Friday, January 25, 2008
Monsanto and USDA Corn Insurance Policy
Last Fall, I took a class to witness the "Mobile Technology Unit" - a PR machine created to sell Monsanto's version of corporate agriculture (check out the video they made of its construction). Since that visit, I've been receiving Monsanto newsletters and other PR materials (visitors signed in). Most recently, they sent out a reproduction of a Brownfield news article (Brownfield is an Ag news org - talk about picking a strange name) about the USDA Risk Management Agency's (RMA) approval of a crop insurance program called the "Biotech Yield Endorsement." Available to corn growers in Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, the plan gives insurance premium reductions to those who plant a specific Monsanto produced variety of corn (YieldGard (r) and Roundup Ready (r) combinations). According to USDA RMA officials, this is the first time that such an insurance discount has been offered based on a specific technology.The politics of corn continues...
Friday, January 18, 2008
More on Consumer Genetic Testing
The New York Times has another, much needed, piece on the rise in genetic tests being offered to people on a consumer level and the lack of oversight and regulation of them.Archives
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