5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion

September 23, 2013September 23, 2013 yazdiLeave a comment

Launching a lawsuit against the very company that is responsible for a farmer suicide every 30 minutes, 5 million farmers are now suing Monsanto for as much as 6.2 billion euros (around 7.7 billion US dollars). The reason? As with many other cases, such as the ones that led certain farming regions to be known as the ‘suicide belt’, Monsanto has been reportedly taxing the farmers to financial shambles with ridiculous royalty charges.

The findings echo what thousands of farmers have experienced in particularly poor nations, where many of the farmers are unable to stand up to Monsanto. Back in 2008, the Daily Mail covered what is known as the ‘GM Genocide’, which is responsible for taking the lives of over 17,683 Indian farmers in 2009 alone. After finding that their harvests were failing and they started to enter economic turmoil, the farmers began ending their own lives — oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto provided them with.

NDTV, please dump Monsanto

May 31, 2013 yazdi2 Comments

TO: VIKRAM CHANDRA (CEO, NDTV), (//TWITTER.COM/VIKRAMCHANDRA)

We want NDTV to drop Monsanto-Mahyco as partner for it’s new TV series ‘Improving Lives’.

– NDTV in it’s new TV series talks about democracy and improving peoples lives.Then why is it partnering with a corporation like Monsanto known for using unscrupulous means to propagate its trade.

– Monsanto is a controversial corporation hated by people all over the world. Monsanto uses unethical practices and evil money to further its agenda. GMOs are banned in so many countries. There is a lot of resistance to it in India as well.

– Monsanto is known for its agenda to control food and farming as seen in the case of Bt cotton in India. Cotton was once used by Mahatma Gandhi in the fight for India’s independence, now 93% of our cotton is owned by American company Monsanto’s proprietary technology known as Bt cotton.

– NDTV is a reputed news organisation and pioneer in Indian TV news space. It aims to provide accurate news. So why partner with a liar like Monsanto?

NDTV should choose a non-controversial, ethical partner.

Why is this important?

NDTV has partnered with one of the the most unethical corporations and is misleading the people of India into thinking that this series is actually helping the public.

Monsanto has recently got a lot of criticisms from around the world and are trying to clean up their public image, this being one of the tactic.

– 90% of Genetically engineered (GE) seeds are made and owned by Monsanto. Many consumers are against GE food because it has been associated with health risks, loss of biodiversity, increased use of toxic weed killers (herbicides) and other environmental problems.

-Monsanto’s agenda is to turn the world’s agriculture into one big genetic experiment. In most parts of the world (Eg, Europe, Russia, Africa most Latin America and Asian countries) major food companies and retailers are refusing to sell GE foods. There are also many governments who have banned the growing of GE or refusing to import them. In response to the mounting criticism, Monsanto has been making an effort to green up its public image.

However, the real Monsanto is in the business of making money- first and last. Their evident strategy is to make farmers worldwide depend on their patented seeds, herbicides and pesticides. The record, as we demonstrate below, shows that Monsanto does not hesitate to sweep aside everything else…sustainable agriculture, the environment, farmer’s livelihoods and consumer’s interests… if this is required to achieve their goal of market domination.Monsanto guilty as charged for crimes against nature, crimes against the right of farmers to grow, and consumers to eat, GE-free crops and food. NDTV is misleading the nation by partnering with Monsanto on a show that has a message of democracy and sustainability.

Click Here to sign this petition

Bt Brinjal Poll

February 12, 2013 yazdiLeave a comment

What if we had not done anything to stop genetically modified (GM) Bt brinjal? By now we would have been eating various kinds of GM foods. Thankfully, that’s not true.

Three years ago protests from thousands of us got a moratorium on Bt brinjal.^[1] Multinational seed companies like Monsanto and our very own Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar dislike this moratorium. ^[2]It’s now up to us to ensure that they don’t use the sham of food scarcity to unleash this dangerous technology on us.

Take this poll to show your support for safe GM-free food.

CLICK HERE

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture ^[3]and an expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court have recommended a cautionary approach to GM crops.^[4] The responses to this poll will create a solid base for the support for safe food and these recommendations as well.

There is enough food being produced by our country. A lot of it is rotting in food godowns.^[5]The government is using this to create the notion of scarcity. Inserting genes of other organisms into our crops makes them unnatural and unsafe. Once GM crops are out in the open, they’ll only contaminate other crops. How is this going to secure our food?

The third anniversary of the moratorium on Bt brinjal was celebrated on February 9, 2013, all over the country. It was a reminder, that our consistent opposition to the introduction of this technology has kept it away so far. It has also prevented the government from introducing the BRAI bill, which seeks to ease entry of GM foods.^[6] Let’s keep up this fight to protect our food.

So answer this poll now to build a strong support base for safe food.

CLICK HERE

Whither Genetically Modified (GM) Foods ?

October 30, 2012 yazdiLeave a comment

GENETIC ROULETTE – This path breaking movie is available for free viewing till 31st October. During the first free showing week in September, there were over 1.25 million views of this astounding documentary that shows the link between Genetically Modified(GM) Crops and human and animal disorders such as allergies, infertility, autism, cancer, birth defects and neurological problems.

The entire film is 90 minutes and can be viewed at –

http://geneticroulettemovie.com

The institute of responsible technology has also released a 10-minute re-mix for those who do not have the time to watch the entire film.

Don’t miss this 10 minute version :

Only 6 countries, including India, account for 95% of Genetically Modified Crops. Other countries have banned or severely restricted and penalized GM. Seed companies are lobbying hard to introduce GM crops in India. It is up to all citizens to understand the risks and halt the introduction of GM food in India.

Please circulate this to all your colleagues and write to the Health Minister at azadg@sansad.nic.in / hfm@alpha.nic.in to support the unanimous call given by India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture to immediately halt all field trials of Genetically Modified Crops.

The Leaf initiative

Editorial team on GM

http://www.leaf-initiative.org/