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Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

blog.cloudant.com

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Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#61

Post by run4yourlives »

dionidium wrote: post #50
zquestz wrote: post #39

Supporting Monsanto is supporting the end of our organic food supply. It saddens me to see any YC company supporting such an evil organization. Money just isn't worth it.

Supporting Ford is supporting the end of our organic transportation industry. I'm kidding, but it is worth remembering that the word "organic" doesn't contain in it some magical counterargument that requires no further elaboration.

Most people would take "organic" in this context to mean "natural", as in if you plant one seed, you can grow a crop, save some of the harvest and replant the seeds for next year, like we've been doing since we started farming.

That is what Monsanto wants to stop.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#62

Post by WiseWeasel »

glimcat wrote: post #33
oldstrangers wrote: post #2

Fuck Monsanto, and by association, fuck Cloudant. "We’ve been working with them for a few weeks now and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the partnership." Thrilled? I guess money is thrilling. "The data & reporting interfaces will be used across Monsanto and should be instrumental in the making of key business decisions." Key business decisions like which small farmer to sue into oblivion? Or what third world nation…

Sounds like a problem to solve with a disruptive startup. Got any actionable ideas?

Smarter and cheaper robots. If the cost of labor for growing food organically on a large scale could be reduced, it would have a disruptive impact on conventional agriculture.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#63

Post by irrumator »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #12

Heh. I didn't know what to expect when I came here, but frankly I was a bit surprised to see the ethical implications of this deal weighed so heavily here. Not that I view the HN community as cut throat necessarily, but certainly often business oriented. Granted this was only posted an hour ago, but I will try to less judgementally provoke a discussion regarding ethics and startups... Is it wrong to even associate wi…

Agreed, I don't think I've ever seen so many 'fucks' and similar words used on an HN thread before. For some reason all these new posters are tying every company which they have a grudge against with Monsanto, and by association, with Cloudant. Amusing to read all the pent up angered comments, with any dissenting ones heavily downvoted. Did /r/politics arrive to stay? What happened here?

Cloudant is providing an amazing infrastructure to power a large client, and with that, they grow as a business and innovate in technology. I don't see anything wrong with congratulating them for their securing of this great partnership, and I find the response here from the mainly younger accounts very disappointing.

edit: We've hit Godwin's law pretty quickly already I see.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#64

Post by bbest86 »

andylei wrote: post #37
hysterix wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's some high quality propaganda you are spewing out there. Tell me, since you obviously know so much about the worlds current problem with food. Why is it that food production has gone up, yet the number of starving and hungry individuals throughout the world hasn't changed significantly? The answer is there isn't a food abundance problem, there is a food availability problem. People don't grow crops and just giv…

> Why is it that food production has gone up, yet the number of starving and hungry individuals throughout the world hasn't changed significantly? Care to back that up with evidence? The Global hunger index ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Hunger_Index ), indicates that hunger has decreased over the past 20 years. Out of the 30 countries with the most hunger, only 3 have more hunger now than 20 years ago. Every…

That may be true but I also do not believe that the improvements in the last 20 years have had anything to do with food production. As Sen argued way back in 1981 the cause of hunger and famine is political, not due to a lack of ability to grow food. Somalia this year is case and point.

The green revolution (as led by Norman Borlaug not Monsanto) may be able to take credit for some of the advances during the 60s and 70s but any advances due to Monsanto in recent years cannot be made up for by their completely unjust business practices as others have mentioned.

I am also disappointed in hearing that a YC company is going this direction.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#65

Post by sespindola »

dionidium wrote: post #27
white_devil wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone already posted this: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto... But seriously, if even the politically correct & good natured commenters on HN are unanimous in their hatred for Monsanto, you can be pretty sure it's a pretty despicable company. So yes, fuck Monsanto, and fuck Cloudant too. Supporting Monsanto in any way is disgusting . You should be ashamed of yourselves.

But seriously, if even the politically correct & good natured commenters on HN are unanimous in their hatred for Monsanto, you can be pretty sure it's a pretty despicable company. Do I really need to point out that this is a logical fallacy?

It is, from an absolute standpoint.

But if people all around the world and from every angle of the ideological spectrum universally vilifies a corporation, I think it would merit to look into their affairs with suspicion.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#66

Post by klbarry »

dionidium wrote: post #15

I'll offer the first unqualified congratulations. I don't think it's at all obvious that Monsanto is a perpetrator of "devastating evil" (as one of the comments says below) and I'd love it if one or more of the critics would do more than merely state that as fact.

I am completely with Dionidium here. I've read a number of the books (Michael Pollen, etc.), seen the documentaries, read the science. There are bad effects from agriculture and livestock. Monsanto is not especially bad in this regard - unless you want to not associate with anyone in the food industry who's not organic, it is stupid to place so much hate on them.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#67

Post by tptacek »

davidandgoliath wrote: post #60
dionidium wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this article is as damning as many of the commenters seem to think. - The section addressing the lawsuits includes a lot of "farmers say this" type statements. It's not very long on facts. It even admits that some farmers simply aren't aware of their obligations in many cases. The only case that was actually litigated that I'm aware of is Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser -- a case in which the farmer a…

"The only case that was actually litigated..." Certainly -- because most give in vs. the threat of a lawsuit that'll put them in financial ruins. There's no EFF or ACLU for farmers, though I'm now thinking there should be.

I think we need to be careful with the notion that the most sympathetic party is most likely to be right.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#69

Post by tptacek »

dionidium wrote: post #36
inmygarage wrote: post #16

For those looking for some background on Monsanto, take the time to read through this Vanity Fair article from 2008: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto... .

I don't think this article is as damning as many of the commenters seem to think. - The section addressing the lawsuits includes a lot of "farmers say this" type statements. It's not very long on facts. It even admits that some farmers simply aren't aware of their obligations in many cases. The only case that was actually litigated that I'm aware of is Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser -- a case in which the farmer a…

Feel free to correct me on this, as I'm likely to be wrong.

Loosely, the way Monsanto's GMO crop system works is, their crops are designed to resist a specific herbicide, which Monsanto also sells. Farmers pay a per-acre licensing fee to use the system, meaning they plant the GMO crops and then bomb their fields with the herbicide to kill everything but the crop, which improves yield.

The fact pattern in these Monsanto lawsuits seems to be that farmers are doing three things: (1) planting Monsanto's GMO crops (intentionally or not), (2) using Monsanto's herbicide to take advantage of the improved yield made possible with the crop, and (3) not paying Monsanto.

It is obviously possible for Monsanto GMO crops to end up in an unsuspecting farmer's field. But it's not possible for a farmer to accidentally use Roundup as an herbicide in that field. If they do that without paying Monsanto, they are trying to get something for nothing. That, to my understanding, is what's motivating the lawsuits.

Where am I wrong on this?

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#70

Post by pg »

oldstrangers wrote: post #2

Fuck Monsanto, and by association, fuck Cloudant. "We’ve been working with them for a few weeks now and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the partnership." Thrilled? I guess money is thrilling. "The data & reporting interfaces will be used across Monsanto and should be instrumental in the making of key business decisions." Key business decisions like which small farmer to sue into oblivion? Or what third world nation…

It's an unfortunate sign for HN when the top comment on a thread is such a content-free rant.

If the rule is, if x sells something to Monsanto, fuck x, then what you're saying is fuck the entire corporate world, because I'm sure Monsanto buys Apple computers and Chevrolets and Clorox too. It's sort of ridiculous to hold Cloudant to a standard that essentially zero other companies meet.

There are frequently inane comments of this type at the bottom of HN threads. What's alarming is to see them at the top.

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