Greetings from "My Right to Safe Food"
"Seed" the most unassuming potent gift of life that which is most sacred to me is under siege and assault. I have been consistently alerting and raising alarms about safeguarding traditional organic seeds. SEEDS THE KERNEL OF LIFE ITSELF, THE SOURCE OF OUR FOOD, WHEN CONTAMINATED, HAVE AN ADVERSE EFFECT ON OUR HEALTH AND THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET. Resulting in a very sick society. Exactly, the state of affairs in our country! Devastating as it may sound but this is the hard core truth.
Seeds cannot be imprisoned by the yoke of legality to be patented by laboratories, to be modified or sterilized by transnationals or for that matter the property of a handful of corporations. Biodiversity is a planetary heritage, which is the fruit of the work of hundreds of generations of rural farmers. This heritage does not belong to anyone in particular: it is a legacy for the future.
“Seeds belong to no one it is a gift of life to life itself”.
The objective of the greed driven seed corporations are to make farmers dependent on them. So that each year farmers have to purchase sterile seeds along with their corresponding chemical fertilizers and pesticides at obnoxious costs. Mounting farmers’ debts and deaths is primarily the outcome of farmers having to adopt these intensive corrosive methods.
After 60 odd years of Independence, the monthly average income of a farmer remains a paltry sum of Rs 2100, far below the poverty line. Yet, he is expected to purchase industry driven manipulated seeds, not replicable and that too at unaffordable costs. A chaprasi (clerk) in a government office is far better off than a farmer. He earns a sizable amount of Rs 10,000 with perks like medical, bonus, leave benefits, thanks to the sixth pay commission. But the backbone of our economy - "the farmer who feeds this nation" is not considered worthy of any State benefit expected only to live off credits. No wonder the balance and harmony that once prevailed is at the brink of disaster.
Seed freedom goes far beyond freedom for the farmer from corporations. It indicates freedom of diverse cultures from centralised control.
Please read below, why agriculture is not sustainable. With a faulty seed bill craftily designed to fill industry coffers, neither food security measures nor the overall health of the nation is of any consequence to policy makers. Who is to suffer apart from the ones producing it, consumers, of course!!!
Just recall... not so long ago, each day was an occasion to celebrate like festivals serving local home-made nutritional recipes. Tradition and grandeur was followed by conforming to our wise ancestral heritage. Which is why chronic diseases were far and few in number! Primarily because soil and traditional seeds were nurtured with so much care and devotion. Both the soil and seeds once rich in minerals and micro nutrients are fast being made to disappear, thanks to the dictats of seed corporations and faulty seed policies.
The result being each day now is tagged by a disease like the World Cancer day, World Hypertension day, World Diabetic day, World Heart day, World BP day to name a few. Many more diseases unheard off are being unveiled with gusto by medical experts further encashed by the pharmaceutical industry. Masses of monies are spent on medical research to provide remedies/cures through advertising drugs and hospitals supposedly to combat pain and suffering. The ground reality is that most drugs provide short term relief which in turn reduces immunities. It suppresses the disease only to accelerate the cause making it chronic because the food you eat is not giving you the required nutrition. By then, you are drugged for life. When food is devoid of nutrition, worse still toxic, no worth in gold can save you.
At gatherings the medications that provide relief against minor and major ailments is the topic of discussion. Every second house i peer into has a cancer patient. To a headache, cold or fever you pop medicines like never before and surrender yourselves to doctors ( with no offense to genuine medical experts). Patience is no longer a virtue. Appalling to witness the ease with which you make your bodies so readily available for trails as human experimental guinea pigs. You choose to do this for you no longer have any faith in yourself, nor the time to connect with your source, nor exercise any will to control your senses.
As long as you sit quiet and pretty tight with no time to question the source of your food, prepare yourself to suffer new outbreak of diseases.
In solidarity
Sangita Sharma
http://myrighttosafefood.blogspot.com/
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http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20100615&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=1
Seed bill retake
Monitor seed prices, not just quality, say farmer groups
Jyotika Sood
Divya
THE Union agriculture ministry will redraft the seed bill following complaints by MPs, states and farmer groups. Their main grouse is that the bill, which aims to regulate the quality of seeds, does not monitor their prices, crucial for farmers.
The Seed Bill 2010 was approved by the Cabinet in March and was to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha in mid-April. Sources in the ministry said MPs and state government have suggested over 100 amendments.
The bill, first drafted in 2004, updates the Seed Act of 1966 to address two main changes: genetically modified seeds and the entry of private and foreign seed companies. Farmers and seed producers contest its provisions on price, accountability and distribution of regulatory powers between the Centre and states. Andhra Pradesh—the seed production capital of India—is backing farmer groups (see: Andhra wishlist). On May 3, state agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy led a delegation of 15 MPs and farmer groups to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The delegation also met Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Unregulated price
At present, most states do not control the prices of seeds sold by hybrid seed companies.
The companies fix their own prices. They often exploit farmers, said D Narasimha Reddy, chief adviser with Chetana Society of farmers and activists in Andhra Pradesh. “It has been six years (since the 2004 draft) and the Centre has failed to include a clause related to seed price, which should be the essence of the bill,” he said.
Seed producers oppose this.
The National Seed Association of India, a group of over 200 seed producers, said price controls—by Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, for example—are making hybrid seed business unsustainable. According to the association, the seed industry has invested more than Rs 6,000 crore in research and infrastructure over the past 20 years.
Research and development involved in developing hybrids along with the challenges of weather makes it a high-risk business—the chance of developing a product that is successful in the market is less than 50 per cent, it said.
Inadequate compensation, penalty
The seed bill proposes setting up a national committee to compensate farmers in case seeds fail to perform as promised. Farmer groups argue that a national compensation committee is too distant and expensive for small farmers. How can small farmers access it when their grievances are not properly addressed at the state level, asked M Kodand Reddy, chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Kisan and Mazdoor Congress. He suggested a district-level committee.
Proposed penalties for misbranding or selling substandard seeds include a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000. This is too small for a seed producer earning crores of rupees, said an official in the Andhra Pradesh agriculture department.
Inspector raj
The bill gives seed inspectors the power to take samples from anyone selling, buying or transporting seeds. The inspector can even search and seize seeds without a warrant. Such unbridled power, many fear, would give rise to a bureaucracy with farmers at the receiving end.
The seed bill also affects Centre-state politics by limiting states’ role in seed regulation—states will have limited membership in the central seed committee, the main regulatory body. “Agriculture is a state subject. How can state governments be deprived of substantial power to take decisions?” asked Reddy.
Another concern is that the bill by allowing import of seeds may turn farmers’ fields into sites for experiments. ngos and farmer groups are asking that imported seeds be first tested and certified and then sold to farmers.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
World Environment Day: Its all About Market, Stupid!
By Devinder Sharma - June 5th 2010
I don't have to remind you. You know it already. Today is the World Environment Day. Your newspaper has suddenly gone green. Some of them have even changed the colour of the headlines to green. Your TV channel is talking about those who made the difference. Many TV channels are digging out visual stuff from across the globe to show how much they care.
Schools and colleges have debates on the subject, and some even hold rallies. Most of the debates in the elite schools are being sponsored by USAID, DFID and the corporate houses. Political leaders will plant saplings. You will be told 'each-one-plant-one'. If you escape planting a sapling, some NGOs will catch you to tell you to go for rainwater harvesting.
How could you then have missed it?
Of course we cannot protect our planet without the support and collaboration from one and all. Prime Minister will appeal the nation to join the movement to protect environment. All through the year, the government brings in policies that unabashedly destroys the environment. But on this 'auspicious' day, they make a resolve to save the environment. Somehow I get an impression that the government thinks that its job is to plunder, and the task to save the environment is that of the people.
Not only the government, which operates through the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), but almost all official bodies and agencies do the same. The other day the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) organised a conference on biodiversity. At the fag end of the two-day conference they had a session on 'Role of farmers, NGOs, Civil Society in Biodiversity Conservation'. I was amused. To me it appears as if the task to save biodiversity is only that of the civil society and farmers. ICAR's job is to destroy biodiversity.
We launch programmes and project to create awareness about environment protection. The phrase they use is 'capacity building'. You will invariably see that the 'capacity building' exercise is always limited to the poor and marginalised. I wonder when will we begin 'capacity building' of bureaucrats, policy makers, politicians, journalists and the business and industrial leaders? The problem is not at the level of the ordinary citizen but among the people who matter. If the elite and the opinion leaders were to be sensitized, the economic and political discourse can change, and change for the better.
We are a great nation. All through the year we destroy the environment. In our misplaced emphasis on GDP, we plunder the natural resources. In the name of increasing crop yields we bring in technologies and products that sap the Earth and eventually kill farmers. In the name of development, we actually exploit, and exploit ruthlessly. In case you missed it, I draw your attention to one of my articles that I wrote when Tsunami struck India. Tsunami, Mangroves and Market Economy: http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/jan/dsh-tsunami.htm
And then one day -- June 5 -- we want to give an impression as if everything has changed. The goalpost has shifted. As if we have learnt from our mistakes.
The next day, June 6, life is back as usual.
In many ways this is related to our religious thinking and attitude. Perhaps the nation's psyche is in many ways similar to what I see among the devout Hindus. All through their life they commit sin after sin (I am talking of most of them). We all know for instance we are a corrupt nation where every other man on the street is strikingly corrupt. Much of our economic growth is the outcome of corruption. The obscene wealth you see displayed during marriages is a reflection of how corrupt the family has been. We have no regret in even seeking bribe in the name of the dead. We have no guilt in even driving the people through our direct actions to even death.
We have no remorse. We know we can take a trip to the holy Ganges once in a year or so, take a dip and we will be free of our sins.
Mera Bharat Mahaan !
Why is that the world celebrates World Environment Day with such fervour? The answer is simple. The entire exercise is funded by companies engaged in selling green technologies. This is an opportunity for the $ 200 billion industry to showcase its hardware. No wonder, already leaders of the G-8 economies are talking of ushering in a Green Technology Revolution on the lines of Green Revolution. Therefore, the reason why your favourite newspapers have gone green for a day, your TV channel has suddenly become conscious of environment, your policy makers are talking green is simply because of the power of money and advertisement.
It's all about market, stupid !
--
I don't have to remind you. You know it already. Today is the World Environment Day. Your newspaper has suddenly gone green. Some of them have even changed the colour of the headlines to green. Your TV channel is talking about those who made the difference. Many TV channels are digging out visual stuff from across the globe to show how much they care.
Schools and colleges have debates on the subject, and some even hold rallies. Most of the debates in the elite schools are being sponsored by USAID, DFID and the corporate houses. Political leaders will plant saplings. You will be told 'each-one-plant-one'. If you escape planting a sapling, some NGOs will catch you to tell you to go for rainwater harvesting.
How could you then have missed it?
Of course we cannot protect our planet without the support and collaboration from one and all. Prime Minister will appeal the nation to join the movement to protect environment. All through the year, the government brings in policies that unabashedly destroys the environment. But on this 'auspicious' day, they make a resolve to save the environment. Somehow I get an impression that the government thinks that its job is to plunder, and the task to save the environment is that of the people.
Not only the government, which operates through the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), but almost all official bodies and agencies do the same. The other day the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) organised a conference on biodiversity. At the fag end of the two-day conference they had a session on 'Role of farmers, NGOs, Civil Society in Biodiversity Conservation'. I was amused. To me it appears as if the task to save biodiversity is only that of the civil society and farmers. ICAR's job is to destroy biodiversity.
We launch programmes and project to create awareness about environment protection. The phrase they use is 'capacity building'. You will invariably see that the 'capacity building' exercise is always limited to the poor and marginalised. I wonder when will we begin 'capacity building' of bureaucrats, policy makers, politicians, journalists and the business and industrial leaders? The problem is not at the level of the ordinary citizen but among the people who matter. If the elite and the opinion leaders were to be sensitized, the economic and political discourse can change, and change for the better.
We are a great nation. All through the year we destroy the environment. In our misplaced emphasis on GDP, we plunder the natural resources. In the name of increasing crop yields we bring in technologies and products that sap the Earth and eventually kill farmers. In the name of development, we actually exploit, and exploit ruthlessly. In case you missed it, I draw your attention to one of my articles that I wrote when Tsunami struck India. Tsunami, Mangroves and Market Economy: http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/jan/dsh-tsunami.htm
And then one day -- June 5 -- we want to give an impression as if everything has changed. The goalpost has shifted. As if we have learnt from our mistakes.
The next day, June 6, life is back as usual.
In many ways this is related to our religious thinking and attitude. Perhaps the nation's psyche is in many ways similar to what I see among the devout Hindus. All through their life they commit sin after sin (I am talking of most of them). We all know for instance we are a corrupt nation where every other man on the street is strikingly corrupt. Much of our economic growth is the outcome of corruption. The obscene wealth you see displayed during marriages is a reflection of how corrupt the family has been. We have no regret in even seeking bribe in the name of the dead. We have no guilt in even driving the people through our direct actions to even death.
We have no remorse. We know we can take a trip to the holy Ganges once in a year or so, take a dip and we will be free of our sins.
Mera Bharat Mahaan !
Why is that the world celebrates World Environment Day with such fervour? The answer is simple. The entire exercise is funded by companies engaged in selling green technologies. This is an opportunity for the $ 200 billion industry to showcase its hardware. No wonder, already leaders of the G-8 economies are talking of ushering in a Green Technology Revolution on the lines of Green Revolution. Therefore, the reason why your favourite newspapers have gone green for a day, your TV channel has suddenly become conscious of environment, your policy makers are talking green is simply because of the power of money and advertisement.
It's all about market, stupid !
--
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