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Forums > Living in Kunming > GMO Poison

@Alex

I suggest you actually do some research on how Monsanto strong armed Indian farmers with Bt cotton before making those claims. Having seen it on the front lines, you would be surprised just how determined they can be. A whole area of Maharashtra became known as the "suicide belt" due to the pressures directly applied by Monsanto. It was truly shocking, yet strangely not surprising. I was working with people who would try to help Indian farmers with training and development, often they would come to work in tears hearing another one of their farmer friends had committed suicide due to huge debt. The cause was almost always linked to Monsanto induced debt.

What do you do if you have land, need to plant crops and when attempting to procure seeds are told the only seeds available are Monsanto's. But don't worry, they are higher yield (lies), require less water (lies) and repel pests (only if you put twice as much Round up on them as you would normally... Oh that Round up is made by Monsanto too). And all this for the special bargain of only twice what you paid for last years seed! And if you are somehow able to get hold of other seed, you can't sell it here as our cotton mill is sponsored by... Monsanto. And we don't accept non Monsanto cotton sorry.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > GMO Poison

I purposefully did not state whether GMO is overall bad or overall good - it is neither in terms of the affects it could have on a whole range of systems (food/economic/social). The reason is because you have to treat each GMO individually, assess it individually and examine its affects.

Unfortunately the main organisations that are involved in producing GMO's on a mass scale though are the very companies that show absolutely zero ethics. And THAT should scare you. Because eventually you may be subject to the very ethical missteps that so many others have suffered under. Why? Because you eat food.

There are clear reasons why the companies do not wish their GMO crops to be investigated by scientists outside their control. And this again should scare you. These go beyond the threat of industrial espionage.

So yes, you cannot paint it in broad brush strokes, but as I stated, I believe that we should be precautionary about their introduction i.e. the precautionary principle should apply. That means we need to thoroughly investigate each and every crop before they are planted on a mass scale, have decade long experiments with multi generational crops analysing the soil/inputs/outputs/cross breeding etc etc. Then the research needs to be made public, needs to be independently analysed and if found to be better by enhancing the crop, reducing inputs and enhancing the human and environmental systems, it can be prototyped somewhere in a real world environment before full scale introduction.

Do you think Monsanto does any of this? Clearly they do not, which is why many countries have GMO moratoriums, they just do not know what effect GMO's will have on their systems due to a lack of information, hence they disallow them, hence people start thinking simplistically "GMO bad".

The countries who are approached to implement GMO crops often have little to no legal framework for them to be tested/trialled/released under. And with little information provided by the companies who apply (except of course glowing endorsements), they are right to be suspicious and to enact moratoriums.

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Let me take a guess:

Corrupt man assumes control of vast fortune. Man converts a great deal of the fortune to easily transportable assets (diamonds etc) and/or transfers money to foreign accounts in countries with zero corruption laws and/or launders said money through dodgy means. Man leaves country. Man pays foreign official to create identity with a tiny portion of said assets. Man can go anywhere without ramifications.

Only occurred about 1000 times before in China...

If you:
1. Are an experienced kayaker/boaty
2. Are adventurous and in good shape (actively exercise, have stamina)
3. Would like a more free exploring experience

4. Have a decent phone with GPS that you can put markers on, know how to use and can waterproof

Then I recommend the following:

Catch the ferry to Cat Ba.

Stay on Cat Ba island in pretty much luxury
Go to the back of Cat Ba island early morning with a packed lunch and other energy goodies.
Rent a sea kayak (they have pretty decent ones for rent and rent for a whole day).
Go forth and explore.

You can see so much, up close and personal and can decide where you want to go and when. I spent 2 days doing this, going through caves to hidden grottoes, landing on amazing beaches, looking around the local water peoples villages... was gobsmackingly amazing and didn't have any tourist shite. Seriously recommend.

Reviews

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Wow, just wow. Possibly the best Chinese food I have had in Kunming. And in one of the nicest, traditional courtyard style restaurant I have been in. A woman dressed in traditional qi pao playing a gu zheng just adds to it.

We had okra, mushroom soup, dried beef and chou dofu. All top notch with the bill coming in at just over 250 kuai. But we could have fed 3 people for that so not too bad at about 80-90 kuai each. Not the cheapest but for the quality, it's damn good.

If you have people visiting and want to take them to a traditional Chinese style restaurant with Yunnan style food, or want a romantic night out with a gal, you can't go wrong here. Close to Green Lake (down a little alley) for a romantic walk... Just perfect.

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Pretty good place for getting all your documents translated and/or notarised. Note that there are a number of notaries in the building which you can find by going up the stairs (the elevators are impossible). But you have to find the stairs to do so... go in the door, head over to the right, go up the big wide stairs which head up a floor, turn right then right again into the elevator area and right again into the stairwells. Whew!

One point off for the elevators never being available and having to hike 7-9 flights of stairs (not good if you have to go 3-4 times a day like I often did!)

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This does not stop at the Jinanya hotel at Da Shang Hui as the flyers state (and is on the images tab here). They need to have another stop in the same area or else they are missing out on covering a big chunk of the city.

You can take another bus, the 919C, I believe, if you are nearby Da Shang Hui, which leaves from the bus station on HeHong Lu, nearby the Qianxing road intersection. This bus goes every hour and is white, found at the western end of the station. It is operated by a different company and takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to get to the airport due to a large number of stops especially near the airport.

Great bus though if you can catch it!

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Friendly people, even got to the talk to the vice consulate, who told me she had done a stint in Malaysia's Siberian Consulate!

English is spoken by some of the Chinese girls working at the desk who are pleasant to deal with. I assume they do Visa's as well but I wasn't here for a visa, this time!