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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

#111

Post by run4yourlives »

william42 wrote: post #78
run4yourlives wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I have to choose between "plant one seed, save some of the harvest, and replant the seeds for next year" and saving the lives of a billion(10^9) people from starvation , I'm picking the latter. this is what the Green Revolution did.

That's a false dichotomy.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#112

Post by davidandgoliath »

tptacek wrote: post #99
dionidium wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. It's not necessary that the farmer derive any benefit from mis-use of Monsanto's IP…

In the most famous (only?) case taken to trial, the party accused of breaching Monsanto's IP was in fact using Roundup.

Nationwide review found that Monsanto has filed 90 lawsuits targeting 147 farmers & 39 small businesses since '97. Article from '05, assuming research was done up until then.

Probably the sole one to go to trial & get significant bouts of attention.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-01-14/news/050114025...

Here's a farmer that won though: http://www.percyschmeiser.com/ :)

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#113

Post by InclinedPlane »

Personally, I am very anti-Monsanto.

However, I'm a bit surprised at the sentiment expressed here. Monsanto may be a pretty shitty company, but they are not satan. More so, I'm not convinced that Monsanto's actions are so exceptionally egregious compared to so many others.

What about Cisco getting into bed with China and other oppressive regimes in helping to track down dissidents? What about companies filtering and censoring content (twitter's hash-tag policing, for example)? Or ISPs and hosting companies rolling over with zero effort when presented with take-down notices or requests for customer information (even without a subpoena)?

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#114

Post by andylei »

davidandgoliath wrote: post #112
tptacek wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the most famous (only?) case taken to trial, the party accused of breaching Monsanto's IP was in fact using Roundup.

Nationwide review found that Monsanto has filed 90 lawsuits targeting 147 farmers & 39 small businesses since '97. Article from '05, assuming research was done up until then. Probably the sole one to go to trial & get significant bouts of attention. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-01-14/news/050114025... Here's a farmer that won though: http://www.percyschmeiser.com/ :)

uh... he lost: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc._v._Schmeis...

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#115

Post by [deleted] »

andylei wrote: post #84
kreek wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1! If you want to learn more about this watch Food Inc. available on NetFlix streaming. If you have high blood pressure you may want to skip the part where an Indiana man explains how he was sued by Monsanto for inducing farmers to violate patents by seed cleaning - a practice utilized by farmers for thousands of years.

from what i understand, seed cleaning is part of a process to extract seeds from a harvested crop. monsanto did not sue that man for cleaning seeds, they sued that guy because he marketed his services to farmers using monsanto seeds, claiming that those farmers could extract seeds from their harvest to avoid buying more monsanto seeds. however, when you buy seeds from monsanto, you sign an explicit agreement saying t…

[deleted]

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#116

Post by tptacek »

davidandgoliath wrote: post #112
tptacek wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the most famous (only?) case taken to trial, the party accused of breaching Monsanto's IP was in fact using Roundup.

Nationwide review found that Monsanto has filed 90 lawsuits targeting 147 farmers & 39 small businesses since '97. Article from '05, assuming research was done up until then. Probably the sole one to go to trial & get significant bouts of attention. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-01-14/news/050114025... Here's a farmer that won though: http://www.percyschmeiser.com/ :)

You're not replying to my comment so much as you're using it as a coat rack to hang more random news stories about Monsanto on.

Obviously, the practice of suing farmers for (ostensibly) abusing licensed seed is controversial. Obviously you're going to find a lot of stories with a lot of angry farmers and angry farmers' advocates.

But you're not actually making a point with those citations, unless I'm missing it. Help me understand what this has to do with whether Monsanto is right or not?

Schmeisser, by the way, is a uniquely bad example: he didn't just make unauthorized copies (accidentally or not) of Roundup-ready seeds; he also used Roundup to control weeds on the Roundup-ready crops.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#117

Post by viggity »

biznickman wrote: post #96
pg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comm…

I agree that the comment is content-free but honestly what did the company expect when they're boasting about their partnership with one of the world's most hated companies? I'm not exactly alarmed to see this comment at the top because it's ridiculous that the company was dumb enough to issue this press release. We all need to pay our bills but to boast about working with a hated company is just a stupid PR move. Ap…

"most hated aspects of the company (genetic manipulation of seeds)"

1. Genetic manipulation of seeds is going to feed the world. And at the rate our population is growing, we're going to need it.

2. They weren't talking about genetic insertions, instead they said "Genome Analysis". Genome analysis helps plant breeders find plants that already have advantageous genes and try to quantify their effect of these genes.

3. I don't particularly like Monsanto (I worked for a competitor) but I'm not sure Monsanto is "one of the world's most hated companies" outside hacker and hippie circles.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#118

Post by redthrowaway »

biznickman wrote: post #96
pg wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 comm…

I agree that the comment is content-free but honestly what did the company expect when they're boasting about their partnership with one of the world's most hated companies? I'm not exactly alarmed to see this comment at the top because it's ridiculous that the company was dumb enough to issue this press release. We all need to pay our bills but to boast about working with a hated company is just a stupid PR move. Ap…

> they're not only admitting to power one of the most hated aspects of the company (genetic manipulation of seeds), but they're actually touting it as a win for the company.

It is a win for Cloudant. A huge win. They're a data company, not a biological warfare company. Their product will be used in an incredibly data-intensive application to do some really cool analysis. That's awesome for a data startup, and something to be proud of.

If I were a maker of a light-weight, high-strength alloy, should I be ashamed if Lockheed Martin wants to use it in their newest fighter jet? Of course not. I should be stoked that my product is getting such a high-profile endorsement, and excited about what it means for future development.

This announcement lends huge credibility to BigCouch, and will likely lead to future deals. They'd be idiots and incredibly poor businessmen if they didn't announce it with some fanfare.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#119

Post by tptacek »

biznickman wrote: post #109
biznickman wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the comment is content-free but honestly what did the company expect when they're boasting about their partnership with one of the world's most hated companies? I'm not exactly alarmed to see this comment at the top because it's ridiculous that the company was dumb enough to issue this press release. We all need to pay our bills but to boast about working with a hated company is just a stupid PR move. Ap…

As a follow-on, Paul, based on your standards, "everybody" accepts money from anybody even if they're evil. This is also a policy that YCombinator apparently supports?? I would have preferred to be voting up a post about "Why Cloudera turned down Monsanto's business" to illustrate the fact that they have ethical standards and believe that those are important in business.

So you would rather every YC company shared your politics, and vote up stories about how they made business decisions to boost those politics.

Re: Monsanto chooses Cloudant to power its genome analytics

#120

Post by sitkack »

inconditus wrote: post #104
sitkack wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy and use Roundup w/o using their GMO seeds. Using Roundup isn't a sign of malfeasance. I can go by Roundup at Walmart, http://www.walmart.com/ip/Roundup-Weed-Grass-Killer-Concentr... doesn't mean I committed contract fraud with Monsanto. 1) Their seeds spread contaminating other farmer's fields. Once GMO is out in the wild, nothing can be pristine anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to find Monsanto genetics…

> I wouldn't be surprised to find Monsanto genetics having made its way into humans in 20 years. I don't know if you were joking, but I couldn't take you seriously after that.

> wouldn't be surprised.

There is much we don't know. There are many processes of ongoing genetic transfer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer

Next time ask for clarification.

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