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General discussion (archive)GM genocide: farmers committing suicide after failure of GM crops(6 posts)(6 posts)
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Posted January 04, 2012
Well, this is tragic...
When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared.

The children were inconsolable. Mute with shock and fighting back tears, they huddled beside their mother as friends and neighbours prepared their father's body for cremation on a blazing bonfire built on the cracked, barren fields near their home.

As flames consumed the corpse, Ganjanan, 12, and Kalpana, 14, faced a grim future. While Shankara Mandaukar had hoped his son and daughter would have a better life under India's economic boom, they now face working as slave labour for a few pence a day. Landless and homeless, they will be the lowest of the low.

Shankara, respected farmer, loving husband and father, had taken his own life. Less than 24 hours earlier, facing the loss of his land due to debt, he drank a cupful of chemical insecticide.

Unable to pay back the equivalent of two years' earnings, he was in despair. He could see no way out.

There were still marks in the dust where he had writhed in agony. Other villagers looked on - they knew from experience that any intervention was pointless - as he lay doubled up on the ground, crying out in pain and vomiting.

Moaning, he crawled on to a bench outside his simple home 100 miles from Nagpur in central India. An hour later, he stopped making any noise. Then he stopped breathing. At 5pm on Sunday, the life of Shankara Mandaukar came to an end.
More here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html
Posted January 04, 2012
Well the dailymail is well known as a gossip rag, however given the bullshit Monsanto has been up to in other parts of the world I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to find out that this was true and common in countries that legally allow Monsanto to strong arm debtors.
Posted January 04, 2012
The wording of this article kind of hurts its credibility as a serious news piece. A bit too overly dramatic, I think, to be very believable :/
Posted January 04, 2012
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maycett: The wording of this article kind of hurts its credibility as a serious news piece. A bit too overly dramatic, I think, to be very believable :/
Well, it's the Daily Mail. It's a Tory tabloid that would be suitable for wrapping fish except the fish would be contaminated by the stories.

The problem, though, is not imaginary, is not new, and was not introduced with GMO crops. It exists wherever imperialist interests (whether political or economic) have conspired to convert a subsistence farming economy to cash cropping. It is made worse by forcing farmers to buy patented or sole-source seed or use credit extended on loanshark terms to buy food and supplies.

In India, this goes back at least to the opium economy forced upon small farmers by the British East India Company. A better written, though definitely fictional, account can be found in the early chapters of Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies.
Posted January 04, 2012
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cjrgreen: Well, it's the Daily Mail. It's a Tory tabloid that would be suitable for wrapping fish except the fish would be contaminated by the stories.

The problem, though, is not imaginary, is not new, and was not introduced with GMO crops. It exists wherever imperialist interests (whether political or economic) have conspired to convert a subsistence farming economy to cash cropping. It is made worse by forcing farmers to buy patented or sole-source seed or use credit extended on loanshark terms to buy food and supplies.

In India, this goes back at least to the opium economy forced upon small farmers by the British East India Company. A better written, though definitely fictional, account can be found in the early chapters of Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies.
I actually did South Asian Studies last semester and the only aspect of imperialism taught was during the colonial era, not the postmodern type. I didn't know British corporations still have a share in the agricultural market in India until I read the article. But you're right, the forced market type of foreign dominance is still existent today, especially in poorer places that rely on external capital to subsist.
Posted January 04, 2012
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cjrgreen: Well, it's the Daily Mail. It's a Tory tabloid that would be suitable for wrapping fish except the fish would be contaminated by the stories.

The problem, though, is not imaginary, is not new, and was not introduced with GMO crops. It exists wherever imperialist interests (whether political or economic) have conspired to convert a subsistence farming economy to cash cropping. It is made worse by forcing farmers to buy patented or sole-source seed or use credit extended on loanshark terms to buy food and supplies.

In India, this goes back at least to the opium economy forced upon small farmers by the British East India Company. A better written, though definitely fictional, account can be found in the early chapters of Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies.
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lowyhong: I actually did South Asian Studies last semester and the only aspect of imperialism taught was during the colonial era, not the postmodern type. I didn't know British corporations still have a share in the agricultural market in India until I read the article. But you're right, the forced market type of foreign dominance is still existent today, especially in poorer places that rely on external capital to subsist.
Yeah, the modern form of this foreign takeover of a farming economy is the introduction of patented seed, which forces farmers into perpetual debt to buy seed that they can no longer save. Monsanto is not the only perpetrator, but they catch the most flak because they are the largest.
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General discussion (archive)GM genocide: farmers committing suicide after failure of GM crops(6 posts)(6 posts)
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