If farmers arn't stupid ....

So, the “Farmer Assurance“ thing – using farmers as their poster children — is
quite disingenuous. The biotech industry cares about farmers because farmers are their meal ticket.
Farmers are not stupid; we've learned that the promises of biotech were short
lived at best and to various degrees, simply false. The new GE crops are
basically the old GE crops, just redesigned to resist different, more toxic
herbicides while having become less effective at killing insect pests.
..Goodman, 12-14-12
If farmers aren't stupid, why have they planted GE crops from Saskachewan to Argentina? Why do Monsanto and their fellows in the Biotech Industry Association figure it is worth millions in bribes to Congress to make official the federal government failure of oversight concerning the health and environmental damage done by GE crops? Given that they know their business and have test marketed SWAT teams invading alleged seed saving farms and have streamlined their legal and propaganda operations to a point far more effective than their science ever was, the only way to figure their behavior is that they are betting on a near sure thing: the stupidity of farmers.
This includes, evidently, the well meaning and organically correct small farmer who wrote this article. What the little feller evidently does not understand that more and more "farmers" these days are the same hedge funds, insurance companies and other denizens of the finance, insurance and real estate special interests that invest in Monsanto, Inc. & Etc. And sometimes their finely and duly diligent business plans are based on assumptions as other worldly as the plan for infinite growth in the real estate market.
In short, to conclude, what my brother from a smaller planet who writes so eloquently up to a point below fails to fathom is the depth of the stupidity of corporate agribusiness. But his state still calls itself the "Dairy State" on its license plates when, in fact, California is now the largest dairy state in the land and our corporate dairymen are so brilliant and rich that they ship many of their 3-year-old cows to the slaughterhouse because somehow the poor things didn't process the drugs and hormones right and produce the milk promised by the drug companies and required by the dairyman to cover the investment.
Badlands Journal editorial board
 

12-17-12
Ecofarm GE News Service

Monsanto gets its way in Ag Bill
By Jim Goodman
https://bay002.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#n=151093192&fid=1&mid...
This article was originally published by The Progressive on December 14, 2012.  This link is to a reprint on CommonDreams.org.

"The Farmers Assurance Provision" is the title of a rider, Section 733, inserted
into the House of Representatives 2013 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Somehow,
as a farmer, I don't feel the least bit assured.
 
The only assurance it provides is that Monsanto and the rest of the agriculture
biotech industry will have carte blanche to force the government to allow the
planting of their biotech seeds.
 
In addition, the House Agriculture Committee’s 2012 farm bill draft includes
three riders – Sections 1011, 10013 and 10014. These amendments would
essentially destroy any oversight of new Genetically Engineered (GE) crops by
the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
 
If these riders had been in place during the review of GE alfalfa, Monsanto
could have requested – no they could have compelled – the Secretary of
Agriculture to allow continued planting of GE alfalfa even though a federal
court had ruled commercialization was illegal pending completion of an
environmental impact study.
 
Essentially, the riders would prevent the federal courts from restricting, in
any way, the planting of a GE crop, regardless of environmental, health or
economic concerns. USDA's mandated review process would be, like court-ordered
restrictions, meaningless. A request to USDA to allow planting of a GE crop
awaiting approval would have to be granted.
 
Wow, who's next to get in on a deal like this, the drug companies?
 
Not only will the riders eviscerate the power of USDA and the authority of the
courts, but it will also permanently dismiss any input from other agencies, such
as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Fish and Wildlife Service or
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
 
Does Congress really believe it has the right to remove the court's power of
Congressional oversight? Doesn't that violate the separation of powers
guaranteed in the Constitution?
 
The trade group behind the riders, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO),
insists that the riders do not, in any way, reduce regulatory requirements for
new GE crops. What? They only eliminate any oversight from the judicial branch –
that’s sort of a big thing.
 
The approval process for new GE crops is not without its perceived delays. As
limited as it may be, review takes time but getting new GE crops approved is a
cakewalk.
 
The new GE crops are basically the old GE crops, just redesigned to resist
different, more toxic herbicides while having become less effective at killing
insect pests.
 
StarLink corn and Liberty Link rice slipped through the approval process only to
have major contamination and health issues after commercialization. Once a crop
is in the USDA pipeline, approval is a near certainty.
 
BIO insists the riders are necessary to avoid delays in approval. Of course,
delays cost them MONEY, which is obviously all they are concerned about. If they
were concerned about environmental impacts, or food safety, wouldn't they
request input from EPA and FDA?
 
So, the “Farmer Assurance“ thing – using farmers as their poster children — is
quite disingenuous. The biotech industry cares about farmers because farmers are
their meal ticket.
 
Farmers are not stupid; we've learned that the promises of biotech were short
lived at best and to various degrees, simply false. The new GE crops are
basically the old GE crops, just redesigned to resist different, more toxic
herbicides while having become less effective at killing insect pests.
 
No, the Farmer Assurance Provision and the Farm Bill riders – are not about
farmers, nor are they about speeding needed crops to the waiting public. They’re
about getting fast rubber stamp approval for new, profitable GE crops.
 
These riders are an effort to end run Congress, the Courts and the Constitution.
 
Corporate collusion with government is not new, but this takes it to a new
level. By allowing corporations to subvert the Constitution, Congress is saying
that corporate influence and profits are more important than the best interests
of the people.
 
Corporations are not people, my friends, despite the Supreme Court's Citizens
United decision.
 

 
Jim Goodman and his wife Rebecca run a 45-cow organic dairy and direct market
beef farm in southwest Wisconsin. His farming roots trace back to his
great-grandfather's immigration from Ireland during the famine and the farm's
original purchase in 1848. A farm activist, Jim credits more than 150 years of
failed farm and social policy as his motivation to advocate for a
farmer-controlled consumer-oriented food system. Jim currently serves on the
policy advisory boards for the Center for Food Safety and the Organic Consumers
Association, and is a board member of Midwest Environmental Advocates and of the
Family Farm Defenders.