs out west.

I am an “ex” scientist. I have over 100 publications in the field of materials science and physics. Many of these publications are in peer reviewed journals such as The Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Materials Research Society Journal and Journal of Applied Physics. I have sat on committees that review papers for these journals. I have worked at the following national laboratories: NIST, Oak Ridge (site X) and Brookhaven National Laboratory. I have spent 10 years living off of federally funded research. I have written winning proposals for government funding in the 10’s of millions of dollars. In short, I am very well aware of the process of getting and keeping funding and getting papers published in peer reviewed publications.
I have seen papers (perfectly good, well researched) papers rejected for publication for the following reasons:
1. The paper went against prevailing theory on a topic.
2. The paper was submitted by a company that was a competitor for government funding.
3. The paper was submitted by a government agency that was a competitor of the reviewer’s agency.
4. The author of the paper was disliked by one of the reviewers.
This is how the funding process works:
1. You determine what the latest ‘hot’ topic is (global warming, ceramic superconductivity, stealth technology).
2. You write your proposal to fund the work you’ve been doing for years in your area but you slant it towards the hot topic.
3. You almost “prove” that the above hot topic is effected in a way that is positive toward your research.
4. You write a follow-on proposal where you state that the really big break-through will occur in the next funding cycle.
5. Oh, and you try to partner with entities that always get government funding.
It works like this: You study frogs in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Nobody wants to fund the study of frogs. Why would they? So in the early 80’s you write your proposal to study the effect of the hole in the ozone layer on the frogs. The mid 80’s your try to figure out how to write a proposal on frogs and missile defense but give up. In the 90’s you write proposals on how frog pee can help certain forms of cancer. You partner with NIH on this because they are getting lots of funding, being the ‘hot’ agency. You both know that the results are useless from the get go but you do it anyway. In the late 90’s you write proposals on how frogs from South Dakota can be used to detect nerve gas as part of the Global War on Terrorism. You routinely reject papers to the Journal of Herpetology that claim that five lined skinks can detect nerve gas by their tails falling off. In the 2000’s you are awarded grants to study the decline of frog populations in the Black Hills due to global warming, despite the fact the frogs were there through the last dozen ice ages and that they’ve survived eight periods since the last ice age where the temperature was much warmer than now. You know that the frog population is declining because the government is leasing the land to cattle ranchers and the cows are crapping in the water but you don’t really care because you’re now just a few years away from retirement and you don’t want to work at Burger King.

By the way -- Kandy is not a southern corn. I grew it while living up in Michigan and it preformed great as always.

Wild Live Biologist does this sound like the way it works?