Indian farmers commit suicide due to devastation caused by GM crops

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Foundational changes that have taken place in the agriculture sector of India have led to a epidemic of farmer suicides over the past 16 years, according to a new report. Released by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's (NYU) Law School, the report explains that, on average, one Indian farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes in response to the devastation caused by the effects of globalization on agriculture, and genetically-modified organisms (GMO) in particular.

The report, entitled, "Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights and the Agrarian Crisis in India," (http://www.chrgj.org/publications/d...) explains that Indian policy has stripped many farmers of their livelihoods by greatly decreasing the value of their crops. Combined with the introduction of GM crops that trap farmers into an endless cycle of debt without providing any substantial benefits, and you end up with a society marked by despair, hopelessness, and an increase in suicides.

What was once an agricultural system based on the diverse cultivation of natural, beneficial food and use crops has morphed into a system of unsustainable cash-crop agriculture. Countless millions of farmers began to adopt crops like Monsanto's Bt cotton, which recent studies have shown provide no benefits, but that lock farmers into a perpetual system of dependence that ends up bankrupting them (http://www.naturalnews.com/031266_G...).

Just like what has happened in the US, many Indian farmers have been hoodwinked by multinational biotechnology giants into adopting GM varieties of cash crops -- and they have done so based on deceitful claims that GM crops will improve yields and essentially save the world. Such claims are absolutely baseless, of course, and no legitimate studies have ever proven them to be true -- but Indian, US, and other governments do not seem to care.

According to the report authors, the Indian crisis could be mitigated if the government there would get more involved in agricultural issues. They claim the government has largely abandoned Indian farmers and thrown them to the globalist wolves, rather than defend and protect their interests.

To read the entire report for yourself, visit:
http://www.chrgj.org/publications/d...

Sources for this story include:

http://www.democracynow.org/seo/201...