Monday 26 October 2009
Monsanto: St. Lois we have a problem
Despite its market dominance Monsanto & Co. is continuing to show financial loss according to the St. Lois Business Journal this month:
Monsanto Co. reported Wednesday a wider fourth-quarter loss on charges from recent layoffs and the sale of its sunflower operations. Monsanto lost $233 million in the quarter ended Aug. 31, compared with a loss of $172 million a year earlier. Results reflected restructuring charges that included the costs of staff reductions, streamlining brands, and office and facility consolidations. Monsanto recently cut 1,800 jobs, including 300 in St. Louis.
Monsanto's woes do not stop there however, because there is growing unease among government regulators around the world who suspect that anti-competitive practices abound in the global seed industry, not least in the multinational's home country America.
Here are the opening paragraphs of 23 October 2009 of The American Antitrust Institute white paper discussing the issue Transgenic Seed Platforms:
Competition Between a Rock and a Hard Place?:
With the widespread adoption by farmers of corn, cotton, and soybean seed containing transgenic technology, the U.S. seed industry has changed rapidly in the past twenty years. The largest changes include the creation of strongholds of patented technology and the gradual elimination of the numerous regional independent seed companies through consolidation. Resulting increases in concentration in affected markets has been driven largely by the industry’s dominant firm, Monsanto.
A threshold question to consider is whether Monsanto has exercised its market power to foreclose rivals from market access, harming competition and thereby slowing the pace of innovation and adversely affecting prices, quality, and choice for farmers and consumers of seed products. If the answer to this question is yes, remedying the intractable competitive situation that prevails in the transgenic seed industry may require antitrust enforcement, legislative relief, or both. The problem highlights both the importance of competition policy and the security and diversity of a key agricultural sector.
White Paper PDF download here.
* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.
Sunday 25 October 2009
The Twitterverse on the Coalition's CPRS emissions trading scheme bill amendments
The Twitterverse is underwhelmed by Malcolm Turnbull's proposed amendments to the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009.
no_filter_Yamba Coalitions ETS amendments - NO, NO, NO, NO and NOoooo! http://bit.ly/4oWFm2
Coalition want to give $10billion CPRS compo to coal industry - that's over $600,000 per job
Treasury modelling for CPRS projects emissions from electricity sector will double by 2050 - http://bit.ly/3axGGQ (expand
) (page 60)
"Never in the history of Aust public finance has so much been given without public policy purpose, by so many to so few" - Garnaut RE: CPRS ) (page 60) 
reenymal: Polluters rejoice as CPRS returns: Science, economics and ... http://bit.ly/meZVT (expand) 
BraveNewClimate: Investors demand end to handouts and criticised amendments to the emissions trading scheme (face it, it's useless): http://bit.ly/2LiE63 (expand) A race to the bottom as the "Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme" goes from useless to a farce: http://bit.ly/3uSDmH 3 days ago from web
sustainablogger: RT @climateinstitut Coalition's proposed amendments 2 the CPRS will slug households with additional $ to fund polluters http://bit.ly/2VDk3z (expand) 
AusConservation: All but 3 of Coalition ETS amendments would blunt the impact, incr cost to other taxpayers and incr actual emissions http://bit.ly/26tr7b (expand) A triumph of ego over substance: Steve Fielding once again demonstrates why he's such a lightweigt politician
It would appear that Family First's one and only federal senator, Steve 'I'm an engineer so I know about stuff' Fielding, is feeling slighted by the Australian public broadcaster, if his recent Senate estimates committee questions to the ABC's managing director are any indication. A triumph of ego over substance and a waste of time at taxpayers expense:
Could you give us a handle on biases in The 7.30 Report, just generally? Are there some sorts of guidelines about keeping an eye on it?.........
Do you have any monitoring of the range of viewpoints by political parties that have actually been on The 7.30 Report?......
There are three parties sitting in the crossbenches with equal weighting and I thought those views would be interesting to hear on The 7.30 Report. I cannot recall the last time that Family First appeared on The 7.30 Report. I am just wondering: is something going on there?.......
But not it seems Family First's favourite bottle imitator, to his obvious chagrin.Photograph of Senator Fielding as a bottle from The Sydney Morning Herald
Best online media headlines of the week that's past
The Vatican finally gets its revenge on Henry VIII
A Brisbane Times article on the Catholic Church further relaxing its criteria for admission of Anglican clergy and parishioners into Teh Church of Rome.
Australians all let us react, says right
WA Today piece by Richard Ackland on asylum seeks.
Driver loses licence after 45mins
News.com.au tells the world about an 18 year-old caught out less than a hour after passing his driving test.
Giant seagull appears behind Nine newsreader Peter Hitchener
News.com.au again, this time proving that a picture is worth yada, yada, yada....
Poll: Fewer believe in global warming
MSNBC and Ali Weinberg giving the big polluting multinationals some cheerful news at breakfast.
'Day after tomorrow' map shows consequences of climate change
The U.K. Telegraph also tackles the climate change subject by announcing a Science Museum map showing Great Britain can expect sea level rise, drought, heat wave and food shortages if global temperatures continue to trend upwards.
Obama makes a hero of Fox News
Kansas City Star lets us know that the U.S. President is a miracle worker.
Saturday 24 October 2009
First Dog On The Moon Presents: How To Deny Climate Change! An illustrated Typography of the Denialist's Journey
First Dog on the Moon at Crikey takes on Andrew Bolt and climate change denialism on 16 October 2009:
Click onflow chart
to enlarge
A cry from the heart......
From the Koori Mail online:
Ms Macklin, we deserve better
AS D-Day steadily approaches for the Indigenous community of Yarrabah, a large number of our people are facing uncertain times. The hope for the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme to be extended past 1 July has been lost, with Federal Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin rejecting the local leaders' plea, and putting what she thinks will work in place. She has rejected another proposal by the local leaders to extend CDEP, once again acting bull-headed towards our people and Indigenous Affairs. These brash and foolish decisions which have been made by government ministers over the last decade who have handled Indigenous Affairs did not help us move forward one bit. Minister Macklin's latest decision is also going to backfire and fail miserably unless she becomes more proactive towards the community in Yarrabah, instead of bureaucrats dictating from their flashy offices in Brisbane. They're still sending their feedback drones or mules into the community meetings to do their dirty work. Shame on the ministers and the Government. Five hundred people will lose their jobs and their families will be left to live off the dole. So much for our 'highly skilled' labourers and qualified tradesmen who have also proved themselves working in the mainstream. It is a shame we have been given this to live and abide by in our beautiful home in a year where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he would start closing the 18-year life-expectancy gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians. This neglect has been with us Yarrabah folks since the old missionary days of 1892. Our people are totally sick of it. We wonder why we still die younger than expected. These new changes have no respect for our cultural identity, making us into dole-bludgers and draining our confidence instead of giving our residents hope of being employed in their home town. Ms Macklin, if you really care about Indigenous Affairs and your fellow Australians in far north Queensland, I urge you to visit us in Yarrabah to meet the residents to find a better outcome, because the one you settled on is not good enough. We are not all useless. We are Australians too, the real Australians. We deserve much better. ... BRAD HIGGINS Yarrabah, North Queensland
Everything old is new again - bulldog fascisti in 2009?
U.K. Map of BNP members from The Guardian The British National Party (BNP) has long been regarded with suspicion in certain quarters and characterized with some justification as a fascist slash racist political party.
It's party membership list has been repeatedly leaked and published by Wikileaks, mainstream media and blogosphere.
On 19th of October 2009 The Guardian newspaper published a membership map by U.K. electorate, based on demographics which would've made ol' Ossie Mosley proud.
The following day the BNP published this legal threat:
Meanwhile protesters jumped the barricades to protest against the BNP leader appearing on a BBC television Q&A-style program, The Guardian is asking if all this publicity is actually going to boost acceptance of this political party and Skepticlawyer is discussing how society deals with the politics of hatred and exclusion.
We live in interesting times......................
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