Monsanto's "Shock and Awe"
DEVINDER SHARMA / AgBioIndia Bulletin 17apr03
The American biotech giant, Monsanto, seems to have picked up a leaf from
the empty book of George Bush Jr. -- if you are not with us in pushing the
risky genetically engineered seeds, than you are against us. So goes the new
refrain.

True to the mantra, it demonstrated its "shock and awe" fire power when a
bus load of farmers brought from Andhra Pradesh disembarked in New Delhi to
'disrupt' a meeting organised by the New Delhi-based NGO Gene Campaign, on
Tuesday, April 15. Gene campaign was merely presenting the data of a field
study on the performance of Bt cotton crop in Andhra Pradesh.

The sad incident happened in the presence of a former Finance Minister of
India, Dr Manmohan Singh, who too pleaded with Monsanto's hired farmers to
let the data of the Bt cotton harvest be presented. These farmers were
accompanied by the head of the Liberty Institute, an arch supporter of
Mahyco-Monsanto and a promoter of free trade and economic liberalisation.

It wasn't unexpected. We have always warned against the games being enacted
in the name of agricultural development and growth. Multinational companies
can go to any extent, even use muscle-power to browbeat the country into
acceptance of faulty technologies. We bring you the report of the unsavoury
incident from the pen of the Gene Campaign's director Dr Suman Sahai, along
with the results of the study.

Contents:

1. "Monsanto tried to disrupt our meeting" -- Suman Sahai
2. Field data on India's first Bt cotton harvest -- Gene Campaign


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"Monsanto tried to disrupt our meeting"
Suman Sahai
Dear Sharma ji

You would have probably heard of the effort made to "disrupt" our Bt cotton
discussion today. I am providing you additional details:

Gene Campaign had organised a discussion on April 15, 2003, at the India
International Centre, New Delhi, to discuss the results of a field study on
the first ever GM crop harvest in India, that of Bt cotton.

The discussion was organised with experts, NGOs and the media. The
Chairperson of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) was also
invited but she did not come. Monsanto and Mahyco were invited, and they too
did not turn up.

Suddenly after the meeting had started, a stream of about 30 farmers entered
the room where the discussion were being held and started occupying the
chairs . They were speaking in " telugu" (the language spoken in Andhra
Pradesh) and so it was obvious they were from Andhra. Their leader, one Mr.
Jaipal Reddy began to interrupt and started taking over the discussion. I
suggested to them that we have done a study in those regions of AP that they
point out, and that we had directly gone to the farmers to find out the
truth. I even offered to hold a joint study once again to find out the
truth.

But unfortunately, there were attempts to disrupt the meeting which did not
succeed too well. Farmers meanwhile began to interact with the media,
specially the TV crews, saying they were getting fantastic results with Bt
cotton and everyone was definitely going to grow it again. They began
denouncing the work being reported in the discussion saying the results were
not true.

On being questioned, farmers admitted they had been sent by Monsanto, their
fare and hospitality had been paid by Monsanto and they were sent by train
the night before specifically for Gene Campaign's meeting. They also said
they were asked by Monsanto to speak strongly in favor of Bt cotton and to
say they were all in support of Bt cotton.

Accompanying Monsanto's farmers into the India International Centre (IIC)
were some unknown people as well as Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, known
to be Monsanto's point man in Delhi. He was guiding the 'farmers' and
encouraging them to occupy the front seats and not move from there.

A luxury air-conditioned bus waited outside the IIC to take Monsanto's
farmers back, guided and sheapered by Mr. Jaipal Reddy and Mr. Barun Mitra.

However, in the film clip that we had shown (recorded on location in AP ),
the Agriculture Minister of Andhra Pradesh is seen on record saying that the
state agriculture department and the scientists from the State Agriculture
University who had independently collected data, have reported that Bt had
not performed well and farmers were very disappointed.

Monsanto chose not to come up front to debate the results or present its
case even though it was invited to do so. It chose instead to send a bunch
of paid 'farmers' to act aggressive and try to break up the meeting.

Suman Sahai


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Field data on India's first Bt cotton harvest
Gene Campaign Press Release April 15, 2003
Gene Campaign today presented the data on India's very first GM crop, Bt
cotton, which had received conditional approval for commercial cultivation
in March 2002. The data collected from 100 farmers selected from 16 villages
in Warangal in Andhra Pradesh and Yavatmal in Maharashtra were presented in
a discussion with NGOs, experts and the media.

Gene Campaign, which showed a video film about the interviews with farmers,
presented data clearly showing that Bt cotton had failed. Bt cotton was not
resistant to the bollworm and farmers sprayed about the same amount of
pesticides on both, thus showing no great saving in pesticide, as claimed by
Monsanto, the owner of the variety.

Field data also show that the Bt cotton plant is weak and that the boll size
is small, The length of the cotton fibre is shorter than in non Bt cotton,
so the yield is less and the quality poor. Angry cotton farmers are vowing
that they will not grow Bt cotton again.

Cotton traders are not lifting Bt cotton, preferring instead the successful
non Bt varieties like Brahma and Banny . They pay a better rate for non Bt
cotton so far farmers are surreptiously mixing Bt cotton with non Bt to sell
their Bt cotton harvest.

What is clear is that the economics of Bt cotton simply does not work. Input
costs are almost Rs. 1000/ acre higher than for non Bt cotton. The seed
alone costs 4 times as much as good varieties of non Bt cotton. Savings on
pesticides are merely Rs.217/ acre while seed is Rs. 1200/acre more
expensive. The failure of Bt cotton is bitter and widespread. Sixty percent
of Bt farmers were unable to recover their costs and actually were in the
red to the tune of Rs. 80/per acre. Non-Bt cotton farmers did better in all
categories of farm types, low, medium and high yielders.

What is shocking is that GM crop cultivation has been sanctioned and allowed
to continue in states even though the mandated regulatory authorities have
not been set up, No state Level Committee or District Level Committee is set
up in either Andhra Pradesh or Maharashtra. This is in blatant violation of
the Rules for the regulation of GM organisms which comes under the
Environmental Protection Act, 1989.

Gene Campaign has demanded an investigation into this act of criminal
negligence which has endangered the fundamental rights of every citizen to a
healthy life and safe environment guaranteed under the Constitution of
India. The GEAC, India's top level authority for approving GM crops has some
answering to do.

a.. Why did the GEAC grant approval to Mahyco- Monsanto's Bt 162, Bt 184,
when these are well known as poor to modest performing varieties ?
b.. Why was approval given to Bt 12,Bt 162, Bt 184 when other better Bt
cotton varieties are in the pipeline ?
c.. How did the GEAC grant approval for cultivating a GM crop when the
mandated Regulatory Committees to oversee performance and safety are not
even constituted ?
d.. Gene Campaign has charged the GEAC with criminal negligence in another
context. The Campaign has been demanding that the field trial data of the
Monsanto Bt cotton be made available to the public. The GEAC has
consistently refused to do so. Had this been done, there is a strong chance
that the poor performance would have been detected early and farmers would
have been spared this debacle and loss .
e.. Gene Campaign demands that the government ensure that Monsanto is made
to pay compensation to those farmers who have suffered losses on account of
Bt cotton. Law mandates this. Section 39 (2) of the Protection of Plant
Varieties and Farmers Rights Act, 2001, requires breeder to pay compensation
if his variety fails to perform as claimed.
[Field data on Bt and non-Bt cotton performance can be requested from
]

The AgBioIndia bulletins are an effort by the Forum for Biotechnology &
Food Security to bridge the yawning gap in our understanding of the politics
of food. We believe these bulletins will create wider awareness and
understanding of the compexities of the crisis facing Indian agriculture and
food security. We will keep you posted on the intricacies and games being
enacted in the name of eradicating hunger. It is a non-commercial
educational service for non-profit organisations and individuals.
Subscribers are welcome to contribute information. You can view previous
issues at http://www.agbioindia.org/archive.asp

For a very recent scientific paper about glyphosate-resistant (GR) cotton
see:

http://crop.scijournals.org/cgi/cont...tract/43/3/879

Henry Kuska, retired

http://home.neo.rr.com/kuska/