Monday, April 6, 2015

The Road to Ruin is Paved with Gold: Buy Monsanto - Drinking Poison, Kissing Butterflies, and Making Money

http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/the-road-to-ruin-is-paved-with-gold-buy-monsanto-nyse-mon/6031
I have a love and hate relationship with GMOs.
On one hand I LOVE inventions of things like seedless oranges and watermelons. I'm still waiting on an avocado shrub I could grow in a bay window, though (wink wink) I know it's coming!
On the flip side, I hate some of the health risks associated with spraying Agent Orange on all of our food... or the practice of strong-arming farmers into unbreakable contracts and eradicating heirloom vegetables.
Love, hate. It's a constant struggle. So I try hard to ignore it.
In fact, I try really hard to live in denial.
You were born that way Cookie Crisp! I know it!
Now, I can't tell what is worse, the bad publicity Monsanto (NYSE: MON) gets – we all know GMOs and pesticides are NOT natural and potentially potentially harmful – or how it insists on shoving its foot so deep in its mouth that it's popping out the other end.
Case in point:
A few days ago, the W.H.O. released a report that suggested glyphosate, which is an ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup Ready cocktail, “probably causes cancer.”
This wasn't the decision of one guy.
There were seventeen impartial scientists from around the world involved. They were all studying the same compound. And their vote was unanimous. IT PROBABLY CAUSES CANCER.
If seventeen auto mechanics looked at my car and said, “it'll start but once you put it in gear and get on the highway, your brakes won't work at all”, I'd think twice before getting on 95 in rush hour.
But I digress...
This decision puts glyphosate on the W.H.O.'s list with other known dangers. Things like cigarettes... asbestos... and working the late shift at a 24-7 Zips.
Am I surprised by this new label? Um, no.
It was initially put on it back in the '80s, after studies first revealed that “IT PROBABLY CAUSES CANCER.”
After all, the product was first introduced in the Vietnam War under the name Agent Orange. A chemical compound that is still directly tied to many birth defects in the nation.
But my point isn't whether or not Roundup is a cancer causing substance. Hell, I had no idea that it was off the list – or that they kept a special list – in the first place.
And really, with my diet, I'm too deep, too all-in, to really do anything about it now.
I know life isn't a confessional where you say you're sorry, change your ways and are forgiven. If it's going to get me, it's already in the system.
So screw it. Enjoy the ride.
My point is this could have been swept under the rug if Monsanto did absolutely nothing. If it only ignored the paper, we wouldn't be any wiser.
I mean, I don't read the latest W.H.O. reports. They don't show up with my Arbutus Times or Wall Street Journal in the morning. I don't make looking for the newest boring scientific paper a part of my morning routine.
And odds are that you don't either, unless it's your job.
So all they had to do was ignore the W.H.O.'s report.
But could they?! Of course not.
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