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Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

bbc.com

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Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#51

Post by newman8r »

M_Grey wrote: post #47
newman8r wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jethro: "Your herbicide is too deadly, how can I drink my beer and aim the sprayer at the same time without getting this shit all over my crops and killin em?" Sales Rep: "Oh, you mean you'd use more if it didn't do that... well I mean, I suppose... we could genetically engineer new crops so you could spray as much as you wanted without harming them" Jethro: "We farmers are simple folk and we are environmentalist - s…

I like the idea that "Jethro" is still running the farm. It's not usually true, but I guess it makes for a more amusing anecdote.

The funny thing is there's basically a jethro in my family but I won't get into that here. In California there's still some specialty crops on expensive land that allow for family owned operations but even here it's probably going to be a thing of the past soon.

I worked on an avocado ranch (insert unnamed corporate sponsor here) in undergrad and I met a lot of "jethros" - there's a fraternity called AGR, I think that's where they trained them.

Even the guys with agribusiness degrees at cal poly were hicks, I used to drink beers on the job, etc. And I was in charge of killing the gophers, sometimes with horrible poison, sometimes with "rodex".

The day I quit, I said something about the entire field of agriculture not being interesting enough and I switched majors the next quarter.

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#52

Post by [deleted] »

allendoerfer wrote: post #38
pinaceae wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Heroin, basically a form of Morphine, has legit medical uses. Just like LSD and other fairly simple, potent molecules. Banning any R&D outright on them was a huge setback for medicine.

> are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin.

[deleted]

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#53

Post by forgetsusername »

allendoerfer wrote: post #38
pinaceae wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Heroin, basically a form of Morphine, has legit medical uses. Just like LSD and other fairly simple, potent molecules. Banning any R&D outright on them was a huge setback for medicine.

> are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin.

>Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin.

What cave do you live in where heroin and other opiate usage isn't already a massive issue, even though it's illegal?

Are you going to start mainlining heroin just because it's legal? I'm not. The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail.

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#54

Post by johnward »

I thought Bayer was Covestro now. So I had to look it up and Bayer still exists but Covestro was spun off.

"Covestro is a spinout formed in the fall of 2015 from Bayer; it was formerly Bayer's $12.3 billion materials science division. "

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#55

Post by forgetsusername »

reacweb wrote: post #45

Many documentaries have been broadcasted on TV in France about Mosanto. It was depicted a the evil personified (like http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsan... ). Most of this must be correct because no repeated broadcast has been prohibited. Now, I wonder if this was a plot. Maybe Bayer has favored these broadcasts to reduce the cost of takeover. Maybe Bayer is worst than Mosanto. Welcome parano…

>Most of this must be correct because no repeated broadcast has been prohibited.

I'm not sure that's a useful heuristic...

We all know Monsanto is not innocent of wrongdoing, but I'll bet 90% of what you read/hear about them is a complete misinterpretation or conspiracy theory.

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#56

Post by flyinghamster »

pinaceae wrote: post #36
pygy_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zyklon B to buy Agent Orange... Such a nice fit.

a bit more complicated - IG Farben also produced multiple Nobel Prices in Medicine, represented the merged version of pretty much the complete German chemical industry. AGFA, Bayer, BASF, Sanofi all trace back to IG Farben. Not unlikely that you personally are alive because of their contributions to medicine. Unlike say Coca Cola or McDonalds. But yes, at the same time IG Farben used slave labor in WW2, experimented…

WW2 was in some ways as much a war between corporations as it was a war between governments. Not to mention, some corporations happily played both sides of the conflict; ITT [0] and General Motors [1] among the more notorious examples.

[0] http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_... (drawing on other sources)

[1] http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Nazis-rode-to-war-on-G...

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#57

Post by burkaman »

allendoerfer wrote: post #44
newman8r wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

speak for yourself, there are plenty of people who think full and unquestionable legalization is the best way to start addressing addiction in modern society rather than treating it like a literal war.

I am living in a city whose drug strategy is a model for others [0]. You can both help the junkies and prosecute the dealers all without gang shootings on the streets. [0] http://www.dw.com/en/frankfurt-still-germanys-drug-capital-b...

There is often more than one reasonable approach to a problem.

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#58

Post by maxerickson »

newman8r wrote: post #51
M_Grey wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the idea that "Jethro" is still running the farm. It's not usually true, but I guess it makes for a more amusing anecdote.

The funny thing is there's basically a jethro in my family but I won't get into that here. In California there's still some specialty crops on expensive land that allow for family owned operations but even here it's probably going to be a thing of the past soon. I worked on an avocado ranch (insert unnamed corporate sponsor here) in undergrad and I met a lot of "jethros" - there's a fraternity called AGR, I think tha…

The typical US farm is a family owned business.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/201431/eib24b_1_.pdf

A key para Ninety-eight percent of U.S. farms are family farms. The remaining 2 percent are nonfamily farms, which produce 15 percent of the value of agricultural output (fig. 4). Two features of family farms stand out. First, there are many small family farms (

So large closely held farms produce 60% of US output and smaller farms produce another 25% of US output.

Re: Bayer confirms $66bn Monsanto takeover

#59

Post by allendoerfer »

forgetsusername wrote: post #53
allendoerfer wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> are we for the legalization of drugs today or against? Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin.

> Nobody in their right mind wants to legalize heroin. What cave do you live in where heroin and other opiate usage isn't already a massive issue, even though it's illegal? Are you going to start mainlining heroin just because it's legal? I'm not. The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail.

> The point of legalization is to stop throwing addicts in jail.

What cave do you live in where you have to legalize heroin to do that? Please visit the link I posted before your comment.

You do not have to legalize heroin to supply clean needles, clean rooms and not prosecute junkies. You can do all that, still keep it illegal to sell and hunt down the dealers.

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