WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 142 (25/9/2005) | |
from Claire Robinson, editor Dear all: A new report reveals how Bt cotton is marketed in India on the basis of lies so blatant that they would be funny if they didn't have such tragic consequences (ASIA). In Europe and Australia, a chorus of industry-generated propaganda is chanting the latest line on why we have to accept GM: it's too expensive to avoid it! If there is any truth in this claim, then the bill must be paid by those who caused the problem - the industry (AUSTRALASIA; LOBBYWATCH). Finally, 'scientists' in America have managed to lose three bubonic plague-infected GM mice but - guess what? - there's no need to worry (THE OTHER TERRORISTS). Claire [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASIA ------------------------------------------------------------ + PHILIPPINES: FARMERS UPROOT BT CORN Investigations reveal a very different story. The report shows that Monsanto's Indian subsidiary, Monsanto-Mahyco, and its sub-licensee Bt Cotton seed companies, have been pulling every dirty trick in the PR book in order to lure India's poor farmers into using GM cotton. Quite apart from chronicling the use of everything from Bollywood stars to dancing girls to hype Bt cotton, here are just a few of the outright lies the report exposes. FAKE FARMERS: Posters in Madhya Pradesh featured a farmer who claimed to have gained great benefits from using Bt Cotton seed. He turned out to be a vendor of betel leaves and cigarettes who had never grown Bt cotton in his life! FAKE YIELDS: Other posters featured Ravinder Narain, a farmer who was said to have obtained a yield of 20 quintals per acre of Bt Cotton. Investigations revealed Narain got only 5 quintals per acre. He is disgusted that the company is misusing the photos they took of him. FAKE BENEFITS: A farmer called Pyarelal Patidaar is also unhappy with the fact his photo appears on posters extolling the virtues of Bt Cotton - "I said do not put my photo because I do not think that Bt Cotton is better than other varieties - however, they did not listen to me", he explains. Another farmer was featured proudly displaying a tractor on a poster that suggested that he had been able to buy it after using Bt Cotton. He says that with the yields he got from Bt Cotton, "I would not be able to buy even two tractor tyres", let alone the tractor he bought with a private loan. This picture appears on a poster called "TRUE STORIES OF FARMERS WHO HAVE SOWN BT COTTON"! The report (incl. pics) can be downloaded online: "This is a strategy to avoid risk assessment; and hence a strategy for deregulation of the biotechnology industry in India and outsourcing genetic pollution and health risks to India's ecosystem and the Indian public." The ISP warns: "Anti-microbial peptides provide the first line of defence against invading microbes in both plants and animals... The evolution of resistance to antimicrobial peptides will severely compromise both the natural defence of the human immune system against disease and the possibilities of effective therapies emerging in the wake of the disaster of widespread antibiotic resistance. As versions of the peptides also provide defence against pathogens in other animals and plants, the ecological impact of resistant pathogens could be devastating." |