Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, August and September 2009, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Author Archives: John S. Quarterman
Grilling Okra
Okra comes ready every day, so a wide variety of okra recipes is quite useful. Try this:
Very tasty.
Picture and grilling by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 August 2009.
Dogs Find a Big Gopher
So this is what they’re yipping at:
You’re a big one, about a foot wide: Continue reading
Monsanto Seed Prices: Up 43%
 Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant |
By Jack KaskeyThat’s quite a price hike! Why are they doing this?Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed maker, plans to charge as much as 42 percent more for new genetically modified seeds next year than older offerings because they increase farmers’ output.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in presentations on its Web site. SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co., will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace.
The new seed boosts yields 5 percent to 10 percent compared with other products, partly by reducing the amount of land that must be planted with conventional corn to 5 percent from 20 percent, Monsanto said.It will be interesting to see if farmers really do get such improved yields. If not, there’s a simpler possible reason for the price hike: now that Monsanto has gotten pretty near every farmer locked in to using its seed, it’s exercising its monopoly power and raising prices to increase its profit.“They are in essence splitting the value of the extra yield 50-50,” Gulley said by telephone.
Meanwhile, is Monsanto splitting the costs of all the dead birds, frogs, house pets, and ill humans caused by their chemicals? Or the costs of the epidemic of obesity caused by the high fructose corn syrup that their corn is used for? Ah, no. Those would be what Bloomberg would call economic externalites, which is to say other peoples’ problems. Monsanto gets the profits; the rest of us get the problems.
Hm, maybe somebody should investigate.
-jsq
Little Gopher
The dogs found this little gopher tortoise hiding in some oak leaves.
It’s only about 9 inches across. I’m not certain it’s a gopher, since it doesn’t have the flattened shell top. But it’s acting like a gopher, and is not near water.
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Black Snake vs. Yellow Dog
Sunning snake, poked with stick, snake bites dog, dog bites snake:
Stills:
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, 1 Sep 2009, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Both snake and dog appear to be unharmed.
Sneaky Snake
Neighbor Carolyn had a snake, ee i ee i oh!
On hummingbirds it thought to snack, ee i ee i oh! Continue reading
In the Grass
Why did the snake cross the road?
To get out of the way of the car. Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, 29 August 2009, Lowndes County, Georgia. Click through to the big picture to count the 9 rattles on this timber rattler.
Update: added links to just the snake Continue reading
Butterfly on Brick
Or is it a moth?
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia.
U.S. vs. Monsanto?
On August 7th, deputy assistant attorney general, antitrust division,
Philip Weiser
gave
a speech
in
St. Louis, the hometown of Monsanto:
Over the last twenty years, changes in technology and the marketplace have revolutionized agriculture markets, producing some substantial efficiencies as well as concerns about concentration. Notably, farmers today increasingly turn to patented biotechnology that is used to produce seeds resistant to herbicides and insects, producing larger crop yields than ever before. At the same time, this technological revolution and accompanying market developments have facilitated the emergence of large firms that produce these products, along with challenges for new firms to enter this market.It’s easy to read that as a warning to Monsanto that DoJ has ruled before and may again. We’ll see if it’s all talk or if any action follows.The Antitrust Division recently evaluated a series of mergers in the agriculture industry, obtaining relief to remedy identified anticompetitive concerns. In the market for cottonseeds, for example, the Antitrust Division required Monsanto and Delta & Pine Land to divest a significant seed company, multiple cottonseed lines, and other valuable assets before allowing them to proceed with their merger. Also, because DPL had had a license allowing it to “stack” a rival’s trait with a Monsanto trait, Monsanto was also required to amend certain terms in its current trait license agreements with other cottonseed companies to allow them, without penalty, to stack non-Monsanto traits with Monsanto traits. As a result, producers of genetically modified traits gained greater ability to work with these seed companies.(11) Going forward, the Division will continue to examine developments in the seed industry.
…For many farmers and consumer advocates, we understand that there are concerns regarding the levels of concentration in the seed industry — particularly for corn and soybeans. In studying this market, we will evaluate the emerging industry structure, explore whether new entrants are able to introduce innovations, and examine any practices that potentially threaten competition.