Farming Techniques that Work Well in India

suchandra · October 10, 2007

Lynn Forester de Rothschild: "My goal is to be a major player in India's business world. Those include FieldFresh, a startup that will grow and export Indian fruits and vegetables for markets in Europe and Asia, and a soon-to-be-announced retail venture aimed at the exploding Indian middle class."

Interview with Lynn Forester de Rothschild

Portfolio.com October 5, 2007

Lynn Forester de Rothschild

L.G.: With the 300 acres that you're experimenting with, using farming techniques that work well in India, have you started to show Indian farmers the techniques?

L.R.: Yes, yes, it started and it was opened by the prime minister [Manmohan Singh's office]. It was last year. He showed up for the ribbon cutting, and he made an incredibly moving speech. The Indian prime minister is really, to me, one of the spectacular people of the world, and I've seen him speak many times, and he always reads his speech. That day, he put down his speech and he recited a poem, an English poem that he had learned as a young boy about how the land will give to the people and will change lives—a beautiful poem. And then he talked about being so poor that he couldn't afford shoes—his parents were farmers—and how his dream for India is that 600 million people could be lifted out of poverty. And we're talking about lifting them from 50 cents a day to $2 a day.

L.G.: Now you recently sold a good part of your stake to Del Monte Pacific, right?

L.R.: Yes. It was last Friday.

L.G.: So that freed up some more capital for you, I guess. I'm a little confused. I saw there was a $50 million investment. I don't know if that was from E.L. Rothschild, or was that the total? You're in business obviously with Mr. Mittal [telecommunications billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, head of Bharti Enterprises]. How does that all shake out?

L.R.: Well, as an investment for us, it's an 85 percent I.R.R. [internal rate of return]. So it was a very good return on investment for us. And, as important to us, we brought in a partner who's going to take the company to the next level, because neither Bharti nor we had the domain knowledge. We saw the opportunity, we put effort into it, but it really needs domain knowledge. So that was really why we got out. . . . And we've also retained 9.9 percent of the business.

L.G.: Right, right.

L.R.: So I said to Evelyn, We're going to have to do it like Bernard Baruch and get rich by exiting too soon.

L.G.: And your actual time commitment remains the same? Or you're off doing other things now?

L.R.: No, no, our time commitment won't be the same.

L.G.: What else will you do with E.L. Rothschild?

L.R.: We are also looking very seriously at the retail space in India, both in terms of front-end retail as well as Indian brands that we believe have opportunities. I think that'll be the next area where you'll see some announcements from us.

L.G.: When? Can we make some news?

L.R.: Not by the time you go to print. [Laughs.]

L.G.: Give me a hint. I know you're on the Estée Lauder board, and I know you're very interested in luxury goods in India. Would it have something to do with that?

L.R.: Well, we're looking at those. You know India has luxury in its DNA. All you've got to do is look at the maharajas and look at the Taj Mahal. There's no Hermès or Louis Vuitton that's going to tell India anything about luxury. Luxury is a very interesting, undeveloped piece of India. I don't think it will be a big piece for a long time, because of the income level, but I think it's interesting. We do think luxury when we think retail, but we also think more mainstream, aspirational brands and opportunities

Full article

suchandra · October 18, 2007

The Hare Krishna SUN editors posted seemingly a reply to article above, "Rotschilds move to bankrupt European farmers". Let's hope that the fruits and vegetables they bring to the European market are at least of good quality and can be offered to the Deities.

"Bankrupting European farmers", why take a pity with these gentlemen? Till now none of these phoned me up asking how to set up a cow protection vedic farm. The opposite might be true, these so called "European Farmers", when it comes to the keeping of animals in their natural environment, are the most sinful people.

Bankrupting European Farmers with India's Food

BY: JEAN D'EAU

http://harekrsna.com/sun/news/10-07/news1563.htm

Oct 17, HUNGARY (HENRYMAKOW.COM) — Rothschilds move to bankrupt European farmers.

In a recent interview* with Lyn Forester de Rothschild we learn that she and her husband Evelyn de Rothschild are investing hundreds of millions to become the queen and the king of India`s fruits and vegetables. India is already the first world producer of fruits, and the second of vegetables and until today its production was essentially consumed by the over one billion Indian population.

Lyn and Evelyn de Rothschild have recently decided to make big money in exporting the Indian fruits and vegetables to the European and Japanese markets. The diverse agro-climatic zones of India make it possible to grow almost all varieties of fruits and vegetables while the labor cost is a tiny fraction of the European or Japanese: Lady de Rothschild is looking forward to pay the Indian workers $2 a day.

Even with the transportation and duty costs, the Indian fruit and vegetables are likely to bankrupt the European and Japanese farmers. In Europe, most of these farmers are heavily indebted as the EU paranoid sanitary norms as well as the packaging requirements of the supermarkets have forced them to invest in expensive machinery and infrastructures.

When the Indian fruits and vegetables arrive in Europe, most of these indebted farmer families will have to say goodby to their farms which will be confiscated by the banks. Many of the still remaining independent European farmers are producing fruit and vegetables since the independent livestock and wheat farmers have already been decimated by the "market economy" making profitable only the giant exploitations in these sectors.

The foreseable bankruptcy of the European fruit and vegetables` farmers will fatally result in that entire agricultural communities will have to leave the rural areas in order to survive. In his recently published book, "The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook", David de Rothschild (son of Evelyn de Rothschild) is promoting urban living in order to economise energy and thus stop the "man-made climate warming".

Although a growing number of independent researchers are refuting the "man-made warming" new religion, we are free to believe in it but we are also free to connect the dots and understand that the globalist elites need to have a tight physical control over mankind and that such a control is only possible if we are all herded into the cities.

Due to this project to massively import in Europe cheap Indian fruits and vegetables, many of the European farmers might have soon to experiment the "urban living" solution of David de Rothschild to the "man-made climate warming"; meanwhile, David`s parents will burn oceans of fuel to coolstore and transport the Indian fruits and vegetables all the way to Europe and Japan

There is another likely consequency of a massive increase of the Indian fruit and vegetables` exports. As said previously, the over one billion Indian population is consuming almost all of the national production. When this will be reoriented by the Rothschilds toward the vast European and Japanese markets, it`s improbable that such an increase of the Indian production can be reached that the quantity available for the Indian consumption will remain sufficient. Moreover, at that point, the logic of the market economy is likely to inflate the fruit and vegetables` prices on the Indian market which will achieve to deprive most of the locals of these important nutritional resources.

As most of the Indian households cannot afford meat, the main nutritional resources are rice, fruits and vegetables. A shortage in fruits and vegetables in India can only result in an increased malnutrition and mortality. We can also suppose that the intensive agro-technology which will have to be used by the Rothschilds` farmers in India will involve the repetitive use of pesticides which is likely to sterilize soils and poison water reserves in a few years, just as it did in many parts of Europe. It is stunning to see how the Rothschilds new agro-business project may well fit also in this other prioritary globalisation agenda known as the depopulation of the Third World.

Last but not least, considering the crucial importance of the fruits and vegetables on the Indian market, a massive price inflation of these products might well start a general inflationary cycle in the Indian economy. Just as it is the case with China, the rapidly expanding Indian economy poses a growing threat to the Western corporations. Put the inflationary worm in the Indian apple and the whole Indian economy can be infected...

Sephiroth · November 7, 2007

In a country that have been built on backs of farmers for generations, you people need some white men and women to come to India and show you how to plant crops? :eek4:

suchandra · November 7, 2007

In a country that have been built on backs of farmers for generations, you people need some white men and women to come to India and show you how to plant crops?

Doesn't look like they want to show how to plant crops but rather to efficiently merchandise Indian products into the globalization network.

This requires another type of crops - genetically manipulated products that can be transported around the globe without turning bad. If Indian farmers will profit from this development remains questionable. At least they are trained up by the http://www.cpim.org/ to work all day for peanuts.