GMW: GM crops cause suicides/Unapproved produce entering food chain

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GMW: GM crops cause suicides/Unapproved produce entering food

chain

" GM WATCH " <info

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:43:44 GMT

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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EXCERPT: A film prepared by the MEC showed farmers from many states

admitting to the violations and alleging that the company officials

rarely

visited the fields [where GM crop trials are held]. ...All the farmers

shown on video said they were selling the [unapproved GM] produce in

open market.

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GM crops also cause suicides, say activists

New Delhi, 10 January 2006

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=215397 & n_date=20060110 & cat=I\

ndia

 

A number of farmers who planted genetically modified cotton have

committed suicide on failing to repay debts with the produce, a group

lobbying for a ban on GM crops said today.

 

Agriculture scientist Palash Ranjan Ghoshal of the Maharashtra-based

NGO YUVA and Pallapadu Damodar of Andhra Pradesh's Sarvodaya Youth

Organisation claimed a number of farmers' suicides in the cotton growing

belts of the two states were linked to GM crops.

 

The two were speaking to reporters on the occasion of the release of a

report by the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) set up by

nearly two dozen non-governmental organisations to monitor field

trials of

genetically modified Bt cotton seeds across the country.

 

" Seed companies lure farmers with false claims into trying out the

crops. Not only is the actual yield lower than as claimed, the farmers

often also have to make big investment on pesticides. In the end, the

yield

and the price he gets for the produce do not cover up the input cost, "

Ghoshal said, speaking about Vidarbha in Maharashtra.

 

In Warrangal district of Andhra Pradesh, the Bt cotton yield was a low

50 kg to two quintals an acre. " Many farmers are putting all their

landholding for Bt cotton, but get back almost the same amount after

harvest, " Damodar said.

 

" Usually the suicides happen after January, but now we have farmers

committing suicide from September itself, " he said.

 

The MEC report says fields trials of GM crops are being conducted in an

" unscientific " and " unmonitored " manner in gross violation of

bio-safety regulations and the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

 

" They are being conducted in great secrecy. Even the agriculture

department officials do not know about the trials...Biosafety and

scientificity of trials are being violated on every front -- whether

it be sowing

time, of isolation distances, distance between plots, careful

monitoring and recording of result.... "

 

" From 1600 trial fields, the GM food entered the supply chain and thus

the food chain this year. We are consuming such food without knowing

their properties or side effects, " Ms Kavitha Kuruganti of the

Secunderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture said, adding

that field

trials of some vegetable varieties too had started.

 

A film prepared by the MEC showed farmers from many states admitting to

the violations and alleging that the company officials rarely visited

the fields. While the law mandates that the residue be burnt in the

field only, one farmer said he was using the crop residue as cooking

fuel.

All the farmers shown on video said they were selling the produce in

open market.

 

The report says seed companies are indulging in " publicity and

propaganda over unapproved hybrids and technologies also. Kisan melas

are being

organised at the trial plots as though these were demonstration plots. "

The committee demanded that the government's Genetic Engineering

Approval Committee, scheduled to meet tomorrow, should ban all field

trials

of GM food and that a thorough probe be ordered into the violations. The

government should ensure that standing GM crops are destroyed and

farmers compensated by the companies, it said.

 

 

 

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