A vote for Wally

Posted on April 11, 2013 by admin

Wally Martin, our good friend from Langley, BC, has decided to contest the coming provincial election in May from his constituency, on the Green Party platform. A self employed small businessman with an inclination to believe in long term sustainable solutions rather than the current trend of politicians, offering instant short term fixes for everything.

A committed environmentalist and a decent human with an inclusive political outlook to life focussed on sustainability and long term goals, he hopes to serve his community and the Canadian people into refocussing and looking generations into the future, instead of looking for solutions that last for a month or a season.

I spoke with Wally on phone on 11th of April 2013, about his decision to stand for election in a 3 minute statement. Then on April 16th, Wally read out another statement about himself, in another short talk. Both of these were recorded and have now been converted to podcast, linked below.

On 18th of April, I followed Wally as he went knocking on doors in is constituency, drumming up support for his candidacy. That was covered in the video below.

[youtube DrXYLBATDlI]

Good luck – Wally.

Rounding up against Roundup ready Alfalfa

Posted on April 10, 2013 by admin

It was a day of action, three times over. The first order of the day was the most noisy and fun – a day or national protest against introduction of Monsanto’s Genetically Modified, pesticide ready Alfalfa as cattle feed in the eastern provinces of Canada.

Arnold Taylor, David Avery, Bobbie Blair & Tony Mitra before MP Warawa’s office – protesting against GM-Alfalfa

I had spoken with CBAN (Canadian Biotechnology Action Network) and COG (Canadian Organic Growers), both of Ottaway, to learn a bit more of the issue. Relevant points might be:

Alfalfa is a wildly grown plant and naturally suited to withstand weeds and grows in open patches, side of railway tracks, on road side and on open prairie alongside grass, well enough and does not require protection against weeds.
It, along with grass, is an important natural feed for “organic” raised cattle, and other farm animals, as well as wild herbivores.
The western provinces have a good export market for Alfalfa to Asia. The buyers do not want Genetically modified Alfalfa. Introduction of GM-Alfalfa can jeopardize a lucrative export market. So the western provinces have rejected GM-Alfalfa.
In the east, the export market is smaller, and alfalfa is largely for internal consumption for cattle feed and to plant between crops in industrial farms, for nitrogen fixing.
It is therefore in the east, where GM-Alfalfa, or Roundup ready alfalfa, is to be introduced. The side effect of it is to sell a lot of Roundup pesticide, to be sprayed over alfalfa fields. The GM-Alfalfa itself is likely to cross polinate and spoil the organic alfalfa of the prairies. The pesticide is to do the rest.
This essentially can kill the “Organic” farms phylosophy of the east – perhaps one of the business goals behind this drive to Monsantoize the prairies. Also, the long term after effect of all this may turn out into the rape of Canadian environment, food security and bio-diversity.

So, for all these reasons, we stood in front of the local MP’s constituency office in Langley, and signed petitions to stop introduction of GM-Alfalfa in the Canadian east. We also stood by the street corner waving flags and passing the message to passing motorists.

Folks that came and I spoke with, are

Saskatchewan mega-farmer and Anti-GMO crusader Arnold Taylor
Organic Vineyard owner/ operator David Avery
GMO Free Langley crusader Bobbie Blair
Green Party election candidate and anti-GMO crusader Wally Martin
Langley anti-GMO crusader Lucy Nickel
Terry Lynn Sullivan – cancer patient and victim of pesticide / GMO farming.
And many others

[youtube 6ifb49xF1m8]

So, where should GM-Alfalfa go ? Well, if Monsanto wishes to elevate GM-Alfalfa, it might consider putting some of these seeds in a rocket and send it to outer space. What do you say ?

Lana on BC Agriculture

Posted on April 8, 2013 by admin

Lana Popham and Craig Keating met with people of North Vancouver at Buddha Full Organic cafe, to talk about BC’s agriculture. Craig introduced Lana first.

Lana, incumbent MLA from Sanich South, and an agricultural critic for the BC Government, made a twenty five minute presentation, taking only occasional cue from her notebook. Coming from an agricultural background and having run an organic farm before becoming a politician, she described the need to place Agriculture one of the front and centre issues for the province, with a basic three point program. These three points are:

Grow BC
Feed BC
Buy BC

Below is a recording of the talk, with introduction of Craig Keating. Craig is the city councillor for North Vancouver and is standing for the provincial election this time, along with Lana Popham.

From us, the “No GMO” team, we had Wally, his wife and daughter, Phil and his son Jeff, myself and Anu. We took pictures, like the one above with Lana.

In the short video clip below, North Van councillor and NDP candidate Craig Keating introduces Lana to the crowd at the Budhha Full organic cafe.

[youtube d9ZZVn0Jg6I]

Then Lana made her speed, which I recorded on audio. Listen to her speech in the podcast link below.

In search of support for India’s farmers

Posted on March 31, 2013 by admin

When I first arrived in British Columbia years ago and tried to form a group of people that supported holistic agriculture and wished to help the poor farmers in India that might be going the wrong path of chemical dependent high cost and debt-ridden agro-industrial model, many cautioned me that there was a lack of interest among Indian expatriates, to support sustainable living efforts either back in India or here in Canada. As a result, a very small slice of the Indian diaspora settled in any area ever get to be members of the NGO groups in the US such as AID (Association for India’s Development).

This has also been our experience in Vancouver while trying to register a similar body. On average one out of every twenty thousand or so expatriate Indians might show a cursory interest in the plight of the farmers in India.

In order to break out of that shackling restriction, I had been checking if support might come from local Canadians.

My primary interest has been related to agriculture one way or another, and the GM crop issue (Genetically modified seed crop) piled up on top of it since it is a rather recent phenomena. And in this area, I find that there is a lot of overlap of interest for Indians, Canadians and Americans.

All are facing the menace of GMO. While the battle for the major crops in North America is already over, and the people as well as agro-environment have lost and the corporations won – the issue in India is far from settled. In fact, India is shaping up to be the epicenter of the battle, as Argentina and Brazil have already caved in meekly, and China is watching from the sidelines.

Further, it is perhaps not an exaggeration to state that the Civil Society in India is doing a fantastic job of resisting the onslaught of GMO brought about by corporate interest with the collusion of corrupt Indian politicians.

But India is also facing some quarter million farmer suicides, an unbelievable number. In fact, for a tenth of that number, any other country would likely have had a revolution by now. Unfortunately in India, the root cause and effect of the farmer suicide is not a national hot topic. The upwardly mobile Indian yuppy class is busy with Cricket and Bollywood and whatever else it is busy with. Farmers are outside radar range of the Indian affluent society.

Widow of an Indian farmer that killed himself

However, the fact is perhaps slowly sinking in among Canadians I speak with, and I speak with quite a few, that India might be the epicenter of the war against GMO, and if India wins its battle, Canadians and others might also benefit, in the long run.

So I decided to join hands with Canadian civil society efforts to resist GMO in Canada, starting with the lower mainlands area around Vancouver, and extending out to British Columbia and Canada.

In the past one month, I have managed to get favorable response and establish a sort of communication channel and relationship with at least one MP, one MLA, a number of city councillors for various towns in the region, been included in group list for CBAN (Canadian Biotechnology Action Network – a group based in Ottawa for all of Canada to fight all kinds of GMO, whether food or not, from the Canadian landscape), been a member of GE free BC (GE = Genetically Engineered, BC = British Columbia).

I have been asked to speak a few times at the town hall of Langley after film shows on the harmful effects of GMO. I might speak again on the 11th of April about grassroots work being done by various people on various fronts in different towns in the region, towards raising awareness on GMO and sending a message to the Govt to label GMO and hopefully ban it from Canada in future.

I am invited to two or three meetings in the coming weeks with City Councillors of Surrey, and White Rock, to specifically discuss pros and cons of how to get these towns declare themselves GM free and what kind of message that would send and how to acquire some legal teeth on it.

I am invited to engage with farmland support group and local farmer initiatives to join in on meetings to discuss some of the overlapping issues connecting local farmer going out of business, globalization in food supply, GMO and patented seed monopoly, chemical dependence, and health.

I wrote an email to the Surrey MLA Mr. Jagrup Brar requesting for a meeting of concerned citizens on the possibility of having Surrey declare itself GMO free. Such a resolution, already passed by Richmond, BC, and many other communities in British Columba, may not have legal teeth, but would hopefully send a strong message, raise awareness and have beneficial effect in the long run. I have not received any response yet, but am hopeful.

I did write to Ms Lana Popham, an MLA from Saanich south in Vancouver island, who is trying to block introduction of Arctic (GM) apple into BC farms. She was prompt enough to respond as well as acknowledge our concerns.

I have become a sort of member of a local farm, God’s Little Acre Farm, run by Jas Singh, who produces GMO free and “almost” chemical free, (5% chemical use compared to conventional farms) vegetables, and am planning to make arrangements such that our whole years vegetables may come from there instead of from superstores.

I am going that way with realization that a lot of local farmers have closed shop in the last few decades with the arrival of food superstores that use globalization, importing food from far off lands and shutting out local small farmers. This causes a double whammy of shooting up my carbon footprint on this planet and same time shutting out local farmers and ruining a local self sustaining community and farm economy.

I have written to the food superstores such as Saveon, Safeway, and Thrifty Foods, asking if they will have all GMO food labelled and segregated in their stores. Only Thrifty Foods responded by calling back to check our opinion. I hope more would call them up and entice them to make the move towards labeling and segregating GM food for easy identification of the consumer. I believe it is a basic right of every human to have information on what he or she is eating.

I have communicated with Mr. David Suzuki on the sustainable farming and potential harm of GM crops in Canada as well as in India. I have received an encouraging response from Mr. Suzuki who is focussing, among other things, on raising awareness against the potential danger of introducing GM crops into our diet without knowing what long term adverse effects it is likely to have on general health.

In the process, a whole wide vista has opened up before me. Earlier, I was getting frustrated at the lack of enthusiasm among the well settled and affluent Indian diaspora in helping their less fortunate brothers back in India. But now I find a whole lot more sympathetic Canadians trying to unify under a common cause.

It has cheered me up and help re-establish a belief in our joint future.

I do not know yet how I might get some of that sympathy, energy, effort and fund raising to channel also towards AID Vancouver. But I believe that sympathetic folks usually help each other out. That is why people from Surrey and Delta are invited to Vancouver Anti-GMO meetings and why Canadians join hands with Americans to fight Monsanto in petitions and pickets and organic farm supports.

I hope that it all will eventually work out, and that the compassionate Canadian people will find it in their heart to also help out a less fortunate Indian farmer.

Tony Mitra

Dr. Bhargava – A talk with a top Indian biologist.

Posted on March 30, 2013 by admin

Early in the morning, my phone gave a tinkle. It was a reminder based on a calendar event I had created, to call Dr. Bhargava early my morning when it was late evening in Hyderabad India, where he stayed.

Dr Pushpa M. Bhargava is a well known man. He is founder and former director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India; former vice chair, National Knowledge Commission, Govt of India; former member, National Security Advisory Board; Nominee of the Supreme Court of India on the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee of the Govt of India.

Some of the relevant points discussed were:

Bt. Cotton : This has proven to be bad for India. There is mounting evidence of link between rising farmer suicide and Bt. Cotton. Dr. Bhargava states that he has checked his records going back several decades and in fact has the necessary documents to show the increase in farmer suicide in the Cotton farming belt started in large scale since introduction of Bt. Cotton. He further claims that the Bt. gene is a dangerous item and needs to be banned altogether. He feels optimistic that this will happen in India. However, he believes banning of Bt. Cotton will not come from the Government itself, which is focussed on promoting interest of western corporations. The change will come from public pressure, and the significant role being played by the Indian CIvil Society. This may even turn out to be an election issue next year. Dr. Bhargava further stated that the Govt. of Philippines had invited Dr. Bhargava for his views on some of the Bt. Crops such as Bt. Brinjal and had more or less followed his recommendation in rejecting it in their country.
Roundup Ready crop : According to Dr. Bhargava, this is an even bigger disaster than the Bt. Cottons. But thankfully, it is not introduced in India at all, except in small experiments and field trials. Unfortunately, the Agricultural Minister of India is pushing all he can to promote Western Patented and clearly detrimental technology of GM crop for questionable scientific or ethical reasons. Nonetheless, Roundup Ready crops are a long distance away from large scale introduction in India.
Bt. Brinjal : There was a major groundswell of opposition against Bt. Brinjal in India a few years ago, that prompted the then minister of environment Mr. Jairam Ramesh to investigate the pros and cons issue of the Bt. crop and put a moratorium on it, essentially banning it from India for the foreseeable future. This happened in spite of the money poured into media campaign by corporations and the support the GM crop got from most of the Government and business class. This was perhaps the first major setback for GM crop globally, and set the stage for the rest of the issues.
Supreme Court Case : There is a ground breaking case unfolding in the Indian Supreme Court where top Indian scientific expert committee has advised the Court in a case against the Govt of India, about the harmful effects of GM technology. It is possible that the Supreme Court might force the hand of Govt of India in banning most of the GM crops for now.
Biopiracy : There is another interesting case ongoing in a High Court, initiated by civil society individuals against the Govt of India, providing evidence that Monsanto and its partner have violated the National Biological Diversity Act (2002) by using a variety of Indian eggplant (brinjal) without obtaining the permission of Government of India for such use as required according to Indian laws to produce GM brinjal. This is in essence an act of Biopiracy. The court has seen the evidence and has agreed that the Indian law has been violated and instructed Govt of India to sue Monsanto and its partner, which the Govt is now proceeding to do, but trying to find ways to scuttle the case as far as possible.
Illegal introduction of GM crop : India does not have a good laboratory that can quickly check if a crop is GM or not. Taking advantage of that, a lot of GM crops have sneaked into the Indian food chain, such as imported snacks based on GM corn, GM soya etc. This is as such illegal, but the mechanism is not in place to check it and the law regarding safeguards are not properly implemented. There is a lack of awareness on these issues.
Govt Policy on GM: Unfortunately, it is now a well known fact that Indian policy is being tuned to support American interests and to solve America’s problems rather than India’s own national interest. This is so well known that even Indian politicians accept it unofficially. This too is likely to be an election issue next year. Globalization has allowed an unprecedented level of influence by foreign corporations on national policy making of many countries.
Indian Civil Society: It is also an emerging fact that, in spite of corruption, illiteracy and poverty that ravages India, the Indian Civil Society is likely doing a ground breaking job and achieving better success than almost anywhere else, in fighting the menace of GM crop issue.
Golden Rice: The whole issue of Golden rice is a kind of hoax. It is touted as a solution to vitamin-A deficiency in the third world. It is patented technology, but the patent holder states it is not going to claim intellectual rights on it for now. Calculations show that a man might have to eat 15 Kg of this rice every day to get his normal daily needs of Vitamin-A. This is absurd. This means Vitamin-A has to be taken in primarily from other supplementary food and not from rice, either GM or organic. The aim may be for Golden rice to push out and make extinct all other major strains of rice. Once the competition is gone, then the patent holder begins to increase price of seed and demand intelectual rights to the seed.
Science Research off base : Indian Govt has been, unfortunately, tuning its science research institutions to solve American problems and not Indian problems.
Food supply : The main idea of the GM seed business plan is to control the world food supply – the biggest business in the world. It is not designed to solve either hunger or poverty. It is designed to establish a stranglehold and a monopoly on the world food supply.

The conversation was recorded and is given below in the Podcast. Click on the triangular play button. You may also find it in iTunes.

Dr. Bhargava has seen the above text and approves it. He can be contacted at : bhargava.pm@gmail.com

—–

These are a few of my favorite things

Posted on March 29, 2013 by admin

There is an emerging story of our activity at this part of the world, towards efforts to push for sustainable and holistic farming. Folks used to write letters, physical letters, often hand written, then put it in an envelope, attach a stamp, and mail it.

Phil Harrison had arranged for Ms Doreen Dewell to speak about GMO at Fraser Valley University near Abbotsford.I went to attend and audio recorded her speech.

At FVU during Doreen Dewell’s talk on GMO

Folks don’t do that any more. Only thing you get by mail is bills and junk mail. Now folks send email, but that too is dying out. Folks send messages on phone, on Skype, on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and God knows through how many more channels.

So, here is one of the things that I have been getting, and these are a few of my favorite things. GE free BC or GMO free BC (same thing) is something I got involved in, since I attended the Social Justice Film Festival in White Rock, and came to know Bobbie Blair, Phil Harrison and others.

An exchange with Donna Passmore

One thing lead to another. And thus, I ended up making that post on Twitter and getting a response, for example, from Donna Passmore of Farmland Defence of White Rock. I am nota hundred percent sure what Farmland Defence is – but I guess I shall find out soon enough.

We need a local champion in White Rock, a resident, who will take this up, and we shall be helping and supporting him. I do not live in White Rock myself. Phil Harrison does not either. Rick Ketcheson lives there, but he is focussing on gardening in White Rock. So, we are still in search for a champion for GE free White Rock.

Then, I’d like to mention Organic Whole Foods. They have a presence in Twitter – @OrganicLiveFood, with the face of a woman. She is a live wire and a super-prolific tweet person with almsot a single handed focus on informing people against GMO and against questionable chemical dependent farming. She has almost 80,000 followers. I am one of them, because she single handedly focuses against Monsanto and the GM-biotech industry. I suppose she is raising awareness and public interest in eating safe food, and the organisation she is working for, intends to promote and sell organic only food.

So, anyhow, she complained about supporters of Coca Cola & Pepsi apparently tried to tell her followers that she had been misinforming people about those beverages. That got my attention. And I had to respond. I dug up Sunita Narain’s great work in India about these beverage giants and how they hoodwink the people, selling junk beverages, stealing free the ground water supply from the area, reducing the availability of good water for the villagers and passing contaminants into the drink.

So I passed some of that info onto her and her followers. This is a good way, as good as many others, in passing information and raising general awareness, I guess. But the real treat is watching Sunita Narain herself.

[youtube Z6rCdAnOJSo]

Meanwhile, Lucy Fischetti Nickel drew my attention to something going on on the GMO Free Canada page on Facebook. The tread started with a poster and dealt with Monsanto and a new bill being signed in the US, that presumably makes it difficult for people to sue Monsanto, or something.

So, on that FB page, there was a sort of argument ongoing between two sides. And one of them, questioning those that wish the bill, which the identify as a Monsanto Protection Bill, had not passed.
One of the comments drew my attention. The question was, if GMO crop contained poison and lots of folks were being poisoned without their knowledge, why was there not a charge brought against the supplier of the GMO?

Well, I thought I might post there. But the thread, strangely, appeared to be frozen and not accepting more comments. So, I shall make it here.

There is a trend that shows how corporations do not get charged, or any case do not get to pay for damages caused by their product.

Vietnamese folks did not get compensated for deaths, birth defects and health problems from exposure to Agent Orange.

Americans did not fully get compensated for lung decease from exposure to asbestos.

Americans did not get compensated for lung decease and other health problems from smoking, while products did not carry adequate health warnings.

Relatives of 25,000 Indians that died from exposure to cyanide from a leaking Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India in the 1980s did not get compensated till date.

When methane and other nasty stuff is coming up into ground water and soil due to fracking, folks are not getting compensated.

There are umpteen examples of Corporations either avoiding getting charged, or avoiding getting penalized for what may amount to crime against humanity.

Why is justice thus denied? You tell me.

—

Monsanto just gave you one more reason.

Posted on March 25, 2013 by admin

From: PHIL Harrison

Subject: Monsanto just gave you one more reason.

Date: 25 March, 2013 9:27:41 PM PDT

Below is information about the Washington State mandatory gmo labelling ballot initiative.

Although not about Surrey, this is an important local opportunity. This can succeed, after the recount in California the NO side won by less than 1%, even after outspending on advertising by about 10:1.

Please consider donating. See below for details.

thank you

Phil Harrison

GE Free Surrey

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association <ronniecummins@organicconsumers.org>

Date: 24 March 2013 07:06

Subject: Monsanto just gave you one more reason.

To: thebigph@gmail.com

Dear Organic Consumer,

As if the existing threats to our health and environment weren’t enough reason to fight for labels on food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Monsanto just gave us one more.

Three days ago, bowing down to Monsanto’s well-funded lobbyists, Congress voted to allow Monsanto to grow GMO crops that could be harmful to human health and the environment – even if a federal court or a regulatory agency rules that the planting of those crops is illegal. Under this new law, sneaked in at the last moment as a rider to the federal appropriations bill, not even the federal courts will be able to stop Monsanto from introducing a slew of new, potentially poisonous GMO crops into our food supply.

It’s just one more reason to pass a statewide GMO labeling law, one with real teeth.

In November, voters in Washington State will decide on I-522, a citizens’ ballot initiative to label GMOs. The OCA has pledged $500,000 to the I-522 campaign. If we raise half of that – $250,000 – by April 1, a generous donor will match those funds so we can fulfill our pledge. Can you help us reach our goal by April 1 with a donation today? You can donate online with a credit card or Paypal. Or you can mail a check. Or phone in your donation.

If you’ve already contributed to this campaign, thank you! Perhaps you can pass this message along to friends and family? If you haven’t donated yet, please consider a donation today. Every dollar counts toward this critical matching gift.

We’ve heard it many times, from food retailers and manufacturers, and especially from politicians, that what we need is a federal GMO labeling law. State laws would be too confusing, too difficult to enforce. But you and I both know that a law written in Washington D.C., where Monsanto lobbyists have politicians in their back pockets, will do more to protect Big Biotech and Big Food than it will to protect consumers.

I-522 is a citizens’ ballot initiative, written to protect consumers, not industry.

If you’re reading this letter, you probably supported a similar initiative last year, Prop 37, the California Right to Know GMO labeling law. And like me, you were deeply disappointed that we lost that fight.

You may be wondering, is it worth raising all this money again, for another, similar initiative? Yes. And here’s why.

This initiative stands an excellent chance of passing. With the FDA about to approve the first genetically engineered salmon, Washington State fishermen and consumers are fiercely determined to pass this law.
If we force food producers to label GMOs in Washington State, they may as well label in every other state.
Thanks to the groundwork we laid in California, the I-522 campaign is off to an early start and better able to anticipate the opposition’s strategy.
Thanks to your hammering of the food manufacturers who contributed millions to defeat Prop 37, those companies won’t likely throw more money at defeating I-522.
The advertising market in Washington is much smaller than the California market. Monsanto will no doubt saturate it. But because advertising there costs so much less, we will be able to reach every voter with our message, well before November. And at a far lower cost than it took to reach far fewer voters in California, where we couldn’t begin to compete until the final week of the campaign.

But the most compelling reason to support I-522 is that we must not throw away our investment in Prop 37, we must not let the momentum die, we must not give up the fight for a right so basic that it’s the law in 61 other countries.

Between today and April 1, your donation to the I-522 campaign will be worth twice as much, as long as we reach our goal of $250,000 and earn a matching gift. Every cent we raise will go directly to support the I-522 campaign. Please help us keep this fight alive with your donation today.

I’ve heard from so many people who were inspired by the work we did in California last year on this issue. I always tell them that we couldn’t have done it without our dedicated, determined, rabble-rousing supporters. You are not only the reason we do this work, you are the engine that drives this movement. Thank you.

In solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins
National Director, Organic Consumers Association and Organic Consumers Fund

P.S. Prop 37 would never have had the impact it had, without your support. Our $1.5 million donation to the campaign came from individual donations, from people like you. If you still believe in this fight, please donate today. Help us show Monsanto that we intend to win the GMO labeling battle!

Paid for by the Organic Consumers Fund Committee to Label GMOs in Washington State.

Please forward this publication to family and friends, place it on web sites, print it, duplicate it and post it freely. Knowledge is power!

6771 South Silver Hill Drive – Finland, MN 55603 – Phone: 218-226-4164 – Fax: 218-353-7652

BIOPIRACY – UNDER THE RADAR

Posted on March 21, 2013 by admin

I do not know the man, and came upon his blog by accident. The blog was titled :

#GMOFAQ How Bt corn and Roundup Ready soy work, and why they should not scare you.

Link : http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=1135&cpage=1#comment-262275

More than the article itself, I got engrossed by the exchanges made under it by the general public, some apparently using anonymous names.

I could not resist putting up my own comments, which is preserved here in blue:

There are a lot of forces acting for and against introduction of GM crops in India.

I live in Canada but was born in India and have quite a lot of links with grassroots organizations in India involved in many fields of work mostly to do with preservation of ecology and addressing poverty related issues for the marginal people in India.

For the Indian context, there are many issues relating to GM crops and why these are resisted at the grassroots level. I shall cover in this post only one of them :

Biopiracy

Often this issue slips under the radar, under the weight of other related issues of GM crops. Basically, this recent act, coming under the Ministry of Environment and Forest, and in force since 2002 – has in its scope the following opening text :

QUOTE

The Biological Diversity Act 2002 was born out of India’s attempt to realize the objectives enshrined in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1992 which recognizes the sovereign rights of states to use their own Biological Resources. The Act aims at the conservation of biological resources and associated knowledge as well as facilitating access to them in a sustainable manner and through a just process For purposes of implementing the objects of the Act it establishes the National Biodiversity Authority in Chennai.

UNQUOTE

What it means, in the case of plant, animals and micro-organism families that are not imported but locally evolved, or had been imported in the long lost past and has evolved further within India to acquire region specific traits that make it suitable to the soil and the climate – including those that have been used by the folk and indigenous people of India for medicinal purposes, as tonics or as cure to some illness or injury, and those plants that are used as food, either cultivated or wildly grown, are the collective intellectual property of the nation.

This means, the genome of this biomass may not be copied or studied, or tinkered with, without explicit permission of the Government of India.

So, studying the genome without explicit conditional permission, and then genetic ally tinkering of same and eventual patenting of any modified life form, essentially violates the Biodiversity Preservation Act of 2002. A new term has been coined to represent this violation – Biopiracy.

So, in the case of Bt.Brinjal, where 4 different types of Indian Brinjal were studied, genome sequenced and Bt.variety developed, violated the above act. This was more or less outside of the public brouhaha about if Bt. Bringal should or should not be introduced on Indian farms.

Between 2002 and now, India has a different Govt in place, and essentially in cahoots with the GM corporations. Nonetheless, the act has not been repealed, There is enough prima facie evidence that the law has been violated. The Govt of India, according to this law, should not only ban introduction of BT. Cotton, it should sue Monsanto and its Indian partner for violation of the act and penalize them, perhaps removing their license to do any further business in India.

But, as I said, the new Govt is a different animal, and was dragging its feet on the issue. So an NGO firm has initiated a Public Interest Litigation in a provincial high court, against the Govt of India, in order to force it to sue Monsanto. The case has progressed to the stage where the court has ordered the relevant provincial authority to issue a notice to the Govt to file a case against Monsanto. A lot of strange drama is going on about it, with Govt officials involved in the case suddenly getting transferred etc.

This case is catching peoples attention. There is another one pending at the Supreme court about banning or putting a moratorium on a majority of the GM crops till various long term effects are known – being investigated by an expert committee comprising of six scientists, three on behalf of the Govt and three for the petitioners.

These two cases are sending a bit of a shiver in the whole GM wagon train, and a worry creeping in – if my grassroots friends are correct – that if the cards are not played well at this time by the GMO lobby, the whole game might be lost.

This issue – basically of Biopiracy, is the first of my many objections to the introduction of GM crops in India.

Cheers.

My fast disappearing backyard

Posted on March 20, 2013 by admin

Ten years ago, my thoughts on sustainability hovered around the question of overpopulation, resource crunch, peak oil, global warming and the military industrial complex.

Today, those worries are not gone – but more have been added. I am ten years older, and feel almost certain, that, in the west, this is the first generation in more than two centuries that will be worse off in average than the previous generation in terms of financial security, even as this generation spews unbelievably large quantity of junk on the planet.

A nagging feeling that science was being subverted by voodoo economics and snake oil selling politicians did not help. Then came the economic crunch in the making. Average Americans were supposed to be in debt of several thousand each on their credit cards and hundreds of thousands on their home lone. Without being an economist, I could understand that money was being created out of thin air and this was not only creating endless inflation, it was not too different from legalized counterfeiting and ultimately unsustainable. I became intrigued by Ron Paul and his views on money supply, and a warmongering economic philosophy. There were two American politicians that intrigued me – Ron Paul on the Republican side and Dennis Kucinich among the Democrats. Both were maverick, on the fringes and sidelined.

I developed a healthy suspicion of the Chicago school of economics and Milton Friedman. By the time he passed away in 2006, I had glanced across a few of his books, read up more

on globalization, on WTO on world bank and IMF, and had developed a nagging suspicion of it all.

Early in the new millennia I moved from the US to Canada, one of the best moves I have done in my life that started in India and saw me through all the oceans of the world, and then to Hong Kong and Florida. I came to love the earthliness of Canadians, their sense of balance with nature and their dealings with the first nation people.

Soon, the Iraq war happened, Bush defeated Kerry and got re-elected in the US, and Canada made a serious turn to the right when Stephen Harper came to power at Ottawa.

I lost my parents one by one, and my uncles and aunts. Before long, I was among the most senior of my close relatives and had no one to look up to. My perception of the world started changing. Its terribly lonely, not to have anyone to look up to.

Kolmi, Paul and kids

Through a cousin, I came to know of Quail Spring Permaculture and through Kolmi, learned about AID (Association for India’s development), who were having their annual seminar in Seattle that year. Kolmi connected me up with them, and I ended up attending it in late May of 2011.

It was another eye opener for me. I came to know some inspirational persons in the process and could see how a handful of dedicated people could trigger grassroots level change for the better and from the bottom up. Names that stick with me till this date are Ravi Kuchimanchi, Aravinda, Kiran Vissa, Revathi, Somnath Mukherjee, Jonathan Fine and Kamayani Mahabal among others.

Subsequently came in touch with UBC Social Justice Center and good work done by socially aware student body. They have a Facebook page and I got invited there some years ago.

One thing let to another and friend Arun invited me to the White Rock Social Justice film society and their film shows. Met more Canadians concerned with social justice. From there, and from connection with AID-India I came to realize a new struggle on the horizon on the world food supply and an ongoing effort or Corporate takeover of agri-business away from the farmer. I also learned about Genetically modified crops and animals, and its patenting issue.

Vandana Shiva

I ended up speaking with Ms Vandana Shiva on phone, about corporate theft of community knowledge and about biopiracy. A long one hour talk a few years ago was converted into a podcast. The realization came on the need to preserve seed diversity in the face of rapid annihilation of seed varieties under a mono-culture onslaught of the GM pesticide peddling corporate interest.

I came to understand a fundamental shift in national Governments where corporate interest overshadowed long term interest of citizens, of nature and of the planet.

As my involvement grew on sustainability for the planet, there was a cementing of the belief that the planet was getting globalized on multiple fronts – through corporatocracy on one end, and through a mass movement mushrooming up to resist it on another end. It was a classic class struggle in the making.

I got to know of the farmers march in India through ASHA (Alliance of Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture) and my talks with Kiran Vissa and Kavitha Kuruganti. I also came to know of God’s little acre farm in Surrey, BC and Jas Singh, its farmer.

I came to know of movements to declare Surrey as GM free zone, same as Richmond and a dozen other communities in British Columbia.

I came to know Bobbie Blair, and her work towards GMO free Langley. She invited me to speak for a few minutes at the Langley Town Hall theatre after the show of a movie – One man, One Cow, One Planet, and I did so. It was more or less my first attempt at public speaking on the issue of GMO.

…. more to come here later …

A letter to an MLA

Posted on March 12, 2013 by admin

To Ms. Lana Popham, MLA, Sanich South, BC, Canada (by email)

March 11, 2013

Dear Ms. Popham

I support your opposition to GM apple and would like to add my signature to the campaign.

Science’s understanding of genetics is in its infancy. How gene tampering might ultimately work out long term is not known. How the patenting process works for this Apple, and if it could cross pollinate with other apples and how those natural apples might or might not be affected, is not known.

If at all patent should be granted for life forms, where the gene was not “invented” but simply taken from one place and put into another, is a serious question – not to mention the ethical issue of owning life forms. Apple that browns has a natural function – it is an indication that it is beginning to rot at the edges. Rotting itself is a natural process which we as humans may not like, but is nonetheless a process that involves many other cohabiting organisms. So, what is the implication of an apple that will not brown? Is it because it will hide the fact that it is rotting ? That can have serious health problems.

Could it be that this GM apple simply will not rot so easily ? Why not? Since rotting is in itself a natural process where organisms consume and proces the apple, artificial gene tampering that repels microorganisms from this apple thus prevents it from rotting, can have even more serious implications. We need to know far more than simplistic explanations of a non-browning apple before it should be allowed on an unsuspecting person’s table.

I do not know if it is possible to raise all these issues with the local Government, but it is suggested that a moratorium be placed on marketing of all Genetically modified non-processed foods such as fruits, and a restriction be imposed on any further genetic modification of processed food such as cereals till sufficient information is gathered on their long term effect on humans, on soil, on biodiversity and on sustainability.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada
604-649 7535
Tony.mitra@gmail.com

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13th March 2013

Hi Tony,

Thank you for this – and for the retweets and your blog post. I really appreciate your support. You ask very thoughtful questions and make a very sensible proposal at the end of your message. Great input!

Lana

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April 7th: Lana Popham, NDP Agriculture Critic, speaks in North Vancouver. Lana introduced our petition against the GMO apple with 5500 names on it into the BC legislature in late March 2013.

Venue : Buddha-Full 106 1st St W #101, Time: 4.30-6.30 PM

For more information contact: gefreebc07@yahoo.ca

Pls try and attend if possible. Bring friends.

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Small typo and grammar corrections done on the orignal letter – to clean up the language.