original-NewindPressPoint of View
After killer cotton, killer brinjal?Saturday November 18 2006 18:17 IST
T J S GeorgeMonsanto is a PATCOP company (Profit At The Cost Of People). Like Union Carbide. Like Enron. The criminal irresponsibility of Carbide and Enron finally led to their doom. Monsanto met its doom in Europe where it is not allowed to operate. Today its only free-ride territory in the world is India that is Bharat. Jai Hind.
Nation-wide was the agitation against Bt.cotton seeds. Licensing authorities in India paid no heed. Today the Indian cotton market is under the monopolistic control of Monsanto-Mahyco. The suicides of farmers in Vidarbha and Andhra have been directly linked to the Bt.cotton monopoly and consequent destruction of local livelihoods.
Mahyco's Chairman is "upbeat" about the cotton seed's "success". In fact in regions around Vadodara Bt.cotton has already started becoming ineffective because of the resistance developed by bollworm. According to a scientist of the Central Institute of Cotton Research, under current farm practices, "it will take another six to nine years for the insect to develop complete resistance." By then the soil too would have become useless because of the deleterious effects of the Terminator seeds. That will be a propitious time for more suicides.
But the licensing authorities will pay no heed. They are already helping PATCOP chairmen to capture the brinjal and rice markets. This is far more dangerous to India and Indians than the loss of cotton. Food, unlike cotton, will take the genetic engineering chemicals directly into our digestive systems. To say nothing about the foreign monopolization of what have been cherished Indian staples for centuries.
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