Farmers protest: "Stop GM trials; Monsanto, quit India"

Again you are advocating against something you know very little about? What do you have against Monsanto? They are not the only company offering GMO traits. Why don't you rail against Bayer for liberty link? Roundup and herbicides like it biodegrade within a week unlike herbicides used on conventional corn and beans that stay active all season long. With conventional crops you must use a wide mixture of many herbicides. Or if you go organic you must cultivate many time a season to control weeds witch burns a lot of fuel. Witch I have nothing against organic if that's what you like. But don't kid yourself, you are not saving the planet with organic, if you believe in the myth that man made co2 causes global warming.

Yes, we should put it to good use here, but unfortunately, this isn't really important to most people. Our food and water take second place to hype in America. You know what I saw on tv last night? A commercial for Monsanto's ROUND UP that comes in an even bigger bottle, where they actually showed it being sprayed on the weeds in the cracks of the sidewalk of peoples' homes! I suppose people will only care when their children start coming down with diseases from making contact with their poisons up close and personal. I wonder if Michelle Obama is spraying it on their little garden on the White House lawn.

Looks like India are on top of their action. I wish Americans and the FDA start to take a more pro-active action on Monsanto manipulation of food seeds and crops. Maybe a bill needs to be introduced in the house soon.

good for india's people we should take this lesson and put it to use ourselves

From the article:

Kolhapur, India — On “Shaheed Diwas” marked across India in the honour of the martyrdom of revolutionary freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, hundreds of farmers from all across Maharashtra came to Kolhapur to protest against the open air experiment of Monsanto’s GM corn being conducted in the B farm of Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV) here. The peaceful sit-in ended when the university officials here assured the activists that all pending concerns with regard to the trial would be responded to in a special meeting convened on the 2nd of April and if no satisfactory responses can be provided, the field trial will be destroyed by the university.

This is the first time that Monsanto, the largest American seed transnational, has applied directly for field trials of GM crops in India and so far, Indians have seen it as a trait seller with Indian farmers paying billions of rupees in the name of technology fees for Bt Cotton. Protestors condemned the Indian government’s nexus with criminal corporations like Monsanto while putting aside the interests of the aam aadmi (common citizen). They demanded that political parties should pay heed to the growing democratic resistance against unsafe food and corporate takeover of our farming and asked all parties to state their stand on the issue immediately.
Addressing the protestors, N D Patil, well known farmers’ leader said, “The government is shamelessly siding with big MNCs like Monsanto and neglecting the interests of farmers and consumers. Where is the need for a herbicide-tolerant GM corn in this country? Why are tax payers’ funds being spent in a public sector body like the state agriculture university, to support the research of a profit-hungry corporation like Monsanto? If the agriculture university has any loyalty left for the Indian farmer, it should immediately stop such field trials. It is clear that GM crops are hazardous and unneeded and the Government of India should stop pushing this technology on all of us. I also call upon all political parties vying for the votes of common citizens to clearly state their stand on GM in our food and farming – we will know clearly which side are you on”.

Joining him was Vijay Jawandhia of Shetkari Sanghatan. The veteran farmers’ leader, who had witnessed the distress produced by Bt Cotton, India’s only approved GM crop, said, “Monsanto is a criminal corporation known to have sued or sent to jails scores of farmers elsewhere for doing what farmers around the world have done for millennia – saving their seeds! This is a corporation documented to have bribed officials to get regulatory approvals. This is a corporation which has earned crores of rupees in the name of royalty in India while thousands of Bt Cotton farmers have committed suicides. On Shaheed Diwas, we should remember Bhagat Singh’s words, which hold very true today – let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist as long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. In this neo-colonial era where parasites like Monsanto and its supporters in the government masquerade as our well-wishers, this is the time to start the new war of independence”.
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