Hood Robin

[Guest guest]

Ever heard of Hood Robin?

 

by Devinder Sharma

New Delhi, India

 

 

 

 

For Sumitra Behera, 35, a resident of Badibahal village in Angul

district of Orissa, selling her one month old daughter for a paltry

sum of Rs 10 (approximately 21 US cents), was perhaps the only way

to feed her two other daughters -- Urbashi, 10, and Banbasi, 2. Her

husband had died about eight months ago. The shocking reflection of

the harsh ground realities that prevail throughout the countryside -

and Orissa is no exception - will however soon be buried under

denials and allegations.

 

Sumitra Behera supreme sacrifice comes at a time when Ingo Potrykus,

the scientist who invented a rice that has been genetically altered

to carry a miniscule percentage of Vitamin A, demanded that

opponents of genetically engineered crops should be made to stand

trial in an international court. " I would make them responsible,

have them in an international court and get them to justify the pain

and suffering they are inflicting on so many people. "

 

The Switzerland-based Dr Potrykus believes that the 'golden rice'

that he has produced will save almost one million children a year

from going blind. This prompted the ever-eager Rockefeller

Foundation, European Union and the Swiss government to provide US

$2.6 million (approximately Rs 125 million) over seven years to the

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the aim to

engineer the pro-Vitamin A genes into the local varieties of rice.

 

If only the same amount of research funding had gone to feed the

hungry, over one million impoverished could have been pulled out of

extreme hunger in the next seven years. In other words, Dr Potrykus'

infructuous [unfruitful] research has deprived at least one million

hungry of their basic fundamental right - food. Snatching food

literally from the hands of the hungry is perhaps the greatest human

crime. How will Ingo Potrykus and his supporters like to be treated

for exploiting even the hungry for the sake of amassing more profits

for the commercial companies? I leave it to him and his tribe to

provide the answer.

 

In all fairness, Dr Potrykus is not the only one. What about the

2,000 scientists, including several Nobel laureates, who signed the

AgBioView Foundation appeal in 2001, urging the US Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) not to destroy a mere 3,000 tonnes of

genetically modified rice, and instead export it to the hungry

millions? Their resolve for hunger vanished when told that they

should come and help distribute 45 million tonnes of surplus food

grains, much of it rotting in the open in India. After all, if they

had joined hands, India could have succeeded partially in removing

hunger. With 320 million hungry, India alone has one-third of the

world's hungry.

 

What about the Royal Society that castigates the critics of

biotechnology, and admonishes the media for printing anything that

goes against the commercial interests of the biotechnology

companies? What about the Nuffield Council on Bioethics that

unethically appoints a working group of experts, all known

supporters of biotechnology industry, so as to convince the British

government of its 'moral duty' to invest in GM crops research for

the sake of developing countries? All of them, the so-called

distinguished academic institutions and forums, swear in the name of

hunger and malnutrition, but only if it adds to the profit of the GM

companies. If it does not bring profit for the companies, let the

hungry go to hell.

 

Let us hear what Prof Derek Burke, a former vice chancellor of the

East Anglia University (UK) and a former chairman of the Advisory

Committee for Novel Foods ad Processes, has to say about GM

technology: " ...the consequence of the loss of this technology for

society is the loss of the ability to create new wealth. It's my

grandchildren that I'm concerned about. How will they earn their

living in 20 years? The answer may lie partly in your hands. "

 

Prof Burke is one of the authors of the Nuffield Council on

Bioethics recently released controversial report on the use of

genetically modified crops for the developing countries. The report

tries to create an illusion as if the interest of the British

scientists is the welfare of the poor and hungry in the developing

countries. In reality, they are worried at the future of their own

scientists, their own children. And you think these are the Robin

Hood's of the 21st century? You think they feel compassionately for

the hungry and the dying? Think again.

 

Gone are the days when the legendary Robin Hood would rob the rich

and give it to the poor. It is just the opposite now. The rich and

elite are sparing no effort to rob the poor, even building profits

over the starving millions. Worse still, the hungry are being robbed

of what ever little they live with, ironically under the emotional

and scientific cover of eradicating hunger and starvation. These are

the Hood Robins - always willing to exploit the poor and hungry for

the sake of corporate interest.

 

The Hood Robins change jobs back and forth between corporate

agribusiness and the Agriculture Department until the two are

indistinguishable. Hood Robins masquerade as scientists,

bureaucrats, as educated entrepreneurs and of course as GM food

companies. They have successfully co-opted the public sector

university research system in a way that means tax dollars support

research which ultimately enhances company profits. They help the GM

companies spend US $ 119 million for lobbying in 1998 in the US

alone. What for? " Educating " the American politicians about the

virtues of genetic engineering. Not only the American politicians,

they even set up an NGO that regularly imparts orientation courses

to the judges from the developing countries.

 

Scientific research is rigged, alarming evidence of health dangers

is covered up, and intense political pressure silences the sane

voice of the dissidents. You have probably heard of the four

scientists who dared to stand for the cause of 'good science', their

voice was silenced for the sake of the neoclassic model of 'sound

science', another name for corporate controlled science.

 

* Arpad Pusztai - Consultant, Norwegian Food Sciences Institute,

formerly Principal Scientific Officer, Rowett Institute, Aberdeen,

Scotland. Discovery. Cytological and histological damage to rodents

fed with transgenically-modified potatoes. Suppression. Dr Pusztai

was fired from his position of 30 years as a scientist at the Rowett

Institute in Scotland. His research files were seized, including in

a break-in at his home. Major campaign of discreditation.

 

* John Losey - Associate Professor, Cornell University. Discovery.

Damage and death in Monarch butterfly caterpillars fed with pollen

from transgenetically-modified corn. Suppression: Promotion of

research targeted towards discreditation of his discoveries. Media

campaign.

 

* Tyrone Hayes - Associate Professor, University of California,

Berkeley Discovery. Damage to tissues, organs and ecology of

amphibian reproduction due to low levels of Atrazine, the most

widely-used chemical in US agriculture. Suppression. Attempts at

suppressing, delaying and derailing research. Targeted research to

discredit his findings. Discreditation campaign.

 

* Ignacio Chapela - Assistant Professor, University of California,

Berkeley Discovery. Genetic contamination of maize by transgenic

(GMO) DNA in its center of origin in Oaxaca, México. Suppression.

Attempts at suppressing, delaying and derailing research. Direct

threats. Coordinated, industry-funded international discreditation

campaign. Not granted a research extension.

 

Distortions, omissions, cover-ups and bribes are used to promote an

unhealthy and risky technology, and that too with the 'pious'

intention of eradicating hunger. Hood Robin's exploits surely read

like adventure stories.

 

Meanwhile, Sumitra Behera has already spent the 21 cents (not enough

to buy a bottle of mineral water) that she got for selling her one-

month-old baby. She is probably planning to sell her second younger

daughter, Banbasi, aged 2. That's the only way she can keep herself

alive, fighting her daily battle with acute hunger and deprivation.

She is in a way lucky that she continues to survive against all

odds. Nearly 24,000 hungry like her die every day the world over

waiting for food. Not knowing that Hood Robins have siphoned off the

money that was meant to provide them food. #

 

Source: BioSpectrum, Bangalore, India; Jan 2004.

 

Published in In Motion Magazine February 8, 2004