Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Saturday, August 20, 2011

monsanto - more monstrous than before

monsanto is scary.
the extent to which they will go to dominate world food production, thus annihilating anyone who stands in their path is documented beautifully in "the world according to monsanto".

read the review here and watch the video here.

monsanto's all pervasiveness in our lives is highlighted in april davila's daring 'month without monsanto'.

ananthoo and his friends are on a Monsanto-Quit India campaign.

10 comments:

Aniket said...

Huhh .. felt mentally exhausted by the time I finished watching the entire documentary !

Scary !!!

Anonymous said...

i believe that our agricultural university system has become thoroughly corrupted, and the so called "scientists" are used by agri-corporations to push their quick fixes for the crops. It is almost standard that herbicides are used for everything from rice, vegetables to sugar cane. Crops regarded as medicinal like ginger, turmeric, coriander, etc are grown with herbicides, fungicides, and various pesticides.
Some clowns introduced the Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Council Bill 2009, which the current government fortunately decided to not implement. Most people have a natural understanding of plants, but this bill says only "experts" with an agri degree, can advise on farm practices. Corruption is happening at many levels, getting Monsanto out, will be for most practical purposes a feel-good cosmetic change, nothing more.

csm said...

ani - good to hear from you...

anon - what besets the ag system is no different from the practices elsewhere. do believe that 'scientists' in pharma (for eg) are doing research of their own interest?
i do not know if you saw the movie entirely, but monsanto is The BIG part of the problems you define. from where we are sitting, their mission to control world food is real and in our faces.

Anonymous said...

hello anna how are u and manni doing? i watched the documentary too...they are determined to kill ppl with food i guess

Anonymous said...

mathangi here

Kishore said...

Wow, I watched the video in its entirety and to me it is both saddening and sickening.

It seems to be exploitation at its fullest. I wonder what these executives that run such an organisation feel as the delicate agricutlural balance gets skewed and more people are adversely affected by this, often culminating in death (including suicide).

When I see this my appreciation for the work that DV, CSM and Karpagam and the team are doing grows further.

Locally whereever we live, we can do our little bit by trying to buy local produce and supporting non-corporate farming.

As mentioned by Anon 1, corruption comes in different forms and one of them is to mask/skew scientific data so that the general public has no idea of the actual facts by influencing scientists and lawmakers. So they change the laws to " allow them to operate within the law" while they are damging society.

Anonymous said...

But then the question is : What do you do? Consider the hectic life style of city. If we get rid of Monsanto then something else will be replaced. (and may be worse...)

Society has put greed and illusion during best part of our life. So if I want big LCD TV, computer, car and all luxury in city....how will I think of food? I may feel proud in eating hamberger and pizza rather than roti and vegetable/fruits.

Problem is not a Monsanto, problem is the greed/short cuts in life/more wants with less labor/easy luxury(and I am part of the society directly/indirectly).

Yugandhar said...

Every morning my blood boils at seeing the BT cotton Advertisement by Mahyco-Monsanto in my local news papers spewing all lies.

Is there a way to counter this falsified data being shoved down peoples throats?

Anonymous said...

monsanto is a useful bogeyman for western organizations like "organic consumers association" to use for their own profit. every village and small town in tamil nadu has a level ditch on main street built by the government, where sewage collects, and the only thing that can survive and breed in it is the mosquito. and newspapers bring full page ads, paid by the government, several times a year to not let water collect in uncovered containers, and let mosquitoes breed. tirupur factories that polluted agricultural land with dyes and chemicals are still not satisfied, they want to pollute more, for short term profits from exports. look at all the dust that the vehicles whip up, and people want to cut down every blade of grass, shrubs, and trees, and burn them up, so that the place looks "clean".
where is monsanto-mahyco in all this?

Anonymous said...

Nature is fighting back:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/attack-of-the-superweed-09082011.html