this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
241 points (98.4% liked)
A Boring Dystopia
13938 readers
800 users here now
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
But Bill Nye said Monsanto was the best so ????????
There’s nothing wrong with genetically modifying foods. The problem is the exploitative legal contracts that they come with.
You don't even need GMO to create a crop that is covered via patent.
https://mnhardy.umn.edu/apples/licensing
The University of Minnesota has a large apple breeding system to create new varieties that it sells licenses to. The university funds the development by selling licenses on the trees.
We need FOSS seeds rather than proprietary ones.
We need to abandon the patent system entirely.
This actually exists. I don't have the specifics, but people have started collecting non-copyrighted seeds a long time and iirc also added some sort of licensing to it so MegaCorp cannot just suck it up later.
That's just traditional seed saving practices. They've essentially Public Domain. There's some small farms creating their own "artisan" varieties. Some times they're true breeding and the seeds can be harvested for replanting. Sometimes they're hybrids and simply can't be saved like that for technical reasons. The farms doing artisan stuff sometimes ask for a small donation if you do seed saving so they can put food on their table, but it's an honor system thing.
I don't think that it's unreasonable to expect to recoup the millions you spent on R&D for developing a new crop.
Yes, the length of ownership should be much shorter, but until the world governments collapse, technological advancements cost money and resources.
If you remove the ability to recoup R&D costs before addressing the need for private r&d at all, you're going to stifle innovation.
This isn't an endorsement for the current system, but these processes will continue to exist until the current system is replaced.
Of r&d came from any sort of university program or study at the facilities by any graduate or undergrads we already paid for the r&d more than likely it’s like when the government sold means and military vehicles vans gear to local cops we already paid once for it the first time and we are getting charged again
You can argue that until you're blue in the face and it won't mean shit.
While the system of government these drugs/crops are developed under is capitalist, we're stuck with the same shit.
This is an instance of "don't hate the player, hate the game."
It's totally reasonable to hate the players. The game can't continue without players. Legality is NOT morality.
I will hate the game and the player, thank you very much. Even under this system, other choices could have been made that are neither illegal or financially nonviable, so Monsanto is very much responsible for the choices they did make. They're not victims of the systems, they're gleefully pursuing everything the system lets them get away with.
Of course, if you want things to change, it is indeed changes to law and government incentives that need to be pursued. But in order for that to happen, you need enough people to get upset about the current state of things, and for that you need concrete examples. And it doesn't get more concrete than this.
Until the game changes to socialism, this is the reality of drug development.
Oh I’m aware of how Monsanto works.
I've been looking into this a little more and apparently Carey Gillam is buddy-buddy with RFK Jr. So I'm not sure how much I trust her.
Still, I had no idea Monsanto was responsible for Agent Orange. Learning that was enough to make watching this video worth it. Still, as with any other topic, you'll want to look for multiple resources.
The whole Monsanto bullshit is something I’ve been looking into for a long time my man. They are an evil company.
No disagreements here.