Source – Farm Press Blog
By Chris Bennett
Date – Jan 30, 2013
Website – westernfarmpress.com/blog
The tragedy of Indian farmer suicides can be attributed to a complex host of factors, and consigning blame for the suicides to Monsanto and corporate agriculture is guaranteed to get headlines and cheap applause, but such claims do not stand up to proper scrutiny.
Farmer suicide is an incredible tragedy in India. Numbers are hazy and disputed, but since 1995, facing crippling debt, thousands of Indian farmers have committed suicide; many of them by drinking pesticide.
For the most part, media outlets have placed the blame on the “suicide economy” of GM crops, corporate agriculture and Monsanto. The accepted storyline, in a distilled form: Thousands of Indian cotton farmers, subject to outrageous GM seed prices for Bt cotton, have been swallowed by debt and can’t find any means of escape other than suicide.
The GM suicide refrain has been repeated enough times and by enough outlets to make it seem true. But just a cursory look at some often ignored facts calls the narrative into question.
As Rubab Abid wrote recently in the National Post: “The issue of farmer suicides first gained media attention in 1995 as the southern state of Maharashtra began reporting a significant rise in farmers killing themselves … But it wasn’t until seven years later — in 2002 — that the U.S.-based agribusiness Monsanto began selling genetically modified cotton seeds, known as Bt cotton, to Indian farmers.”
A seven-year discrepancy and thousands of suicides within that window (many of which were committed by non-GM farmers), should bring the GM-blame narrative crashing down. Instead, blame is shifted to corporate agriculture: Small farmers consumed by the machinery of “Big Ag.”
But again, the true picture is far from clear as described in the Post: “The number of farmer deaths in India is much less than the general population. According to the report, the rate of suicide deaths among agricultural workers is around seven deaths per 100,000 people, whereas the overall suicide rate in India is close to 15 deaths per 100,000. And while the number of farm suicides rose sharply between 1995 and 2002, the trend of late has been downward or flat.”
Five years ago, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) released a study that upended the GM blame game. “It is not only inaccurate, but simply wrong to blame the use of Bt cotton as the primary cause of farmer suicides in India. Despite the recent media hype around farmer suicides fuelled by civil society organisations and reaching the highest political spheres in India and elsewhere, there is no evidence in available data of a ‘resurgence’ of farmer suicide in India in the last five years.”
However, despite the IFPRI study and the weight of stubborn facts to the contrary, the GM suicide narrative has grown stronger, popularized by self-appointed experts such as Prince Charles who gave the issue global attention in 2008 when he directly attributed Indian farmer deaths to “the failure of many GM crop varieties.”
With rantings that only a royal could get away with, Charles has long been an outspoken opponent of GM crops: “And if they think it’s somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then again count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time.” (Yes, this is the same Prince Charles that recommended carrot juice and coffee bean enemas as a cancer remedy.)
The tragedy of Indian farmer suicides can be attributed to a complex host of factors, and consigning blame for the suicides to Monsanto and corporate agriculture is guaranteed to get headlines and cheap applause, but such claims do not stand up to proper scrutiny.
Over 17,000 Indian Farmers signed up for Monsanto Bt Cotton. Up until then for literally THOUSANDS of years, they had grown “Heirloom Quality”, that while not as plentiful in harvested product as the Biotech promised to be, had created one that had won them fame and allowed them to pass that Legacy on, often in the same family for those thousands of years. Within a few short years, what they had held through generations, including those years subjugated by the Great Khans and the British Empire, was lost. The costs for “contracting” the Bt Cotton were higher than what they could earn, and so they LOST those Legacies forever. So, now, Monsanto doesn’t want to share any of the responsibility? Nice try. Monsanto didn’t MAKE these Farmers sign those contracts, but the promises made were not fulfilled-a little detail that plays much bigger in Hindi Culture than in American “Vulture Culture”. So, perhaps the “blame” has to be shared, but Biotech’s role is not, can not and will not be absolved!
Farmers who feed the world committing suicide is a national shame.But blaming the Bt Cotton for the distress condition of the farmers is the escape mechanism invented by the activists.How about farmers who ended their lives prior to 2002 and in states like Kerala,West Bengal and other parts of India where cotton is not at all grown?. Even in my district farmers committed suicide due to drought condition and non availability of river water for irrigation. We need better infrastructure,timely availability of bank finance,farm inputs like fertilizers & farm machines,fair Minimum support Price adequate enough to cover the cost of production, accessibility of scientifically proven technology which the members of the rest of the society enjoy and so on. Let the anti GM Crop activists look in to the real problems we face in the farm front,instead of side tracking and trivializing such a sensitive issue.
Really…either you ignore Indian Law or don’t understand it. If the Contract is between the head of the household and whatever entity it’s with, and the head of the household dies for ANY reason, the debt does not transfer to the family, so the suicides are for TWO reasons, shame of failure and a desire to clear karma and to alleviate the family of the debt responsibility. Assuming Americans don’t know such things is yet ANOTHER huge mistake when putting up a fallacious Article such as this one. As an Indian, weighing in on the side of such an attempt is sad. The real problems about food, markets and opportunity? Look to the Big Banks, lack of logistical support, and of course the biggest obstacle for Fair and Equal Parity in Market Share-wholesale corruption in every level of Government nearly everywhere. Did I say EVERY member of every Government? No, but many, especially those in “Third World/Emerging Nations”. When Local and Regional Authorities sell the food and goods for arms and personal comforts, when national leaders fill bank accounts with ill gotten gains, when Wall Street “Gambles” away trillions in the derivatives and the Governments take our tax dollars to bail them out, it’s shortfalls all around. The mantra for American Biotech is to “Feed The World”…but the truth is most of it goes for animal feed, biofuel or export.
Mr. Ohge – be advised Mr. Ravichandran is from and farms in India. Despite your own sense of omniscience, it’s likely he knows a bit more about India and farming in India than you.