permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

This article is total hogwash IMO in it's attack on precision farming.  The 
GMO perspective is OK, but nothing new.  PF pas many good aspects, such as 
mapping nutrients and allowing very accurate placement of fertilizers. This 
helps reduce runoff and ground water pollution.  Yield monitoring can help 
identify other soil quality issues like compaction.  The enhanced accuracy 
in planting could just as easily be used with conventional seeds and super 
accurate cultivating as it could be for spraying.  The only real down side 
to PF IMO is that it will likely lead to driverless tractors in the future.
M

At 02:49 PM 10/7/02 -0400, you wrote:

> BIOTECHNOLOGY
> Precision Farming: The Marriage Between Agribusiness and Spy Technology
> http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=4208
>
> Flip the tortilla" ("virar la tortilla") is a common Puerto Rican expression.
> It describes the act of taking someone's argument and turning it on its head.
> This is precisely what the biotechnology and agribusiness industries are now
> doing to confound their critics.
>
> The genetically modified corn tortilla is certainly being flipped as major
> biotech corporations begin to soften to activist demands to label and
> segregate GM crops. Far from being a sincere expression of corporate
> responsibility, critics say corporations are pushing for these measures in
> order to tighten their hold on farmers.
>
> Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero of the Institute for Social Ecology investigates for
> CorpWatch.
>
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Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM