Iatrogenic war (on weeds)
A few weeks back, the New York Times made mention of an astounding development, which has, for whatever reason, received little fanfare or recognition. Despite its Vietnam War notoriety, Agent Orange is in vogue again, this time down on the farm. Its reemergence, and in this particular setting, raises a host of troubling questions that are not being well considered.
Over the past year, there have been increasing reports of emerging superweeds resistant to Roundup, the preferred weedkiller of America’s farmers. Roundup is sold in tandem with Roundup-ready seeds, both marquee products of the Monsanto Corporation. In the 1990s, when the latter product hit the market, it was momentous, revolutionary – a godsend: Roundup-ready seeds are genetically designed to resist application of the potent herbicide. By sowing Roundup-ready seeds and dousing their fields with the trademark weedkiller, farmers could forego the expense and toil of tilling the land, and losing valuable topsoil in the process. Production was enhanced, time and money saved. It was quite an economic boon to farmers, at least in the short…
Marcilla Elizabeth Smith:
I’m trying to imagine taking a time machine to 1985 and trying to explain to people that in 25 years: 1) a component of Agent Orange will be tested for use on our food, 2) nuclear warheads will be discussed as a solution to environmental disasters, 3) the President will be a Democratic Constitutional Law scholar born in Hawaii, raised overseas, and have mixed African and white American ancestry, YET he will be branded a “socialist” even as he enacts Reagan-style “trickle down” economics, 4) the US will be using flying, robotic military platforms called “Predator Drones” they will use to attack tribal people living in Afghanistan (meanwhile, the UK already has a military satellite called “SkyNet”)… I mean, forgive me if I’ve missed any dystopian futures foreshadowed by the media of the period — oh wait, how could I forget Mad Max — 5) Peak oil will be two years past with our “best solution” being something called “cap and trade” which is best simply understood as a way to make money off the disaster…
I mean… who would believe you except the most paranoid doomsdayer/conspiracy theorist? So, we can’t be more than a couple of years from whatever RoboCop implications there are to be had. Maybe in 6-7 years celebrity suicides could be proposed to encourage a trend of “self-inflicted population reduction measures.” And then 15 years from now we could enter the Matrix, which is only 4 years off from Ray Kurzweil’s 2029 prediction.
13 July 2010, 5:55 amAntifa:
Agent Orange does a body good:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwwjonathantaylornet/sets/72057594123160334/
This is not about corn or soy. This is about babies.
13 July 2010, 7:43 amPete:
Hey Marcilla,
Have you seen this:
Ray Kurzweil Responds to the Issue of Accuracy of His Predictions
http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/01/ray-kurzweil-responds-to-issue-of.html
13 July 2010, 5:11 pmMarcilla Elizabeth Smith:
Pete,
I started reading that but… how do I say this… Mr. Kurzweil is very good on forecasting, no argument there. I’d rather spend my time around a Jamais Cascio, though.
20 July 2010, 8:19 amTodd Millions:
Yes-the oh so safe agent orange is back-whith the help of ag-tox canada here in the frosty bananna republic!
31 July 2010, 4:39 pmDespite the carefully corprate contolled and payed for ‘research’,and the prepaid gov and acedemic whores telling us how safe and wonderful it is-even ranchers whom at this stage have NO excuse for beleiving(the christian version,sic-no or despite evidence)are buying into it.
between the trucks,beer and church-they don’t even know what the loss of pollinaters means to there wintre feed supply.
Weed control can be accomplished via insects that are causing spray freak outs amounghst the witless mono croppers.
Select grazing is also a good control strategy that requires careful on site managment and timing-the growing seasons and life cycle of the target timing-NOT when some Ahole wants to finish his cell calls and get out of the airconditioned truch cab.This doesn’t work anymore for the military than for a monsanto serf.
More over many of the weeds are good feed for stock and people-weeds don’t keep is why they aren’t vegtables in many cases.But-the do freeze well(might require blanching),often dry well and even if not eaten,can make tonic teas to counteract somewhat are nutrient defiecent and outright toxic gm diet.
Specifics?-in the north-try pigweed in cooking,dandielions ,purslane-if it goes rank later in the year,cover it for a couple days with a shade container.This usually restores tenderness.
Avoid mustard greens-they are back crossing with the officially safe GM canola despite that this back crossing officially can’t occur ,and are quite toxic to man and beast.For control of this -capture and statigically release the flea beeltes the Ahole growing this are trying to eradicate.
Stan:
For future reference, this site strongly discourages the use of the term “whore.” Good information here, no reason to taint it with sexist language.
1 August 2010, 7:33 am