Evil Pigweed Threatens Monsanto Seed Monopoly

pigweed is edible. (4.00 / 3)

The leaves, when it's young, are delicious, rather a cross between spinach and dandelion greens -- tender like spinach, but with dandelion's more bitter bite. (Arugula, anyone?)

The seed may also be edible -- it's a cousin go quinoa, and difficult to tell apart from it. Quinoa is not a grain, but is used like one, and is has the best protein of any plant that I know of.

Pigweed and quinoa are also cousins to Obama's hated vegetable -- the beet.

Let's here it for the pigweed; pigs generally know good eatin' when the smell it.

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by: zic @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 22:36:47 PM UTC

So let's harvest it and feed it to (4.00 / 4)

the pigs! It's got to be better than distiller grains . . .

when do we all get to stand up and say "Told ya so!!" about the super weed? If that wasn't freakin' obvious, I obviously don't know the meaning of obvious . . . just sayin'.

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by: nycstray @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 22:45:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

But are you sure (4.00 / 5)

Evil Pigweed is edible?  Or does it just turn you evil after you eat it?

Vote for yourself at www.ni4d.us!

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by: rossl @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 23:06:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I was going to say the same thing about it being edible (4.00 / 1)

but I was a little concerned because they don't give the scientific name. There are a couple of different plants that share this common name, and some aren't edible (except by pigs).  If it's Chenopodium album, then it's definitely edible (a choice edible, actually).  So is C. berlandieri.  To see photos, go here:  

http://www.eattheweeds.com/www...

I wish I knew half what the flock of them know
Of where all the berries and other things grow,
Cranberries in bogs and raspberries on top
Of the boulder-strewn mountain, and when they will crop.
--"Blueberries" by Robert Frost

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by: wide eyed lib @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 16:52:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, but you should probably wait at least a few years (4.00 / 1)

before eating anything out of a field that's been sprayed with roundup. Yuck!

I wish I knew half what the flock of them know
Of where all the berries and other things grow,
Cranberries in bogs and raspberries on top
Of the boulder-strewn mountain, and when they will crop.
--"Blueberries" by Robert Frost

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by: wide eyed lib @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 16:53:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

we eat things that are sprayed with much worse (4.00 / 3)

than round-up, unless we grow all our own food or buy entirely organic.


"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 17:19:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

round up is made from a south american plant; (4.00 / 3)

natives used it to kill fish in a pond/stream, which they would then collect to eat. And they did this for centuries.

I'm not advocating it's use; but given some of the alternatives, it's relatively benign.

That said, I pull weeds by hand; not by chemical.

And I'm pretty tolerant of some, because they offer other benefits like attracting beneficial insects, or bringing nutrients up from deeper in the ground.

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by: zic @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 17:50:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Who'da seen that one coming?! (4.00 / 4)

Oh, anyone with a working brain?  True.  Heh...

It's amazing that these 'scientists' can't even grasp such simple concepts as evolution, isn't it?  And now Monsanto is encouraging a step or two up in chemical warfare.  Literally.  Gee, I wonder what's gonna happen next?

I'm beginning to rethink my position on NASA, heh.  Maybe we're all gonna need to get outta here really soon after all!

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 23:44:27 PM UTC

don't assume they can't grasp it (4.00 / 2)

it's like thinking the oil and gas guys can't grasp climate change possibilities.

They grasp it just fine. And they're busy buying up land in the Arctic Circle so that if the warming holds, they'll be in first at the previously unreachable fossil fuel resources up there.

They're not dumb. They're just unethical.  

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 01:15:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hee... (4.00 / 2)

Oh, I know.  I just like to give them the benefit of the doubt as a group.  Even though, like you say, they probably don't deserve it...

Yes, some people really are the Bad Guys.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 01:26:27 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I blogged here (4.00 / 5)

about Goosefeet and Other Podia, and discussed the group in question, the Goosefoot or Amaranth family (opinions apparently vary).

Palmer amaranth grows commonly where I live. I find it pretty easy to control in a garden; it's easy to uproot if the ground has a reasonable moisture content - and my soil is clayey, too.

If I had no other financial resources, I could think of worse things to do than pull Palmer amaranth for seven bucks an hour. But of course, there are no unemployed people in America; just greedy Monsanto people.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 23:47:10 PM UTC

oh that was a great post! (4.00 / 1)

I remember it!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 03:47:44 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I wonder (4.00 / 5)

if this will show up on the Monsanto blog anytime soon.

Vote for yourself at www.ni4d.us!

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by: rossl @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 00:32:20 AM UTC

oh, well of course it will (4.00 / 3)

compleat with photographs of Palmer amaranth dressed up in Darth Vader suits.

Remember - you heard it here first.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 01:12:54 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lol... (4.00 / 3)

You forgot to mention that they'll also probably attempt to rename it "killerus locavorus" or something like that, too...

:)

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 01:29:56 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

sanstoxinus dreadfolium (4.00 / 3)

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 02:45:40 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

maybe atoxinus (4.00 / 3)

sort of like "asocial." Non-reactant, y'know.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 02:46:43 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

This problem has been on going (4.00 / 3)

for years.  Farm land rental prices are dependent on how many herbicide resistant weeds are in your fields.

24 D is the active component of Weed and Feed fertilizers used by consumers on their lawns.  It's criminal to use this product where families and their pets play.  

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by: OrganicGeorge @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 13:08:37 PM UTC

all bad for fish too (4.00 / 3)

and Americans especially are always thinking the more the better when they douse on these things, so of course there's runoff.

"If God were to appear to starving people, he would not dare to appear in any other form than food." - Mahatma Gandhi

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by: Miep @ Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 17:15:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]