2007/May/16
from
Mathaba Website
India's Government appears to be firmly
under the control of the buccaneers of biotechnology and spurious
multinational corporations
Despite rules to the contrary, GM (Genetical Modification)
experiments have been going on across India with the complicity of
the Indian Government.
In the 67th Meeting of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
[GEAC] held on 22 May 2006, the GEAC brushed aside all such
concerns and in utter defiance of the spirit of a Supreme Court
Order it has rubberstamped an astonishing 91 GM (Genetically
Modified) products for multi-location trials [MLTs] - 91
approvals in one meeting.
Approvals were rushed through in anticipation of a possible full
spectrum ban on field trials in India, while investigators have been
stone walled from obtaining information on locations and type of
seeds being tested. Only after a petition under the Right to
Information [RTI Act of 2005] was filed, did the Department of
Biotechnology reveal some information.
The United States of America declared a war on Indian rice and food
security already in the early 1960s when India's No 1 scientist
mole, Dr M.S. Swaminathan, stole the gene bank of rice,
evolved over decades by Dr Riccharia, and passed it over to
the Americans.
Activists say that Monsanto, operating
through its Indian Joint Venture partners Maharashtra Hybrid
Seeds Corporation or Mahyco, have committed crimes
against humanity with the full connivance of officials of the
Department of Biotechnology and members of GEAC, and that therefore
several Ministries are also involved, chiefly, the Minister of
Agriculture & the Ministry of Environment & Forestry.
India had 120,000 varieties of rice seeds; today, no more than 50
are available. This is the result of the United States' war on
genetic diversity, ably supported by scientist-criminals like MS
Swaminathan. The Indian Government is to have these criminals head
Agriculture Policy of India: at age 75, Swaminathan lives to lord it
over many "Expert Committees", including crucial ones in the
Ministry of Agriculture. The deadly tentacles of this hydra-headed
monster extend in many ministries of the Government of India.
From early 1960s, Swaminathan has been
the front of the Rockefellers, implementing their agenda with full
support of the US Government.
Emboldened by a deliberately errant Indian Regulator, which is
malfunctioning with intent and deliberation to support a pro GE
agenda, and the open support of USAID, the GM seeds producers are
furthering the agenda of destroying India's food sovereignty and
food security knowing fully well that GE seeds do not enhance
productivity (yield), which is what Indian farmers need:
"For example, the USAID-backed
initiative, Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project-II (ABSP-II),
is based and directed from Cornell. ABSP partners have included
Asgrow, Monsanto, and Pioneer Hi-Bred. Promoting GM is, of
course, an official part of USAID's remit - one of its roles
being to "integrate GM into local food systems."
The repercussions of the Regulator's
releases of GM foods in India will be global, and some of the best
known scientists from around the world have joined hands with Indian
activists and filed exclusive submissions to the Supreme Court, the
activists point out.
"Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the world
renowned toxicologist and leading expert in protein lectins in a
telephone conversation with Petitioner No 1 said that in all
these years of scrutinizing industry studies, (and most of these
have passed through his hands), he has never seen anything quite
like this. According to David Schubert, the safety testing data
on the Ministry (GEAC) website is "very poorly done and in the
absence of REAL DATA it is impossible to make any assessment of
the validity of their claims".
Dr. Doug Gurian Sherman, Senior
Scientist at the Centre For Food Safety concurs.
Dr. Robert Mann formerly senior lecturer
in biochemistry at the University of Auckland and Advisor to
successive Ministry’s of Health in NZ, says,
"I regard the 'Bt'-brinjal
field-trial proposal as one of the most ill-conceived I have
encountered in my three decades of critical appraisal of GM. The
risks and hazards, while not exactly known or indeed precisely
foreseeable, appear to be so grave that the proposed
field-trials should be enjoined pending a thorough assessment
such as has yet to be performed."
Dr. Mae Wan Ho (of the Independent
Science Panel) and Prof. Joe Cummins, Prof. Emeritus of Genetics,
University of Western Ontario, Canada, say:
"In India, brinjal would be
comparable to potato or tomato in the American diet. GM Egg
Plant Contains Bt Toxin Linked to Hundreds of Allergy Cases and
Thousands of Sheep Deaths. It would be unthinkable and
irresponsible to approve the genetically modified eggplant.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins
find neither published studies nor experimental details on
safety tests in the application for field releases of the Bt
brinjal and raise serious questions. Instead of approving more
GM crops, regulatory authorities in India should start a
comprehensive enquiry into the health impacts of Bt cotton and
impose a ban on further releases of all GM crops".
Monsanto in India
[Monsanto
www.genewatch.org] has been operating in India since 1949,
and is a market leader in agricultural chemicals. It operates three
Indian subsidiaries: Monsanto India, Monsanto Enterprises and
Monsanto Chemicals, and early in 1998,
Monsanto acquired a 26 per
cent stake in the Indian seed company Mahyco.
Mahyco is accused of misleading local
people about the nature of GM trials, even keeping the farmer on
whose land the trial was being conducted in the dark.
Bharatiya
Kissan Union (BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said,
"We found that trials of Bt rice
were conducted under secrecy on the farm land of Paramjit Singh,
who leased his two-acre land to Mahyco for Rs 15,000. He was not
informed by Mahyco about what seeds were sown and for what
purpose. We found blatant violation of biosafety norms in the
field trial which may lead to genetic contamination of other
rice fields. Singh after discovering the truth joined us along
with 500 farmers in uprooting and burning of the crop."
Already in 2005-06, Indian rice
exporters exported 5 million tonnes of rice valued at US$1.53
billion to 102 countries worldwide. Their main markets are Europe,
North America, West Asia, and Australia.
In each of these countries, the
respective Governments must warn the Indian Government that
consumers do not want GM (Genetically Modified) Indian Rice, the
concerned activists say, giving a list of suggestions on actions
concerned individuals can take worldwide, including to ask political
representatives to tell the Government of India to stop all GM field
trials because it will destroy the global environment.
They point out that every farmer's
association has come out against GM seeds.
The All India Rice
Exporters Association has expressed its readiness to work with all
persons who refuse to fall in line with a pro-GM agenda because of
the demonstrated risks of GE technology. They are also calling for
lawyers to come forward to assist in taking lawsuits against the
Government of the USA, including the US-FDA and USDA, USAID and
others.
Monsanto even seeks to control water, the very basis of life.
Monsanto is seeing a new business opportunity because of the
emerging water crisis and the funding available to make this vital
resource available to people.
As it states in its strategy paper,
"first, we believe that
discontinuities (either major policy changes or major trend-line
breaks in resource quality or quantity) are likely, particularly
in the area of water and we will be well-positioned via these
businesses to profit even more significantly when these
discontinuities occur. Second, we are exploring the potential of
non-conventional financing (NGOs, World Bank, USDA, etc.) that
may lower our investment or provide local country
business-building resources."
Thus, the crisis of pollution and
depletion of water resources is viewed by Monsanto as a business
opportunity.
Monsanto is not new to killing, being one of the suppliers of Agent
Orange with its devastating after effects upon Vietnamese civilians
and US Vietnam Veterans.
Politicians
Lobbied, Bought and Sold
Head of the large Indian State of Andra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara "YSR"
Reddy is currently on a visit to the United States of America with
daily press releases by his spin doctors presenting him at various
forums.
He spoke at the World Agriculture
Forum (WAF), of which Monsanto is one of the major
sponsors, yet the bill for his speech was footed by Indian tax
payers, at a whopping 700,000 Indian Rupees. The WAF was founded by
Monsanto's former director of public policy Leonard Guarraia. The
WAF focuses on lobbying government leaders the world over.
Other sponsors of the WAF, which some are terming the "World
Annihilation Forum", include the giant chemicals and pesticides
company DuPont, which has significant presence in the state seed
marketing through Pioneer Hi-Bred.
Other sponsors include Abengoa, a
bio-fuels major, Bunge North America, a food supply chain "services"
company and Novus, an animal agriculture giant.
"Most of these firms have either a
direct or an indirect interest in the Indian market owing to its
dependence on agriculture", an analyst told the Times of India.
State governments in India have large
powers to deal directly with large foreign corporations without
adequate central control, which some analysts predict will hasten
the break-up of India into largely independent states, each vying
for foreign contracts in competition.
Already countless communities have been
uprooted by large companies moving in upon conclusion of contracts
with Indian state governments, which then seek to forcibly evict
them from the land.
Millions of
India Farmers Join Lawsuit Against Monsanto & Biotech Industry over
GMO Contamination
Over 6.5 million farmers from every state in India are asking the
Supreme Court to let them join the case before the Court, saying GM
crops risk irreversibly damaging India's farmland and biodiversity.
This new move follows on from the
application already filed in the Supreme Court by the Association of
the Rice Millers and Exporters in India, who want a GM moratorium to
protect the rights of farmers and consumers to grow and consume
GM-free crops, as well as to ensure - in their interest and in the
national interest - that exports don't suffer because of GM
contamination.
Contamination has occurred with American Long Grain Rice. The
announcement in August 2006 that an unapproved variety of
genetically modified (GM) rice, i.e. not approved for human
consumption, had been found at low levels in US long-grain rice
shocked the global food industry. Bayer Crop Science's GM LL601 rice
had last been grown in field trials in 2001 and was not intended for
commercialization. Liberty Link 601 [LL601 rice] has been modified
to be tolerant to Bayer's herbicide, Liberty (glufosinate), so
farmers can use the weed-killer without harming the crop.
The global marketing of unapproved GM rice has led to product
withdrawals in Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden, Ireland and the
UK. Exports to Europe require certification that foods are
GM-contaminant free. Japan has zero tolerance for GM crops, has
halted rice imports from the USA, and is carrying out extensive
tests to detect the Liberty Link LL601 rice contamination level and
extent.
Contamination, even the risk of contamination, from GM crops has
been long denied by the GE Industry as a figment of the imagination
of those opposing GM crops. However, it is a biological fact and the
physical evidence of genetic contamination being reported from all
over the world is now incontrovertible and conclusive. The recent GM
rice contamination of US long-grain rice is so serious that the
damage to the US rice industry is valued in billions of $s with
countries moving to ban US rice imports and American farmers being
stopped from planting rice in the current season.
The GM contamination of rice in the US
is spiraling out of control despite the best attempts of farmers,
millers, exporters and the Regulator to contain it and clean up.
Thus, the strategy of GM crop developers in the US and other parts
of the world has now changed to demanding that they be allowed to
contaminate Non GM crops!
Regulation is being 'bent' to allow
contamination.
Monsanto &
Co's Crimes
"When I worked at
Monsanto, I warned
both scientists and executives that our GM foods may cause
disease, but no one was even willing to listen, let alone
investigate the unpredicted side effects. For them, it was all
about profit. Now our whole population is threatened by the
serious dangers described in Genetic Roulette."
— Kirk J. Azevedo, DC
Monsanto's program includes converting
all crops to genetically engineered species which produce sterile
seeds, and disenabling farmers to engage in the age-old practice of
saving seeds from one crop to generate the next.
When purchasing Monsanto seed, farmers must agree to comply with
Monsanto's herbicide and pesticide management regime. Should the
wind blow pollen from a Monsanto client's crop onto a neighbor's,
Monsanto will test the neighbor's crop and, if there is
contamination with Genetically Engineered (GE) crop, the neighbor
will be forced into court to compensate Monsanto for using its
genetic property.
More than one farmer is in prison for
refusing to pay this blackmail.
GE contamination in a single food crop can mean that the entire
country’s crops are banned by consumer nations; who understandably
do not want contamination to enter their own crops or resident human
metabolisms. The same principle applies to meat - that is, dairy
animals and poultry that consumed contaminated GM feeds. Because of
Monsanto’s GE interference, the entire corn export from America to
Europe was terminated. Africa, too, bans GE material.
Meanwhile sick people have been used like laboratory rats in GM
trials by Monsanto, The Monsanto Company dumped toxic waste in the
UK, Starbucks is dropping milk products containing an artificial
growth hormone manufactured by Monsanto, Globalization's Policy of
Famine meets with success as Wheat Supplies Plunge, the US-India
Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture gives US giants like Monsanto
free access to the Indian market for their GM products], the
European commission has been approving genetically modified crops
for human consumption while secretly warning about their impact on
health and the environment, and Monsanto's pesticide Roundup is
killing amphibians worldwide.
Compelling evidence of GM food being unsafe comes from the animals
themselves in experiments — preferring natural food to GM food and
suffering internal injuries or succumbing to death after eating GM
food.
Media Silence
is Bought
National Public Radio (NPR) that long ago abandoned the public trust
it was sworn to uphold when it was founded in 1970 as an
independent, private, non-profit member organization of public radio
stations in the United States, is now as tainted and corrupted as
its television counterparts and now also gets a substantial
proportion of its funding from corporate donors demanding influence,
and is careful to shy away from all controversial topics that may be
sensitive to corporate interests that include those providing it
funding support.
Monsanto supports NPR with funds.
A full disclosure by Monsanto and its directors under oath is
required to establish which politicians and which media networks
have received funds from it, yet no such disclosure has been made.
Mathaba News has not received any funds
from Monsanto.
Mounting
Opposition, More Needed to Prevent Irreversible Worldwide
Contamination
Beginning in April 2007, organizations around the world will present
Genetic Roulette to government officials as evidence that GM foods
are unsafe and need to be banned immediately.
Former British government environment
minister Michael Meacher says that Genetic Roulette is,
"the authentic book on genetic
modification that the world has been waiting for... The case
presented is absolutely a smoking gun that should stop in its
tracks any dabbling with GM foods, whether by individual
families, food companies, or indeed nations."
In March this year, nearly 5,000 farmers
from 84 villages spanning eight blocks of Gonda district in Uttar
Pradesh, India, have pledged NOT to cultivate genetically modified
(GM) crops and instead practice organic farming, whilst in February
2,000 farmers from 64 villages of Chitrakoot and Banda districts in
Uttar Pradesh took a similar pledge.
This brings the total number of
UP villages, which have pledged to remain GM free to 148. An online
petition to the Prime Minister of India against genetic engineering
has also been set up.
According to New Delhi-based food and trade policy expert Devinder
Sharma, more than 10,000 cotton farmers have killed themselves after
the introduction of fourth-generation pesticides, called synthetic pyrethroids, less than 20 years ago. Farmers are caught in vicious
cycles of debt to meet the high costs of green revolution cotton
farming: debts they incur to purchase pesticides, fertilizers, water
pumpsets and hybrid seeds.
For many, the only way out of the debt
trap is to swallow the very pesticides they purchase with their
loans.
Contamination of all crops by GM will be so pervasive that we will
all be faced with a 'fait accompli' everywhere, particularly in
India and the developing world, so that it will be futile in future
to oppose it. Hence action is required now, otherwise all 'natural'
seeds will be virtually extinct. This is quite simply the objective
of the Biotech GE industry led by Monsanto.
Activists say that the US Government is not only stealing genetic
assets as mentioned above has been taking place since the 1960's, it
is deliberately promoting near lethal food worldwide. Genetic
Engineering if not stopped will lead to the irreversible
contamination of the world's food at the molecular level and in
perpetuity.
This demonstrates the seriousness of the
crisis we face, as a global agenda that aims to control the world's
population as stated in
US National Security Study Memorandum 200
(SSM-200), is being implemented militarily, economically and by
means of pro-agenda companies such as Monsanto which have sponsored
leading politicians including Britain's Tony Blair, with these
western politicians also advocating production of Ethanol cash crops
which will result in a genocidal famine with estimated deaths by
hunger in future of 3 billion people as farmers will find Ethanol
production more lucrative business than food production.
|