1.Bt cotton merry-go-round
2.FFT finds Bt cotton defective
3.The problems and successes of GM crops
EXCERPTS: "even though the reality of GM crops is lacklustre, the industry's PR machine works overtime to maintain the fiction that it's a glittering success...
"And that same kind of hype and concealment's going on right around the world. You've got people like Prakash telling farmers in Africa GM will double their production. In India you've got Monsanto pumping out studies and claims that GM cotton is great for Indian farmers, sales are up etc., etc., and at the same time you've got carefully conducted research in India showing the diametric opposite. You've also got protests going on and even stories of farmers killing themselves because their crops failed, but Monsanto's PR machine captures far more of the headlines." (item 3)
But maybe not this time! See item 1 below
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1.Bt cotton merry-go-round
COMPARE & CONTRAST THESE RECENT HEADLINES
*Swadeshi Bt seeds help Gujarat raise cotton production eight-fold
Webindia123 - India
... GEAC) declared its usage as illegal and instead gave approval to 'Bollgard' in 2002, had found to be superior to 'Mahyco-Monsanto' Bt cotton seeds in Indian ...
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=167620&n_date=20051120&cat=India
*FFT finds Bt cotton defective
Webindia123 - India
... who visited the villages in Dharmabad block of Nanded district to take stock of the reports, found ''adversely affected'' almost all the Bt cotton plots here ...
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=164069&cat=India
*Monsanto worried as fake Bt cotton seeds flourish
Business Standard - India
... technology (Bt) patent holder Monsanto and the licensee Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Limited with increasing market share of illegal Bt cotton seed manufactures. ...
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=205297
*NGO findings on Bt cotton raise a stink
Financial Express - Bombay, India
NEW DELHI, NOV 15: Reacting strongly to the studies done by a network of local NGOs reporting failures of Bt cotton crops in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya ...
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=108761
*Bt cotton seeds fail to germinate
Checkbiotech.org - Basel,Switzerland
Up to 75 per cent of the Bt cotton seeds in 35 per cent of the area sown in parts of Salem and Namakkal districts of Tamil Nadu is said to have failed to ...
http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=11622&start=1&control=201&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1
*Wilting of Bt cotton in MP, farmers demand ban on cos
NewKerala.com - Ernakulam, Kerala, India
Bhopal: The genetically modified Bt cotton crops in over two lakh acre area in Nirmar region in western Madhya Pradesh suffered partial or complete wilting ...
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=52326
*India : Gujarat has most reliable cotton quality for exports
Fibre2fashion.com - India
... of cotton.Gujarat seems to be ideally placed to partially fulfil this shortage, thanks to an extremely good monsoon and extensive use of Bt-cotton seeds this ...
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=8839
*Team finds Bt Cotton prone to pest disease
Webindia123 - India
.. some villages in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh felt the Government should put in place, systems which would assess the situation of Bt Cotton vis-a-vis ...
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=157082&cat=India
*Paying the price of Bt Cotton
Hindustan Times - India
Apparently, Bt cotton has come with a huge price tag attached -- Bt cotton farmers in Nimar are supposed to have lost about Rs 400 crore, as nearly half of ...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1553438,0015002100000000.htm
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2.FFT finds Bt cotton defective
Hyderabad / November 16, 2005
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=164069&cat=India
The Fact Finding Team (FFT) who visited the villages in Dharmabad block of Nanded district to take stock of the reports, found ''adversely affected'' almost all the Bt cotton plots here today.
The team headed by agriculture scientist from YUVA, Nagpur Palash Ranjan Ghohal and Kavitha Karuganti of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Secunderabad found almost all the Bt Cotton plots in various degrees were found in a particular condition called 'Itkar Rog' by the farmers.
FFT, which comprised General Secretary of Maharashtra Sarpanch Sanghatana in Nanded Gopal Patil and a farmer and social worker from Dharmabad Ravi Shetty, in a press release said all plants were red in color, mostly leaves and stem. All fields appeared red even from a distance.
There was also stunted growth and average number of bolls per plant seen and reported was only around 15-20 bolls per plant. There was no clear indication of particular hybrids being more adversely affected, as per FFT, though some farmers felt that late duration varieties had survived the disease better in a comparative sense.
FFT recommended to the government to initiate scientific and comprehensive assessment of the extent of losses on Cotton in general and on Bt Cotton in particular in order to assess the differences.
Also, in the recommendation were simple and farmer-friendly mechanisms be pursued for fixing liability on the Bt Cotton companies for the losses being experienced at present and for compensating farmers, the release said.
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3. The problems and successes of GM crops
- taken from Marina Littek's interview with Jonathan Matthews of GM Watch
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=49&page=1
Q: But if there are these problems with the crops, why do Brazilian farmers, for instance, smuggle in GM seeds from Argentina to grow them? What's the attraction?
It's various things but it's not what the biotech boosters would have you believe, or even what some of the farmers will tell you. The GM soya that some Brazilians have been smuggling in is incredibly convenient - it really suits a certain sort of farmer. It’s a kind of junk agriculture where you really don't have to pay too much attention to what's going on in your fields. You just plant the seeds at a certain time and pour the Roundup all over the place and you know it will kill absolutely everything apart from the crop or at least that’s what happens at the beginning. Junk farming is like fast food and microwave cuisine - it may not be good for you in the longer term and it may be destructive of precious culinary traditions, knowledge and skills, but it's a real time saver and people get hooked by that convenience.
As with other destructive habits, though, there's a gap between what GM crops may really have to offer and what those growing them believe. And that's mainly to do with the power of hype and fashion - something that, sadly, farmers and governments and scientists are no more immune from than the rest of us. Donald White, a University of Illinois plant pathologist, describes what’s going on as "a herd mentality". "Everyone has to have a biotech program", he says, and that chimes in with a University of Iowa study on why farmers are growing GM soya. That study found that while increasing yields was cited by the majority of farmers in the study as the reason for planting GM soya, the research showed they were actually getting lower yields!
And this isn't peculiar to Iowa. An annual review of the uptake of GM crops for 1998 reported yield improvements of 12% for farmers in the US growing GM soya, based on their own estimates. But a review of over 8,000 university-based controlled varietal trials involving GM soya in the US for that same year showed almost exactly the opposite - yield reductions averaging 7%. In other words, you've got a nearly 20% gap between perception and reality.
But even though the reality of GM crops is lacklustre, the industry's PR machine works overtime to maintain the fiction that it's a glittering success. A week before the publication of the most recent Benbrook report showing how much GM crops have increased, rather than decreased, pesticide use, up pops a report from an industry funded institute saying the exact opposite. It's beyond belief that that timing was accidental. That institute was funded to do that job of work, precisely to smother what Benbrook - a scientist who for 7 years presided over the National Academy of Science's Board of Agriculture - was disclosing.
And that same kind of hype and concealment's going on right around the world. You've got people like Prakash telling farmers in Africa GM will double their production. In India you've got Monsanto pumping out studies and claims that GM cotton is great for Indian farmers, sales are up etc., etc., and at the same time you've got carefully conducted research in India showing the diametric opposite. You've also got protests going on and even stories of farmers killing themselves because their crops failed, but Monsanto's PR machine captures far more of the headlines.
There's an extraordinary schizophrenia. You've got Indian politicians talking up biotech because they think it makes them look progressive and like the'’re doing something for the country, at the same time that you've got angy farmers going on the rampage because of the problems they're getting from just this one GM crop. In Indonesia Monsanto had to pull GM cotton out completely because of all the problems, and yet I regularly see claims that Indonesia is one of the Asian giants embracing GM!
Read on at: http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=49&page=1