Why Iraqi Farmers Might Prefer Death to Paul Bremer’s Order 81
Anyone hearing about central India’s ongoing epidemic of farmer suicides, where growers are killing themselves at a terrifying clip, has to be horrified. But among the more disturbed must be the once-grand poobah of post-invasion Iraq, U.S. diplomat L. Paul Bremer.
Why Bremer? Because Indian farmers are choosing death after finding themselves caught in a loop of crop failure and debt rooted in genetically modified and patented agriculture — the same farming model that Bremer introduced to Iraq during… FULL
peggy:
The suicides of farmers in Andhra Pradesh over debt from buying these cotton seeds and the pesticide that must be bought with them has been happening for at least ten years. The farmers kill themselves by drinking the pesticide. It is a terrible, painful death. It is surprising to me that the farmers in the area still have not gotten the news about the bad cotton. Actually, I think they have gotten the news. It is said that if they die, their debts are “forgiven” and their families don’t have to pay the debt, fwiw. Some have written that the farmers, by killing themselves, are ripping off the Indian Government, and/or Monsanto, for “easy money” (= absolution of debt). Need I say what I think of this latter claim? Read up, and write to Frontline Chennai.
20 September 2007, 11:06 pmpeggy:
To start reading up, go here: http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=cotton+suicide&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enNZ236NZ237
or use your customary search engine for the words: cotton suicide
20 September 2007, 11:45 pmjack:
i would like to see monsanto or any other agribuisness collect debt on anything in iraq let alone distribute its gm seeds in the first place at this point. in fact considering that india has a growing rural maoist insurgency in many of its states, it will be interesting to see how much longer indian farmers will continue killing themselves before they turn to more effective means of saving themselves, their families and their villages from the ravages of international agribuisness.
27 September 2007, 3:49 pm