tagged w/ GM Seeds
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Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.
The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.
Professor Barney Gordon, of the university's department of agronomy, said he started the research – reported in the journal Better Crops – because many farmers who had changed over to the GM crop had "noticed that yields are not as high as expected even under optimal conditions". He added: "People were asking the question 'how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?'"
He grew a Monsanto GM soybean and an almost identical conventional variety in the same field. The modified crop produced only 70 bushels of grain per acre, compared with 77 bushels from the non-GM one.
The GM crop – engineered to resist Monsanto's own weedkiller, Roundup – recovered only when he added extra manganese, leading to suggestions that the modification hindered the crop's take-up of the essential element from the soil. Even with the addition it brought the GM soya's yield to equal that of the conventional one, rather than surpassing it.
The new study confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska, which found that another Monsanto GM soya produced 6 per cent less than its closest conventional relative, and 11 per cent less than the best non-GM soya available.
The Nebraska study suggested that two factors are at work. First, it takes time to modify a plant and, while this is being done, better conventional ones are being developed. This is acknowledged even by the fervently pro-GM US Department of Agriculture, which has admitted that the time lag could lead to a "decrease" in yields.
But the fact that GM crops did worse than their near-identical non-GM counterparts suggest that a second factor is also at work, and that the very process of modification depresses productivity. The new Kansas study both confirms this and suggests how it is happening.
A similar situation seems to have happened with GM cotton in the US, where the total US crop declined even as GM technology took over.
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GM food is not the answer to world hunger. Addressing the cause of hunger is. This is only a profit making scheme for CEOs like Hugh Grant of Monsanto to make over THREE MILLION dollars a year not even counting the hundreds of thousands of shares he has in the company while people continue to starve in the world.
And our own FDA has helped them put something on the market that goes in our bodies and the bodies of our children that was not scientifically vetted and is not labelled on our food. It is time to expose the corporate frauds that seek to control our food and water and send more poor farmers in this country and in Asia, Africa, and South America into debt. Patenting life is immoral as is deceiving the public about what they are eating and devastating our environment.
We need to boycott Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, and any other multinational in the business of profit over people until they are held accountable for their deceptions.Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new... more
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Heard about the thousands of farmer suicides in India? Well, Iraqi farmers may be next thanks to the work of U.S. diplomat Paul Bremer and his Monsanto friends.
Anyone hearing about central India's ongoing epidemic of farmer suicides, where growers are killing themselves at a terrifying clip, has to be horrified. But among the more disturbed must be the once-grand poobah of post-invasion Iraq, U.S. diplomat L. Paul Bremer.
Why Bremer? Because Indian farmers are choosing death after finding themselves caught in a loop of crop failure and debt rooted in genetically modified and patented agriculture -- the same farming model that Bremer introduced to Iraq during his tenure as administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American body that ruled the "new Iraq" in its chaotic early days.
In his 400 days of service as CPA administrator, Bremer issued a series of directives known collectively as the "100 Orders." Bremer's orders set up the building blocks of the new Iraq, and among them is Order 81 [PDF], officially titled Amendments to Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety Law, enacted by Bremer on April 26, 2004.
Order 81 generated very little press attention when it was issued. And what coverage it did spark tended to get the details wrong. Reports claimed that what the United States' man in Iraq had done was no less than tell each and every Iraqi farmer -- growers who had been tilling the soil of Mesopotamia for thousands of years -- that from here on out they could not reuse seeds from their fields or trade seeds with their neighbors, but instead they would be required to purchase all of their seeds from the likes of U.S. agriculture conglomerates like Monsanto.
That's not quite right. Order 81 wasn't that draconian, and it was not so clearly a colonial mandate. In fact, the edict was more or less a legal tweak.
What Order 81 did was to establish the strong intellectual property protections on seed and plant products that a company like the St. Louis-based Monsanto -- purveyors of genetically modified (GM) seeds and other patented agricultural goods -- requires before they'll set up shop in a new market like the new Iraq. With these new protections, Iraq was open for business. In short, Order 81 was Bremer's way of telling Monsanto that the same conditions had been created in Iraq that had led to the company's stunning successes in India.
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Insidious bastards.
Heard about the thousands of farmer suicides in India? Well, Iraqi farmers may be next... more
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Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Rice with Human DNA - planting plans in Kansas, Spring 2007 - Lee Quaintance farms in Edgerton, Kansas - member grower, Kansas City Food Circle.
He speaks truth about crop contamination and GMOs regarding disclosure. Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Rice with Human DNA - planting plans in Kansas,... more
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Perhaps any other 77-year-old would simply retire and step back from a battle with a multi-million dollar agricultural company. Not Percy Schmeiser.
A keynote speaker at Canada's largest outdoor organics festival on July 5 and 6, Schmeiser cautioned listeners about the lure and hazards of genetically engineered (GE) crops.
The Saskatchewan farmer spoke at the Organic Islands Festival in Victoria before an audience well aware of his efforts and tribulations.
Schmeiser's regionally adapted canola, which he had researched for 50 years, became contaminated with airborne pollen from fields containing Roundup Ready, one of Monsanto's product lines.
He took Monsanto all the way to Canada's Supreme Court after the agro-chemical company sued him for using its product without purchasing it. Schmeiser claimed he had never used the product. The Supreme Court found in Monsanto's favor because their Roundup Ready canola was protected by a patent.
However, in an out-of-court settlement finalized in March, Monsanto agreed to pay all the clean-up costs of the Roundup Ready canola that contaminated Schmeiser's fields, and the court ruled that Monsanto can be sued again if contamination on his fields recurs.
Throughout the several court cases, Schmeiser stood firm in his belief that once GE organisms are released into the environment, there will be "no calling back" the genie.
Schmeiser says that selection and husbandry have been a cornerstone of agriculture since the first organized harvests. In the last 100 years, the use of science to modify the characteristics of a plant or animal has been instrumental in increased tonnage per hectare.
While the Green Revolution of the 1960s and '70s resulted in improved harvest levels, these results often came at the cost of substantial inputs of pesticides, herbicides, and oil-based technology.
In many countries, this proved a disastrous combination, impoverishing the soils, farmers, and whole countries, says Schmeiser.
Genetically modified crops need a significant increase in proprietary chemicals. Super-chemical Roundup, for example, is reported to be four times stronger today because of new active ingredients, he claims.
He adds that Agent Orange, known from the Vietnam War, is emerging as a component in new GE foods offered by some agro-chemical companies.
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Really. Do you want the same companies that made Agent Orange supplying your food?
Perhaps any other 77-year-old would simply retire and step back from a battle with a... more
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More than 50 of the country's top chefs have united to protest against the introduction of genetically modified (GM) food crops to Australia.
Last month, GM canola crops were planted for the first time in NSW and Victoria after the two states announced they would let their bans on genetically engineered food crops expire.
In response, local celebrity chefs including Neil Perry and Kylie Kwong have signed on to the GM Free Chefs' Charter, launched in collaboration with Greenpeace in Sydney.
The charter, unveiled at chef Jared Ingersoll's Danks Street Depot restaurant in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Waterloo, calls for the NSW and Victorian governments to reverse their position on growing GM canola and demands thorough labelling of all food products that contain GM ingredients.
Oils, starches and sugars, as well as animal feed derived from GM ingredients, should all come with a label, says the charter, which will be presented to Australian governments later this year.
Meat from animals which have eaten GM feed should also be signposted, it says.
There are currently no laws on the labelling of food containing GM canola.
Speaking at the charter's launch, Mr Ingersoll said the unknown long-term effects of eating GM foods were a major concern to him, both as a chef and a parent.
"I don't really want to put food in the mouth of my children that I'm not sure whether or not it's going to be damaging for them," he said.
"I'm not the sort of person that stands in the way of technology making advancement to make things better for people ... but with genetically modified food, once we go down that path then there's no going back.
"We are in the very unique position of having an amazing countryside that can produce lots of beautiful food and if we do take the path of Canada and other GM nations, it's going to be really limiting as to what direction we go in," he said.
GM food crops are known to be difficult to contain, and a 2001 Western Australian parliamentary inquiry into gene technology found the segregation of GM crops from non-GM crops was not practical and cross-contamination was "inevitable".
More than 50 of the country's top chefs have united to protest against the... more
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The Organization for Competitive Markets and more than 35 farm and citizen groups voiced support for an ongoing antitrust investigation into Monsanto’s suspected anticompetitive practices in the U.S. crop seed industry last week in letters sent to 23 state attorneys general. About a dozen states are already involved in the investigation, including the attorneys general in Iowa and Texas.
“Concentration of market power in the seed industry has grave implications for American farmers,” said Keith Mudd, President of OCM. “Monsanto continues to control the marketplace in seed technologies, especially the corn, soybean, and cotton sectors.”
“We believe the company uses transgenic trait licensing agreements with independent seed companies as a tool to put smaller seed companies at a competitive disadvantage,” continued Mudd. “As a result, farmers and smaller seed companies face higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation in the crop seed marketplace. These companies need access to technology, but under fair and equitable terms.”
The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) was joined by the American Corn Growers Association, National Farmers Organization, 10 state Farmers Unions, and dozens of others as signatories on the attorneys general letters.
The price for transgenic seed and glyphosate has skyrocketed, taking millions of dollars from farmers and rural America. Monsanto, however, is making record profits. “Farmers are already struggling with rising fuel and chemical prices, as well as planting problems,” Mudd added. “And now they must contend with higher prices for crop seed with less choice in the market.”
Monsanto maintains a dominant position in the marketplace by acquiring smaller competitors and merging with other companies. Last year, the Department of Justice agreed to allow Monsanto to acquire Delta & Pine Land Company, giving it a 90 percent share of the transgenic cotton seed market.
The company also enters into restrictive licensing agreements with seed dealers that are designed to gain market power, restrict competition, and prevent future innovation and market access by competitors.
“Independent seed companies are essential distribution channels for seed technologies, making up more than a quarter of the market,” said Fred Stokes, OCM’s Executive Director. “We believe Monsanto’s licensing agreements prohibit stacking its transgenic traits with non-Monsanto traits without any scientific reason. Farmers who prefer regional seed companies and their locally adapted varieties can’t access non-Monsanto traits restricted under these contracts. ”
Monsanto is also known to aggressively enforce its licensing agreements through lawsuits that seek to protect its patent rights. At times Monsanto mistakenly targets innocent farmers who undergo undue financial and emotional stress in their effort to avoid costly lawsuits. “Monsanto’s behavior has dramatically altered our rural communities,” Stokes said.
“We hope the state attorneys general will aggressively press this investigation. Control of crop seed must be diverse. This issue is of fundamental importance to the future of American agriculture,” Mudd said. “Farmers and independent seed companies deserve an open and fair seed marketplace. Consumers should not have to shoulder any further increase in food prices.”
The Organization for Competitive Markets and more than 35 farm and citizen groups... more
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Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author and expert on the health dangers of genetically modified (GM) foods, describes the Campaign for Healthy Eating in America, and how it will achieve the tipping point of consumer resistance to GM foods. This will drive them out of the U.S. food supply as was accomplished in Europe and is already being witnessed in the rejection of genetically modified bovine growth hormone, rBGH, in the U.S. People are invited to participate in the campaign by signing up at http://www.responsibletechnology.org. Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author and expert on the health dangers of... more
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Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last year, with over 90 percent of those crops coming from genetically engineered seeds patented by U.S.-based Monsanto.
Scientists have taken genetic material from one organism (like a soil bacterium), along with an antibiotic resistant marker gene, and spliced both into a food crop (like corn) to create a genetically modified crop that resists specific diseases and pests.
There has been no long-term, independent testing on the effects of these "Franken-foods" on the ecosystem or human health.
It would be difficult to avoid eating genetically modified organisms in our country because they are so pervasive in the food system and unlabeled in the grocery stores.
Part of the reason for this is biotech giants fought to keep GMO foods unlabeled.
Most recently, the growth hormones from GE organisms known as rBGH, which is given to cows to make them produce more milk, were banned in Europe and Canada after authorities learned about the health risks of drinking milk from cows treated with rBGH hormones.
American milk producers started labeling their milk "rBGH and rBST free." Monsanto, which sells bovine growth hormones under the brand name Posilac, has successfully sued dairy producers to force them to stop labeling their milk.
In addition to most milk products, GMOs can be found in commercially farmed meats and processed foods on store shelves. In our country, 89 percent of all soy, 61 percent of all corn, and 75 percent of all canola are genetically altered.
Other foods, like commercially grown papaya, zucchini, tomatoes, several fish species, and food additives like enzymes, flavorings and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame and rennet used to make hard cheeses, also contain GMOs, according to Greenpeace.
To complicate matters, GMOs move around in the ecosystem through pollen, wind and natural cross-fertilization. The Union of Concerned Scientists conducted two independent laboratory tests on non-GM seeds "representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply" for corn, soy and oilseed.
The test found that at "the most conservative expression," half the corn and soy were contaminated with GM genes, eight years after the modified varieties were first grown on a large scale in the U.S.
Some 200 million acres of the world's farms grew biotech crops last year, with... more
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Would you start by talking about some general issues surrounding globalization.
Dr. Vandana Shiva: Well those of use who are concerned about the globalization that has been contrived and yet made to look as if it is a natural evolutionary step, we are concerned about the injustice and undemocratic system on which it is based.
And everything we said, fifteen years ago, when these rules were being put in place, very artificially, under GAT and then became the WTO rules, or on the financial side as the instrumentalities and conditionalities of the World Bank and IMF, what we said fifteen years ago turns out not to have been an exaggeration but an underestimation of the devastation of both nature, society and economies.
I had talked about the WTO agreement on agriculture as the death knell for Indian farmers. Every year 16,000 farmers are being killed. They are taking their lives, but I don¹t think they are taking their lives. It is that they are being pushed to the edge of survival - through the indebtedness that is an inevitable result of turning them into a market for Monsanto seed, and, on the other hand disposable items, when Cargill and ConAgra have to dump subsidized grain through a liberalized agreement.
When I started to fight intellectual property rights in the WTO, I was concerned about patents on life. And seed patents now we can see what they are doing.
American farmers are being harassed, fined for three million dollars, and the crime is seed saving?
What could be a worse situation for humanity? To turn something as valuable as saving seeds for the future into a criminal activity.
Similar laws have just been passed in India, two weeks ago.
I think anyone who doesn't resist this kind of globalization is not being fully human, is not exercising their duties.
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More of this interview at the link. And what an opportune moment for the World Bank president to come out to say that food prices will he high until 2012 as if he really knows that. I have also read that pressure is being put on Europe to adopt GM foods. If I didn't know any better I would think this has all been planned to get a desired result for all of the world organizations working in tandem including The World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and governments of this world intent on keeping poor people down by controlling their food and water. Strangely, the song "Everybody Wants To Rule The World " is in my head now.
Thankfully there are people like Dr. Vandana Shiva and others speaking truth on this. We have to do so as well. We cannot allow this to be the future for our children. So if you have an organization that deals in organic seeds or seeds free of chemicals post it here. Let's really give some information to people to show them they have options and that we do not have to be enslaved to corporate BS any longer.
It is a threat to our health, other species, our environment, and our planet. Those who control the seeds and the water control YOU. I say, no more, and I will be relentless about it here.
Would you start by talking about some general issues surrounding globalization.
Dr.... more
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Soybean farmer David Brumback calls himself a loyal customer of Monsanto Co. His product of choice: genetically engineered seeds resistant to pesticides and weed killers.
So when the biotech giant named Brumback and more than 100 other local farmers in a subpoena seeking five years of sales records, his first reaction was befuddlement. Then anger.
"With Monsanto, you're guilty until you're proven innocent," he said.
Across rural America, Monsanto is known for aggressive legal efforts to protect its patent. Farmers who save and replant the patented seeds in subsequent growing seasons quickly hear from the company's lawyers — and almost always lose, or settle out of court before trial.
Now Monsanto is raising the stakes against this so-called seed piracy with an unprecedented lawsuit against a farm co-op it accuses of aiding the illegal practice by cleaning seeds for use in future crops. That practice violates the contract between Monsanto and farmers which prohibits farmers from stockpiling seeds or selling second-generation seeds.
The St. Louis-based company says it's merely protecting an investment that exceeds $2 million a day in overall research and development costs.
Lawyers for the Pilot Grove Cooperative Elevator Inc. in the central Missouri town, population 750, offer a more nefarious explanation: Monsanto wants to make an example of the co-op through tactics that reek of bullying and intimidation.
"Monsanto is doing its best to make this case so expensive to defend that the co-op will have no choice but to relent," attorney Steven Schwartz wrote in a court motion filed earlier this year. The company sought purchase records and depositions from 114 Pilot Grove customers.
"Its true motive is to gather information for future lawsuits against the co-op, its customers and other farm businesses around Pilot Grove."
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And with Monsanto taking over so much of the seed business, farmers have no where to go. This is truly nefarious.Soybean farmer David Brumback calls himself a loyal customer of Monsanto Co. His... more
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Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and issued his threat. Rinehart was behind the counter of the Square Deal, his “old-time country store,” as he calls it, on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri, a tiny farm community 100 miles north of Kansas City.
The Square Deal is a fixture in Eagleville, a place where farmers and townspeople can go for lightbulbs, greeting cards, hunting gear, ice cream, aspirin, and dozens of other small items without having to drive to a big-box store in Bethany, the county seat, 15 miles down Interstate 35.
Everyone knows Rinehart, who was born and raised in the area and runs one of Eagleville’s few surviving businesses. The stranger came up to the counter and asked for him by name.
“Well, that’s me,” said Rinehart.
As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences.
Rinehart was incredulous, listening to the words as puzzled customers and employees looked on. Like many others in rural America, Rinehart knew of Monsanto’s fierce reputation for enforcing its patents and suing anyone who allegedly violated them. But Rinehart wasn’t a farmer. He wasn’t a seed dealer. He hadn’t planted any seeds or sold any seeds. He owned a small—a really small—country store in a town of 350 people. He was angry that somebody could just barge into the store and embarrass him in front of everyone. “It made me and my business look bad,” he says. Rinehart says he told the intruder, “You got the wrong guy.”
When the stranger persisted, Rinehart showed him the door. On the way out the man kept making threats. Rinehart says he can’t remember the exact words, but they were to the effect of: “Monsanto is big. You can’t win. We will get you. You will pay.”
Scenes like this are playing out in many parts of rural America these days as Monsanto goes after farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers—anyone it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. As interviews and reams of court documents reveal, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike fear into farm country. They fan out into fields and farm towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops; infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants about farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.
Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and... more
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Like many third world countries Bolivia is experiencing food shortages and rising food prices attributable to a global food marketing system driven by multinational agribusiness corporations. With sixty percent of the Bolivian population living in poverty and thirty-three percent in extreme poverty, the price of the basic food canasta--including wheat, rice, corn, soy oil and potatoes, as well as meat—has risen twenty-five percent over the past year with prices gyrating wildly in the local markets.
As in most other countries affected by the food crisis, the overall rise in food prices is attributable to the workings of the free market—when the price of one or several commodities goes up, the consumers turn to other food stuffs, thereby driving up these prices as well. In an effort to halt the effects of this unregulated market, the government has enacted price controls and even prohibited the export of beef, most of which is produced on haciendas. But these measures have been largely ineffective: A black market flourishes as agrarian commercial interests openly flaunt the central government’s price controls, even directly exporting commodities like beef and cooking oil at higher prices to the neighboring countries of Chile and Peru.
This is taking place as Bolivia’s first Indian president, Evo Morales, is facing a sustained challenge by a right wing movement for autonomy that is integrally linked to the very agribusiness corporations that are profiting from the upsurge in food prices. Based in the eastern province of Santa Cruz, a powerful agrarian bourgeoisie is determined to upend the government’s agrarian reform program and to halt Morales’ efforts to more equitably distribute the wealth that flows from Bolivia’s oil and gas fields. Its ultimate goal is to topple Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) that backs him.
The corporate dominated agro-industrial complex in Santa Cruz is centered on the growing, processing and export of soy beans. Two of the world’s largest agribusiness multinationals, ADM and Cargill, play a major role in the regional economy. They are primarily exporters of Bolivian soybeans and sunflower seeds while ADM co-owns with a Bolivian firm the largest vegetable oil processing plant, Sociedad Aceitera del Oriente. (1) Giant agribusiness corporations like John Deere have commercial outlets in Santa Cruz as Bolivia manufactures no heavy agricultural machinery. Multinational companies supply most of Bolivia’s agrichemicals, while Monsanto and Calgene are promoting genetically modified seeds. Peruvian and Colombian agribusiness interests have also set up processing plants in Santa Cruz, including the Romero Company from Peru which has joint international operations with Cargill, while large soy growers from the neighboring Brazilian state of Mato Grosso have settled on Bolivian lands.
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Multinational agribusiness is desecrating our planet and putting small farmers out of business. It's time for a global boycott of Monsanto, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and all of these companies that have not only practiced food fascism, but also have human rights abuses attached to their resumes in these countries as well.Like many third world countries Bolivia is experiencing food shortages and rising food... more
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The increasing costs of production and the falling farm prices that go hand in hand with globalisation and corporate hijack of seed supply, combined with the decline in farm credit is putting an unbearable debt burden on farmers. The lure of huge profits linked with clever advertising strategies evolved by the seeds and chemical industries are forcing farmers into a chemical treadmill and a debt trap. It has been witnessed that across the country, farmers are taking the desperate step of ending their life. The pesticides, which had created debt, also became the source of ending indebted lives. More than 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in India due to distortions introduced in agriculture as a result of trade liberalisation. More than 20,000 farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh alone. After the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2006, the suicide has increased alarmingly, reaching more than 1400 with debt trap cotton farmers putting an end to their lives in Vidharbha region alone.
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Apart from providing guidance and help to the farmers for the revival of agriculture, Navdanya, under the "Asha ke Beej" (Seeds of Hope) program, distributed the indigenous variety of seeds to the farmers and encouraged them to shift to organic and sustainable agriculture. More than 6000 farmers were distributed indigenous seeds.
Navdanya also realized that one of the crisis farmers were facing was a seed famine created by Monsanto. Navdanya therefore started a seed bank in Kalaspur village. And on 2nd and 3rd June seeds were distributed from the seed bank in villages in Vidharbha.
Navdanya is committed to ending the vicious cycle of violence in agriculture, which is leading to farmers' suicides. We are committed to strengthening the virtuous cycles of peace based on cooperation with nature and among communities to promote a sustainable and life enhancing food system.
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People taking it upon themselves to fight Monsanto and give people hope gives me hope. Dr. Vandana Shiva is a woman who has been fighting for farmers and women, and against Monsanto and corporate ownership of seeds and resources including water for years. She is a heroine whom I personally love and respect very much for her tireless work on behalf of others.
The increasing costs of production and the falling farm prices that go hand in hand... more
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