In the past fortnight, three international events of major significance have gone unnoticed in India. About 20 lakh people, in 52 countries of six continents, including 48 US states, took part in a peaceful but symbolically important ‘March Against Monsanto’—to protest the reckless proliferation of genetically modified (GM) food items. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent an unusually strong message to President Obama expressing ‘extreme outrage’ at the support being given to global seed and plant bio-genetic MNCs Syngenta and Monsanto—and in a rare display of diplomatic anger nearly refused to meet the visiting US Secretary of State. About the same time, GM wheat ‘volunteers’ were found growing in Oregon, US—GM wheat is not approved for planting in US; this could be a potential disaster for US farmers. It is astonishing that our media has not picked up these extraordinarily significant international developments, which could have major consequences in India, indeed to mankind. It is important to note that all these three events have a common name to connect them—Monsanto.
Putin’s concerns relate to the widely prevalent use of a class of “neuro-active insecticides ‘neo-nicotinoids’ by chemical giants, including Monsanto, Bayer and Dow.” Quoting a technical report, he cited ‘undisputed evidence’ that these are destroying our planet’s bee population, and left unchecked could destroy the world’s ability to feed its population. In Europe, in general, all GM crops are banned. Consumer rights groups in the US recently highlighted the “US State Department strategy to foist ‘pro-biotech’ policies on foreign governments”, especially to encourage field trials in developing countries. Clearly, India has been identified as a convenient ‘guinea pig’.
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