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The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)
Mon Jul 8, 2013, 10:02 PM Jul 2013

Monsanto hopes to win over beekeepers with cure

At the close of Monsanto Co.’s “Bee Health Summit” Thursday, at least a few beekeepers in attendance were still a little incredulous about where they’d just spent the last three days.

“I can’t believe I’m at Monsanto,” said Gene Brandi, a beekeeper from California, echoing a colleague’s comments from the previous night. “But the honey bees brought me here.”

The conference, which began Tuesday, was an effort by the Creve Coeur-based biotechnology giant to introduce itself to the beekeeping industry — a community in which it could find customers one day, and one that has some Monsanto skeptics in its ranks.

“The goal in my mind was pretty simple,” said Jerry Hayes, a veteran bee expert who leads Monsanto’s bee research efforts. “To connect the beekeeping industry more closely to Monsanto, and to connect Monsanto more closely to the beekeeping industry. They’ve heard all the big scary stuff about the company. We want to raise their comfort level.”

The company is working on a new technology intended to control a tiny insect, called the varroa mite, that has been a major factor in the decimation of honey bees. If Monsanto successfully brings the technology to market, it could be a blockbuster.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/monsanto-hopes-to-win-over-beekeepers-with-cure/article_19e82066-0e5f-5a57-bcfd-9232d81db401.html

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bluestate10

(10,942 posts)
3. You would help your argument if you elaborate on what your personal experience was.
Mon Jul 8, 2013, 10:36 PM
Jul 2013

Otherwise, you are just throwing up a straw man that no one other than those pre-disposed to agree with your slant can take seriously.

Romulus Quirinus

(524 posts)
7. "Strawman" means that you state your opponent's argument in a way that is easy to attack
Mon Jul 8, 2013, 10:42 PM
Jul 2013

then attack it. I'm afraid that I don't see how the poster did that by saying what they did. :/

bluestate10

(10,942 posts)
6. They are going after a parasite that is killing bees. But I see your point. If drug companies
Mon Jul 8, 2013, 10:41 PM
Jul 2013

can come up with a male enhancement pill that can causes four erections, then Monsanto can come up with a parasite killer than causes honey bees to look for blood instead of nectar. But those possibilities are in the future, if Monsanto is sane, the company should bend over backward to insure that it's parasite killer does just that and nothing else.

bluestate10

(10,942 posts)
8. Sort of. But if the blade that is swinging over Monsanto's head was present....
Mon Jul 8, 2013, 10:43 PM
Jul 2013

Monsanto can't blow it's save the bees effort, the blowback would be terrible if it does.

Honeycombe8

(37,648 posts)
9. So...Monsanto's ideas had nothing to do with changing their business practices...
Mon Jul 8, 2013, 10:44 PM
Jul 2013

so they wouldn't continue to kill bees? Only to pay off, so to speak, leading beekeepers, by promising to give money to help with a mite infestation that ALSO kills bees?

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