disclaimer: I'm pro GMO and view it was a possible solution or part of a solution to world hunger. But, I also view IP law as too strong to the point that it stifles innovation and despise mono-culture, which I view as a threat to global food production. All of these things happen at Monsanto.
I was at an Ag conference last year with a selection of workshops I could attend. One of those was a "How to talk to people about GMOs" or something along those lines. The presenter introduced themselves as Monsanto reps and that be talking about how to represent GMOs to the public. I was skeptical, but because I didn't have anywhere else to be at the time, I decided to hear what they had to say. I listened for about twenty minutes on as they went through some of the various Logic Fallacies before I realized that anywhere was better then being there and left.
My point being is that Monsanto is shaping public opinion at lower levels then what is normally visible on social media or new outlets. They're influencing not the consumer, but the consumer's friendly, local farmer that they see at their farmer's market.
Let's look at CCD and Neonicotinoids. If Monsanto wanted to do the right thing, the moment they found out they were producing a produce that would harm their customers long therm bottom line and threaten global food supplies, they should have 1. started researching which exact chemical lines are the most damaging and take them off the market, 2. researching alternatives chemicals that wont weaken bees immune systems and, 3. advised on different spraying methods to reduce the bees exposure to the Neonicotinoids.
About those options. Not all the Neonicotinoids cause the same amount of damage. Monsanto could have pulled the worst ones off the market, but didn't. I'm not sure if they ever looked into alternatives, but they never published anything to that extent. and the alternative spraying methods I mentioned include not spraying while the produce is in bloom, which is when the bees are more likely to be there. Not always an option depending on the crop in question, but can help a lot for fruit orchards and keep clean, healthy bee populations distributed while CCD gets sorted out. There's also what called barrier spraying. I might have the name wrong though, but it's when you only spray around the edge of the field about twenty feet deep to keep harmful insects out and the beneficial insects in. The beneficial one send up eating the harmful ones that are already inside the barrier. Bees would be migrating through the barrier, but instead of a hundred percent of the flowers having Neonicotinoids on them, it may only be five to ten percent. The trial I saw of this method was being done by Rutgers at a peach orchard in southern New Jersey.
Monsanto did none of these because it would hurt their quartiles.
