Cotone OGM in India: un monopolio?

[flaviomob]

What lies behind the spread of genetically modified plants in cotton cultivation in India?
Who benefits from it? Is biotechnology really the solution for the development of Third World Countries? Who or What is Behind the Label?
India is one of the largest countries in the world, and it is the second largest producer of fibre textiles that are used by billions of men and women from all over the world for an endless variety of daily needs.
In just nine years, promising prosperity for Indian farmers, seeds produced by the multinational company Monsanto, have completely dominated the Indian cotton-growing market.

Former marketing director of Monsanto, India - Tiruvadi Jagadisan - tells us how the company first entered the Indian market in the nineties, illegally introducing seeds with a gene that sterilized local varieties, and then, from 2002, progressively reached an almost total monopoly in that market with genetically modified seeds.
Today GM cotton seeds are distributed at an inflated price to Indian companies, who pay royalties to Monsanto: seeds that originally cost 9 rupees per kilo, are now being bought for an astounding 4000 rupees by impoverished peasants. Weak and permissive local laws and regulations do the rest, leaving the farmers little choice. In the end, the most devastating consequence is for the Indian farmers, who have become more and more in debt. India, like many other producing countries in the so-called Third World, is on the threshold of a genuine agrarian crisis. This situation, caused by the carelessness of the most developed countries, particularly affects the Indian Subcontinent central states where we have witnessed a new major tragedy: In less than a decade, 216.000 farmers have committed suicide in despair and shame caused by the unbearable burden of debts for their crops. It is an ever-escalating scandal that raises new questions about inequality in this huge Country.

The uncontrolled spread of biotechnology in agriculture affects the already unstable environmental balance, which is the basis for the survival of millions of people. Earth has become sterile; new parasites, unchecked by GM seeds, multiply; animals die mysteriously after grazing near the residues of genetically modified cotton crops, and native plant varieties have disappeared. The GM seeds seem to fail more often, giving way to fields of damaged crops that need increasingly expensive chemical treatments to eradicate parasites. Hopes for prosperity are rapidly transformed into agonizing disappointment. The film, interspersed with images of the "lifecycle of cotton"-from plantations to textiles - links the testimonials about GM cotton failure with the stories of others who have gambled on a radical alternative- taking the difficult path to organically grown cotton. A path that starts with the recovery of traditional seeds to conserve biodiversity and ensure a perhaps less "miraculous, but more robust future - for millions of farmers.
Along this path, the conservation of the environment meets with acceptable social balance, with the preservation of traditional crafts such as manual weaving, and the development of sustainable agriculture for farmers. This has developed primarily from ethical reasons but could also have significant economic implications for India’s cotton production. Organic farming already accounts for more than half of global organic production and it has growing success in Western markets.
Authoritative experts in India provide the scientific commentary in the documentary. Their analysis is interwoven with the stories of the cotton-growers, all gathered in real time. Women robbed by intermediaries; children working in the fields, on the threshold of young suicide; desperate widows, and farmers misled by false promises of wellbeing. These are the unforgettable faces that tell the story of GM cotton, in an India that is still largely unknown.

(THE FILM)

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http://www.behindthelabel.it/