Thursday, November 6, 2008

Monsanto's 125,000 Suicide Farmers

It's being termed GM (genetically modified) Genocide, and the UK's Prince Charles has been advocating against it. Test case, India...where farmers are taking their own lives after the real impact of their growing GM crops has come to light...gruesomely.

Excerpt from full article, here:

(farmer named in article), like millions of other Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if he switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead.

Beguiled by the promise of future riches, he borrowed money in order to buy the GM seeds.

But when the harvests failed, he was left with spiralling debts - and no income.

So Shankara became one of an estimated 125,000 farmers to take their own life as a result of the ruthless drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops.

The crisis, branded the 'GM Genocide' by campaigners, was highlighted recently when Prince Charles claimed that the issue of GM had become a 'global moral question' - and the time had come to end its unstoppable march.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This fits into Robbyn's new challenge (http://twofroghome.com/); the selfless activism challenge. The article could not have been more timely!

Robbyn said...

Amanda, yes! :(

Annette...yes ...the only problem I have is not biting off more than I can chew...I can think of SO many important causes!