The GM genocide

This is one of the most under-reported major issues in the world.
What these GM crops are doing to these poor farmers is a crime against humanity and no one, except Prince Charles, seems to want to draw attention to it.

Shankara, like millions of other Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if he switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead.

Beguiled by the promise of future riches, he borrowed money in order to buy the GM seeds. But when the harvests failed, he was left with spiralling debts - and no income.

So Shankara became one of an estimated 125,000 farmers to take their own life as a result of the ruthless drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops.

continued...

For official figures from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture do indeed confirm that in a huge humanitarian crisis, more than 1,000 farmers kill themselves here each month.

Simple, rural people, they are dying slow, agonising deaths. Most swallow insecticide - a pricey substance they were promised they would not need when they were coerced into growing expensive GM crops.

The situation is desperate. We MUST remove all these GM crops from the eco-system and throw every Monsanto executive and those of their ilk in jail for life. Better yet, have them farm their own products.

Nice subject SDog.

I had a great documentary once, that I cannot remember the name of that talked about how Monsanto was going in and planting crops and then, when neighboring farms became contaminated with their crops via cross pollination, were suing the farmers of the non-Monsanto crops and forcing them to destroy all of their own seeds that they collected. Even though some of those farmers had been perfecting that seed for generations to be well adapted to that specific geography.

I believe it was in Canada.

Here is another video, the "World According to Monsanto," that I found while trying to locate the one I cannot remember the name of that is available in its entirety online. I havent seen it yet myself. (Going to watch it now) but the reviews make is sound pretty darn good. I wish I could remember the name of the other one.

wideeyecinema.com...

Edit to add;

For those who do not want to watch the entire documentary, the segment that is directly related to the OP begins at 1:15.

[edit on 9-11-2008 by Illusionsaregrander]

Being that your from Canada Illusionsaregrander, you must be familiar with the plight of Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser and his battle with Monsanto. (Edit- sorry, I misread your post, and realised you are in fact not from Canada. My apologies. )

Excerpt from Macleans Magazine May 17, 1999. Article by Mark Nichols

"For 40 years, Percy Schmeiser has grown canola on his farm near Bruno, Sask., about 80 km east of Saskatoon, usually sowing each crop of the oil-rich plants with seeds saved from the previous harvest. And he has never, says Schmeiser, purchased seed from the St. Louis, Mo.-based agricultural and biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. Even so, he says that more than 320 hectares of his land is now "contaminated" by Monsanto's herbicide-resistant Roundup Ready canola, a man made variety produced by a controversial process known as genetic engineering. And, like hundreds of other North American farmer, Schmeiser has felt the sting of Monsanto's long legal arm: last August the company took the 68-year-old farmer to court, claiming he illegally planted the firm's canola without paying a $37-per-hectare fee for the privilege. Unlike scores of similarly accused North American farmers who have reached out-of-court settlements with Monsanto, Schmeiser fought back. He claims Monsanto investigators trespassed on his land -- and that company seed could easily have blown on to his soil from passing canola-laden trucks. "I never put those plants on my land," says Schmeiser. "The question is, where do Monsanto's rights end and mine begin?"

From Percys Website


I was in the middle of reading the book "Seeds of Deception" (all about GM foods), and had to stop, because it was just too much for my brain to absorb.

I also agree with the OP, what they are doing to our foods is criminal.

[edit on 9-11-2008 by Unknown Truth]

I found the latest official statistics:

"The Indian Ministry of Agriculture [Sharad Pawar] admits to the following figures: there were 100,000 suicides by farmers between 1993 and 2003. And between 2003 and October 2006, there have been some 16,000 suicides by farmers each year. In total, between 1993 and 2006, there were around 150,000 suicide by farmers, 30 a day for 13 years" (based on statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau)

sourcewatch.org

These are just unbelievable numbers for just one segment of the population.

This is beyond criminal, both by companies like Monsanto and Cargill, and by the MSM which does not report on this issue.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


A lot of us have seen "The world according to Monsanto."

There is an equally great PBS documentary called "The Dying Fields" on the precise topic discussed in the OP.

You can watch it in full here: PBS




[edit on 11/9/2008 by schrodingers dog]

What is also frightening about Monsanto and others, is they now control so many varieties of our garden seeds, where we will no longer to be able to save these seeds for regrowth next year as well.

And, how about the "Terminator Seeds"?

With Monsanto's terminator technology, they will sell seeds to farmers to plant crops. But these seeds have been genetically-engineered so that when the crops are harvested, all new seeds from these crops are sterile (e.g., dead, unusable). This forces farmers to pay Monsanto every year for new seeds if they want to grow their crops.

Link to source

This is ridiculous that a private corporation can have such a handle on our food supply. I also read somewhere (I will find the link eventually) that they are even now trying to put a patent on a pig!

Pork is the world’s most widely consumed meat protein and demand continues to grow as consumer incomes rise in countries such as China. So it is understandable that a company like Monsanto is looking for ways to capture a piece of that action.

The same fears arise when considering a patent on the method by which a pig was bred or specific traits that pig exhibits. “Any pigs that would be produced using this reproductive technique would be covered by these patents,” said Monsanto spokesman Chris Horner in a report.

Source

If I am straying to far off the original topic, I will back off.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


illusions, great reply.

no doubts these agro-monopolies are as corrupt as they could be.
what i don't understand is how GM seeds which supposed and
are marketed to be "better", in fact result in lower yields and cause
indian farmers to end their own lives... ?

shouldn't GM in fact be a better choice?

reply to post by eventHorizon


One would think, but three years of business school has enlightened me as to the way corporations actually act. If they can manage to swing a monopoly position, by whatever means, quality is assured to go down. In India, they apparently have a near monopoly position on cotton.

On a lighter note;

One thing people should realize though is that no matter what "they" do, even if they make a law that says we have to not save our seeds and buy them or pay royalties every year for every single piece of food, we have to agree as a whole that their laws are legitimate and honor them.

An American company, Bechtel, persuaded the Bolivian government to allow them to privatize rainwater. Yes you heard correctly.

www.50years.org...

But these protests have come at significant costs. In Bolivia, the government responded to protests against an agreement which went so far as to privatize rainwater in the province of Cochabamba with brute force and a martial lockdown. In the ensuing bedlam, a 17-year-old boy was killed when police catapulted a tear gas canister into his head. Bechtel, the company which had secured the contract for the privatization, finally chose to withdraw in the face of such strong opposition.

We dont have to let this happen. If I make a law that says you have to pay me 75 cents of every dollar you earn you would laugh your tail end off. And not do it. Laws only have legitimacy if they are agreed to, or otherwise enforced. I suspect that this would ultimately not go well for Monsanto. Humans are passive apathetic creatures by and large, but we do have a survival instinct, and eventually, it would kick in.

Historically, this bodes poorly for those who push their greed too far. And, if we are so passive as to starve to death rather than revolt, I have to say that as a species, we really wouldnt be a very viable one any way. We would almost deserve extinction in that case.



[edit on 9-11-2008 by Illusionsaregrander]

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
reply to post by eventHorizon

 

Historically, this bodes poorly for those who push their greed too far. And, if we are so passive as to starve to death rather than revolt, I have to say that as a species, we really wouldnt be a very viable one any way. We would almost deserve extinction in that case.

That is true in a lot of cases but not all.
There are many through history who have made their fortunes on the back of "evil" and never saw a consequence. (whilst alive anyway )

The problem here is that people are dying right now and at a staggering rate. Everyday month this continues 1000 additional people die.
But because it is happening in India no one seems to care.
It's a disgrace of monumental proportions.

It is a tragedy.

So is this;

en.wikipedia.org...

According to the World Health Organization, hunger is the gravest single threat to the world's public health.[1]According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003,[2] and as of 2001 to 2003, about 800 million people were chronically undernourished.[3][2] The WHO also states that malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases.[1] Scientists say millions of people face starvation following an outbreak of a deadly new strain of blight, known as Ug99, which is spreading across the wheat fields of Africa and Asia.[4]

Most people are numb when it comes to mass tragedies. It isnt that they cannot feel for their fellow man, they can, they try not to when the scope is so large because they feel helpless to make a difference.

If people really want to change these things, they need to do more than just report them. You need to offer solutions (in addition to highlighting the problem) that your average reader can envision themselves accomplishing successfully.

People dont react to massive death tolls proactively. This is a known phenomenon.

Even Josef Stalin said; ""One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."

I think the "why" of that is that most people are overwhelmed by enormity. It looks far too big to be overcome, for them to make a difference. We use large numbers thinking they will have a bigger mobilizing action when the facts show that the larger the scale of the tragedy the less likely it is an individual will act.

I wish I could find the paper right now that details this phenomenon but I cant.

Anyway, what I have found more effective if you actually want your readers or listeners to take action is that you must offer them a plan of action that they themselves can accomplish readily. Like it or not, most human beings do seem to require some direction. The easier you make it for them to take that action, the more people will contribute. If it is just thrown at them, they shut down.

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander

Even Josef Stalin said; ""One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic."

Unfortunately what you say seems to be true.

I have to believe though that if awareness was increased on this "genocide" people would demand its cessation.

After all we use GM crops in the United States. You can bet if what is happening in India was happening here people would be appropriately incensed.

your thread got more replies than the last one
www.abovetopsecret.com...

people simply don't care, that's the only explanation, isn't it?

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


admittedly, knowing that some private company has
a monopoly on seeds is sickening...

sooner or later they will 'abuse' this monopoly right.
apparently, this is the story in India now, as we post.

this 'abuse' is as warranted as the fact that we humans
are 'passive survivors'. we get pushed to a certain
point; then we revolt. this is part two of the equation.
part one - the 'abuse' by monopolistic powers - is also
a given; they are greedy and greed makes them stupid,
i mean really stupid. current state of world banking system
is a proof of that.

i believe it was Lenin or Marx who said, "capitalist
is a man who will sell me the rope on which i'll hang him".
they were, afterall, correct, to a point. in a moment
of stupidity they will -

issue 0% down mortgages,
buy monopoly rights on rainwater,
print dollars like there is no tomorrow,
save GM and zombie US banks...

indeed, could we come up with anything better?

Well, in the interest of full disclosure I have to share the latest information on this topic.

POOR Indian farmers are not driven to suicide by the pressures of growing genetically modified cotton, concludes a comprehensive review published last month - if anything, suicides among farmers have fallen since Bt cotton was introduced by Monsanto in 2002, quite steeply in some states.

"It is not only inaccurate, but simply wrong to blame the use of Bt cotton as the primary cause of farmer suicides in India," says the report by independent think tank, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

continued...

The report says that a key driver of suicide in Indian farmers is local and federal governments' failure to provide practical and financial support to poor farmers. This has forced them to rely on loan sharks and moneylenders who charge exorbitant rates of interest of up to 36 per cent.

New Scientist

The IFPRI seems to be a legitimate source but if anyone knows otherwise please share your thoughts. It is difficult to believe that they would be running to Monsanto's defense lest something super sinister is going on.

Even if this report is accurate, it does not fully absolve Monsanto, but it would mitigate their actions upon this dreadful problem of farmer suicides.

Sorry this thread dropped off.

More about what's going on with GM overseas..

The Real Victor in Iraq: Monsanto
Written by Jeanne Roberts
Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Five years of occupation, more than $558 billion spent, 4,182 U.S. soldiers and 655,000 Iraqi civilians dead, and it now looks like Monsanto (NYSE.MON - $71.95) is going to be the real victor in Iraq thanks to a postwar document known as Order 81.

Part of the infamous 100 Orders, Order 81 mandates that Iraq’s commercial-scale farmers must now purchase "registered” seeds. These are available through agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Cargill Corporation (a private company) and the World Wide Wheat Company (also private), but Monsanto is far and away the most significant player in the registered seed market.

Monsanto’s seeds are “terminator” seeds. This means they are inherently sterile, and any seed they produce does not give birth to more plants.

Source

This is mind boggling. I wonder if the Iraqi farmers are aware of this, that their seed will be of no use to them..?

This is saddening, and maddening.

What makes this Order 81 even more outrageous is that Iraqi farmers have been saving wheat and barley seeds since at least 4000 BC, when irrigated agriculture first emerged, and probably even to about 8000 BC, when wheat was first domesticated. Mesopotamia's farmers have now been trumped by white-smocked, corporate bio-engineers from Florida who strive to replace hundreds of natural varieties with a handful of genetically scrambled hybrids

Another source on this

edited for typos

[edit on 10-12-2008 by Unknown Truth]