Tag Archives: Farmer Suicide

In search of support for India’s farmers

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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

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.Lana Popham, MLA from Saanich South

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 segregatedThrifty Foods 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.David Suzuki

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.AID Vancouver

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.

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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 Bhargava

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Science Research off base : Indian Govt has been, unfortunately, tuning its science research institutions to solve American problems and not Indian problems.
  11. 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

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