Monsanto: “Many of us at Monsanto have been and are fans of Neil Young. Unfortunately, for some of us, his current album may fail to reflect our strong beliefs in what we do every day to help make agriculture more sustainable. We recognize there is a lot of misinformation about who we are and what we do – and unfortunately several of those myths seem to be captured in these lyrics.”
The agrochemical company Monsanto has fired back at Neil Young for his album ‘The Monsanto Years.’
“The farmer knows he’s got to grow what he can sell, Monsanto, Monsanto / So he signs a deal for GMOs that makes life hell with Monsanto, Monsanto,” Young sings on the title track. “Every year he buys the patented seeds / Poison-ready they’re what the corporation needs, Monsanto.”
An article in Rolling Stone states: The Monsanto Years (which comes out on June 29th) also takes on Starbucks for their use of GMOs. “Starbucks has not taken a position on the issue of GMO labeling,” the company said. “As a company with stores and a product presence in every state, we prefer a national solution.”
Chevron refused to comment on Young’s lyrics, though Walmart did bite. “As you might have seen recently, Walmart raised its lowest starting wage to $9 an hour,” they told Billboard. “We’re proud of the opportunity we provide people to build a career and have a chance at a better life.”
Neil Young and Promise of the Real kick off their North American summer tour July 5th at the Marcus Ampitheater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
An article printed in New York Post on June 14 by Owen Paterson, says Neil Young and Green Peace are working to starve the world’s poor.
Paterson is the Conservative Member of Parliament for North Shropshire. He was UK secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs from 2012 to 2014.
Paterson writes: “The aging songwriter is following the lead of activists who claim that GMOs are harmful to health, farmers and the environment. This is tragically wrong. In reality, GMOs can save millions of lives. It’s the environmentalists who are doing real harm.”
He gives the example of Golden Rice, a miracle grain enhanced with Vitamin A-producing beta-carotene, and say the rice could save many lives in third world countries.
“But the ongoing opposition of anti-GMO activist groups and their lavish scare campaign with its combined global war chest estimated to exceed $500 million a year have kept Golden Rice off the global market,” he writes.
Paterson said instead of bashing companies that are trying to save lives, Young ought to use his star power to convince the NGO community to do the right thing and support giving the developing world the GMO tools it needs to feed its growing, and tragically malnourished, populations.
The more vocal Neil Young gets about GMO’s, the more opponents speak out against his new album “The Monsanto Years.”
This time it is the Pork Network. And I am guessing Neil likes some BBQ’d ribs, so this could hit him pretty hard.
Dan Murphy at The Pork Network, goes on a tirade against the new album, stating it is filled with inaccuracies and basically, it sucks as an album. That is his very sarcastic opinion. Yet, he is not alone.
He writes:
“Young and pals recorded a music video “Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop” (sic) to highlight their campaign. Honestly, it looks and feels like a parody song, a la Weird Al Yankovic, with a bouncy pop soundtrack recorded over grainy video clips of the band members sucking down Starbucks lattes, then throwing the coffee at the camera.
Real original.
The trudge of time
Look, Neil Young is an undeniable talent, especially during the 1960s when he was a member of the groundbreaking Crosby Stills Nash & Young band. I don’t want to date myself too much here, but I forked over for tickets to see the group several times in concert during their initial tours, and the 1970 release of their landmark second album was the only time in my life I stood in line at a record store to buy the album the day it came out.
Yikes. That sentence just made a couple liver spots pop out on the back of my hand.
Unfortunately, Neil Young: The Later Years makes Old Elvis look like an ad for the miracle of plastic surgery. Let’s just say that the years have not been kind to the now wildly inappropriately named rocker. I mean, when you open the dictionary to “Aging Rock Star,” you don’t even need a definition — just side-by-side photos of Keith Richards and Neil Young.
I hate to say it, but he’s morphed into a poster boy for the dangers of creepy old men who are either merely senile or actual stalkers.”
Ouch! Many female Neil Young fans would disagree with that assessment.
Neil Young and Promise of the Real performs Down by the River, among other songs, on May 23 at Charley’s, a small bar in Paia, Maui. He was there for the March Against Monsanto event.
““One day, without no warning, Things start jumping up from the ground.”” by -- Neil Young
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
