Dealing with the Asuras of Monsanto

Dr. Sanjay Kadlimatti shares his insight about the Health Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods

Namaste

Dear friends PLEASE take few minutes to read this and wake up for ourselves and our future generation!!!
It is said that “We are what we Eat”. Do anyone of us (in India at-least) know what we are eating? Think of our health status now as compared to our parents and grand parents. And also please think of our Children who are more susceptible in future. Have you ever asked yourself, Why there is increased rate of premature ageing, digestive disorders, cancers, heart diseases, genetic diseases, auto immune diseases, allergies etc. etc.???

Indian farmers also have gradually started using the Genetically Modified Seeds produced by this company called Monsanto. It has 16 branches in India, 4 of which are in Maharashtra, 3 in Karnataka, 2 each in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh and 1 each in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, New Delhi and Union territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

The food crops produced by this company is Genetically Engineered to increase the yield and enables the plant to fight against the pests. At the same time these Genetically Modified Seeds / Foods are very dangerous to the Mankind, all animals and even the whole ecology of the earth. It causes increased risk of CANCER, AUTO IMMUNE DISEASES, GENETIC DISORDERS and What not??? Refer this link to see what are the 50 side effects of Genetically Modified Foods http://www.raw-wisdom.com/50harmful.
Many Countries like Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Madeira, New Zealand, Peru, South Australia, Russia, France, and Switzerland have banned this company – Monsanto in their countries. See this link below;
http://politicalvelcraft.org/2013/03/23/monsanto-has-been-removed-and-banned-by-austria-bulgaria-germany-greece-hungary-ireland-japan-luxembourg-madeira-new-zealand-peru-south-australia-russia-france-and-switzerland/

Recently farmers of Hungary have burned and destroyed all the Monsanto Genetically Modified Corn fields!!!

http://www.realfarmacy.com/hungary-destroys-all-monsanto-gmo-corn-fields/#pcWXExDqcwuB3o3Z.01

Now its time to wake up for we INDIANS. Lots of our children eat this Corns and other food grains which are made from the Genetically modified Corns and grains produced by this company. The so called Sweet Corn are also dangerous. This toxic Corn is also available as a ready Breakfast Mix in different flavors!!!

You know there is a company called ‘MAHYCO’ which distributes seeds to Indian Farmers. This company has the tie up with Monsanto and that Deal is known as MMB (Mahyco Monsanto Biotech). http://www.monsantoindia.com/MMB.html

It seems fascinating to use the word “TECHNOLOGY” as in BIOTECHNOLOGY !
Recently One Ayurvedic College has planned to start the New Branch called as “AYURTECH” which plans to bring Biotechnology into Ayurveda and also design all machines to perform all Panchakarma procedures!!! How can machines replace MAN in Ayurvedic Therapy when Research has proved that, Human touch of Love and affection is very much mandatory for healing!!!

You don’t have to do something BIG wasting all your valuable time. What everyone of us has to do is, As a responsible citizen of INDIA, Educate the farmers near by your city, town, village about the side effects of these genetically modified foods. Ask them to follow the traditional ways of farming (Organic Farming – Saavayava Krushi in Kannada). Educate the farmers not to use harmful chemical based pesticides. Ask them to use their traditional ways of storing and using the natural SEEDS for agriculture.

Also as an educated citizen please find some 15 to 30 minutes of time to visit the nearest Agricultural Officer and discuss this issue with him/her to avoid such Genetically Modified Foods.
We can’t expect anything from the Government, as Governments are involved in this multi-million money making scams. Politicians are less bothered about the health hazards on their citizens. They are only bothered about the money that is paid by these companies.

We have to work at the Root Level. “Reach and Teach Farmers” is my MANTRA to tackle this problem for a healthy upcoming generations. When a farmer himself will not support these companies and reject to use their seeds, then where these companies will survive. We have to learn lessons from the above mentioned companies like Hungary, Austria etc.

Goooooo Friends… Start Acting from today itself for a Healthier Tomorrow.

India : Monsanto’s Seeds Of Suicide

Monsanto’s talk of ‘technology’ tries to hide its real objectives of control over seed where genetic engineering is a means to control seed,

“Monsanto is an agricultural company.We apply innovation and technology to help farmers around the world \produce more while conserving more.”“Producing more, Conserving more, Improving farmers lives.”

These are the promises Monsanto India’s website makes, alongside pictures of smiling, prosperous farmers from the state of Maharashtra. This is a desperate attempt by Monsanto and its PR machinery to delink the epidemic of farmers’ suicides in India from the company’s growing control over cotton seed supply — 95 per cent of India’s cotton seed is now controlled by Monsanto.

Control over seed is the first link in the food chain because seed is the source of life. When a corporation controls seed, it controls life, especially the life of farmers.

Monsanto’s concentrated control over the seed sector in India as well as across the world is very worrying. This is what connects farmers’ suicides in India to Monsanto vs Percy Schmeiser in Canada, to Monsanto vs Bowman in the US, and to farmers in Brazil suing Monsanto for $2.2 billion for unfair collection of royalty.

Through patents on seed, Monsanto has become the “Life Lord” of our planet, collecting rents for life’s renewal from farmers, the original breeders.

Patents on seed are illegitimate because putting a toxic gene into a plant cell is not “creating” or “inventing” a plant. These are seeds of deception — the deception that Monsanto is the creator of seeds and life; the deception that while Monsanto sues farmers and traps them in debt, it pretends to be working for farmers’ welfare, and the deception that GMOs feed the world. GMOs are failing to control pests and weeds, and have instead led to the emergence of superpests and superweeds.

The entry of Monsanto in the Indian seed sector was made possible with a 1988 Seed Policy imposed by the World Bank, requiring the Government of India to deregulate the seed sector. Five things changed with Monsanto’s entry: First, Indian companies were locked into joint-ventures and licensing arrangements, and concentration over the seed sector increased. Second, seed which had been the farmers’ common resource became the “intellectual property” of Monsanto, for which it started collecting royalties, thus raising the costs of seed. Third, open pollinated cotton seeds were displaced by hybrids, including GMO hybrids. A renewable resource became a non-renewable, patented commodity. Fourth, cotton which had earlier been grown as a mixture with food crops now had to be grown as a monoculture, with higher vulnerability to pests, disease, drought and crop failure. Fifth, Monsanto started to subvert India’s regulatory processes and, in fact, started to use public resources to push its non-renewable hybrids and GMOs through so-called public-private partnerships (PPP).

In 1995, Monsanto introduced its Bt technology in India through a joint-venture with the Indian company Mahyco. In 1997-98, Monsanto started open field trials of its GMO Bt cotton illegally and announced that it would be selling the seeds commercially the following year. India has rules for regulating GMOs since 1989, under the Environment Protection Act. It is mandatory to get approval from the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee under the ministry of environment for GMO trials. The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology sued Monsanto in the Supreme Court of India and Monsanto could not start the commercial sales of its Bt cotton seeds until 2002.

And, after the damning report of India’s parliamentary committee on Bt crops in August 2012, the panel of technical experts appointed by the Supreme Court recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of all GM food and termination of all ongoing trials of transgenic crops.
But it had changed Indian agriculture already.

Monsanto’s seed monopolies, the destruction of alternatives, the collection of superprofits in the form of royalties, and the increasing vulnerability of monocultures has created a context for debt, suicides and agrarian distress which is driving the farmers’ suicide epidemic in India. This systemic control has been intensified with Bt cotton. That is why most suicides are in the cotton belt.

An internal advisory by the agricultural ministry of India in January 2012 had this to say to the cotton-growing states in India — “Cotton farmers are in a deep crisis since shifting to Bt cotton. The spate of farmer suicides in 2011-12 has been particularly severe among Bt cotton farmers.”

The highest acreage of Bt cotton is in Maharashtra and this is also where the highest farmer suicides are. Suicides increased after Bt cotton was introduced — Monsanto’s royalty extraction, and the high costs of seed and chemicals have created a debt trap. According to Government of India data, nearly 75 per cent rural debt is due to purchase inputs. As Monsanto’s profits grow, farmers’ debt grows. It is in this systemic sense that Monsanto’s seeds are seeds of suicide.

The ultimate seeds of suicide is Monsanto’s patented technology to create sterile seeds. (Called “Terminator technology” by the media, sterile seed technology is a type of Gene Use Restriction Technology, GRUT, in which seed produced by a crop will not grow — crops will not produce viable offspring seeds or will produce viable seeds with specific genes switched off.) The Convention on Biological Diversity has banned its use, otherwise Monsanto would be collecting even higher profits from seed.

Monsanto’s talk of “technology” tries to hide its real objectives of ownership and control over seed where genetic engineering is just a means to control seed and the food system through patents and intellectual property rights.

A Monsanto representative admitted that they were “the patient’s diagnostician, and physician all in one” in writing the patents on life-forms, from micro-organisms to plants, in the TRIPS’ agreement of WTO. Stopping farmers from saving seeds and exercising their seed sovereignty was the main objective. Monsanto is now extending its patents to conventionally bred seed, as in the case of broccoli and capsicum, or the low gluten wheat it had pirated from India which we challenged as a biopiracy case in the European Patent office.
That is why we have started Fibres of Freedom in the heart of Monsanto’s Bt cotton/suicide belt in Vidharba. We have created community seed banks with indigenous seeds and helped farmers go organic. No GMO seeds, no debt, no suicides.

Vandana Shiva is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist.Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals.She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D. in physics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. She was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. She is the founder of Navdanya http://www.navdanya.org/