Subscribe
Vandana Shiva on Farmer Suicides….
Indian farmers have never committed suicide on a large scale. It’s something totally new. It’s linked to the last decade of globalization, trade liberalization under a corporate-driven economy. The seed sector was liberalized to allow corporations like Cargill and Monsanto to sell unregulated, untested seed. They began with hybrids, which can’t be saved, and moved on to genetically engineered Bt cotton. The cotton belt is where the suicides are taking place on a very, very large scale. It is the suicide belt of India.
And the high cost of seed is linked to high cost of chemicals, because these seeds need chemicals. In addition, these costly seeds need to be bought every year, because their very design is to make seeds nonrenewable, seed that isn’t renewable by its very nature, but whether it’s through patenting systems, intellectual property rights or technologically through hybridization, nonrenewable seed is being sold to farmers so they must buy every year.
More here
Tags: Farmer, India, South Asia, Suicides, Vandana Shiva
June 30th, 2008 at 9:35 am
In and around my village, farmers started growing BT Cotton after crops having been destroyed repeatedly by a certain kind of bug that had become resistant to the chemicals meant to destroy it. The seeds are obtained from the state of Gujarat, where, apparently, these are produced in large quantities by locals.
June 30th, 2008 at 10:13 am
This is all so horrible. Developing countries like Pakistan and India act very cautiously while letting these huge multinationals invest into their countries (assuming that Cargill and Monsanto are multinationals)…
June 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Did this post come as a result of the news of Monsanto coming to Pakistan:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=15658
June 30th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Thanks for the comment
Shueyb: yes the news story was an impetus for this post
cheers
Raza