Monsanto Suit & Boosting Biofuels

Monsanto Suit & Boosting Biofuels plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Monsanto is suing DuPont and its wholly owned subsidiary Pioneer to prevent unlawful use of Roundup Ready herbicide tolerant technologies in corn. That’s according to Monsanto’s website. Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant says unlawfully taking technology is unethical and wrong. But DuPont claims Monsanto is trying to deny farmers access to alternative technologies at a time when they’re struggling with weeds increasingly resistant to current Monsanto products. DuPont group vice president James C. Borel says Monsanto has a history of using litigation and aggressive tactics to preserve their monopoly.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack saying that Congress has directed more efforts aimed at farmers to help them to produce biofuels or use more renewable energy.

VILSACK: What Congress has directed USDA to do is to make available resources to farmers to first and foremost audit their activities on farm to determine if there are steps that could be taken by individual farm families to convert to renewable energy sources and to move away from fossil fuels. Once the audits are finished then they can make application to the USDA for additional resources to convert their operation.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

As if children now days don’t have enough stress and anxieties in their lives, what with the daily grind of school, studying, sports schedules, and avoiding strangers, now they are being bombarded with eco-propaganda. It seems that it’s no longer enough for children to support the planet by recycling and conserving energy, they are now the target of activists groups who are promoting their version of animal rights via school tie ins. Groups such as PETA who are pushing vegetarianism to very vulnerable and susceptible young children by way of “guilt” could very well result in creating yet another generation of teenagers with eating disorders. Children have enough to worry about without adding the fear of eating so called “bad foods” to the list. It is all well and good for an adult who chooses to be a vegetarian, but these so called animal rights activists should not be preying on school children who have enough to worry about without laying the weight of “saving the world” on their shoulders. Our children being informed is one thing, being misinformed is strictly another.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.