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It may seem strange to some that a nation would publicly celebrate its independence while at the same time it less publicly cedes it to outsiders. The gleaming façade of flags and fly-pasts will belie the fact that national security and independence do not depend on military might and patriotic speeches.
Eye-catching celebrations will take place in Delhi and much of the
media will mouth platitudes about the strength of the nation and its
independence. The reality is, however, an ongoing, concerted attempt
to undermine and destroy the very foundation and security of the
country.
Facilitated by an appropriate policy framework, small farmers could easily feed the global population.
But small farmers are currently squeezed onto
less than a quarter of the world's farmland and the world is fast
losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the
hands big agribusiness and the rich and powerful. If nothing is done
to reverse this trend, the world will lose its capacity to feed
itself.
Corporations take over scarce fertile land and
prioritize non-food
commodities or export crops for profit and markets far away that
cater for the needs of the affluent. This process impoverishes local
communities and brings about food insecurity. GRAIN concludes that
the concentration of fertile agricultural land in fewer and fewer
hands is directly related to the increasing number of people going
hungry every day.
An estimated 500 million acres, an area eight times the size of Britain, was reported bought or leased across the developing world between 2000 and 2011, often at the expense of local food security and land rights.
This trend could
eventually result in the permanent shift of farm ownership from
family businesses to institutional investors and other consolidated
corporate operations.
They form the bedrock of
food production. However, there is a concerted effort to remove
farmers from the land. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have taken
their lives since 1997 and many more are experiencing economic
distress or have left farming as a result of debt, a shift to (GM)
cash crops and economic liberalization [3].
Its practices and colonization of institutions have led to it being
called the 'contemporary East India Company' [4], and regulatory
bodies are now severely compromised and riddled with conflicts of
interest where decision-making over GMOs are concerned [5].
Aside from the review by GRAIN, the World Bank-funded
International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge and Science for
Development Report stated that smallholder, traditional farming (not GMOs) can deliver food security in low-income countries through
sustainable agri-ecological systems [5].
Despite such evidence and the recommendations
to put a hold on open field GM trials by the Supreme Court-appointed
Technical Expert Committee, the push is on within official circles
to give such trials the green light.
As its largest player, Monsanto is responsible for knowingly damaging people's health and polluting the environment and is guilty of a catalogue of decades-long deceptive, duplicitous and criminal practices [7].
It
has shown time and again its contempt for human life and the
environment and that profit overrides any notion of service to the
public, yet it continues to propagate the lie that it has humanity's
best interests at heart because its so-called GMO 'frontier
technology' can feed the hungry millions.
It has also faked data [9] and engages in attacking scientists who reach conclusions not to its liking [10,11].
It cannot demonstrate that yields are better, nutritional values are improved, health is not damaged or that harm to the environment does not occur with the adoption of GMOs.
Independent studies and
evidence, not inadequate industry funded or back ones, have
indicated yields are often worse and herbicide use has increased
[12,13,14], health is negatively impacted [15,16], soil is damaged
[17] and biodiversity is undermined [18], among other things.
Russia does not need or want GM crops, which the Russian Prime Minister has described as amounting to little more than a form of biological warfare weapon [19]. And here lies the real heart of the matter.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that if you control oil you control nations, but if you control food you control people.
GMOs are
not needed to feed the world. Science
cannot justify their use. They are a weapon.
It is no surprise that the likes of Syngenta, Monsanto and
Walmart had a direct hand in drawing up the Knowledge Initiative on
Agriculture, which was in turn linked to the U.S. sanctioning the
opening up of India's nuclear power sector.
Payback appears to come in
the form of handing over the control of India's agricultural land
and food system to the U.S. via that country's biotech companies.
The oil-rich Rockefeller family set out to control global agriculture via the petrochemical-dependent 'green revolution'. The destruction of traditional farmer-controlled agriculture was actively supported by the U.S. government and its Trojan horse agritech corporations under the agenda set out by Kissinger.
GMOs now represent the ultimate
stranglehold over food via 'terminator' seed technology, seed
patenting and intellectual property rights.
In fact, Monsanto now own the Epicyte gene, which causes sterility. What will be the 'final solution' for the likes of 600 million in India or millions in Africa or elsewhere who are to be removed from agriculture [22]?
The eugenicists are
knocking at the door.
However, they are attacked and accused of slowing down growth because of their resistance to GMOs [23].
Certain activists
and civil organizations are also accused of working against the
national interest by colluding with foreign interests to undermine 'development'. The hypocrisy is blindingly obvious: the state itself
has for a long time been colluding with foreign interests to
undermine the basis of traditional agriculture.
Independence is much more than military might, patriotic slogans and a self-congratulatory media-induced frenzy on a designated day each year.
In terms of GMOs, Russia is aware of this. It is actively committed to putting the GMO genie back in the bottle [24].
Why isn't India?
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