Agriculture
Copenhagen: Will India take the green path?
Regardless of the outcome at the Copenhagen climate conference, India has the historic opportunity to reorient itself towards a green path of economic growth. The key factor that should influence national policy is the iniquitous nature of current emissions. At an estimated 1.2 tonnes equivalent of carbon dioxide, India’s per capita emissions of greenhouse gases [...]
Now, Dr. Manmohan Singh and UPA Co, get down to work !
Now that the 79-member Ministry of the UPA is in place, Dr. Manmohan Singh and his colleagues would do well to get down to work. Such is the level of degradation and non-performance in various Ministries, that it would take his Ministries 22-hour work days to even get the various policies initiated during the last [...]
Tamil Nadu farmers organise against Monsanto
The quiet “research sponsorship” diplomacy pursued by Monsanto in India has failed to wash with farmers. On April 3, many farmers’ organisations got together in Coimbatore to consider the gravity of the threat posed to hu man health, agriculture, food safety and biosafety by Monsanto’s genetically modified crops. The verdict: catastrophic. The senior farmer leader [...]
Will Tamil Nadu legislators fend off Bt Brinjal ?
Today, the lawmakers of Tamil Nadu got a ‘gift’ that threatens to become a rarity — brinjal untainted by the Bt genes bombarded into them by Monsanto-Mahyco. Activists demanding a ban on the genetically modified variety of vegetable -which may turn up unannounced at your local green grocer as well as the local More, Daily, [...]
Monsanto Mahyco’s GM brinjal unsafe, The Hindu reports
Many comprador agricultural scientists, many more commentators with an axe to grind and some misguided middle class consumers are willing to accept genetically modified foods/crops and even endorse them. It is difficult for some odd piece of evidence in this shrill commercial scenario to catch attention, but here it is: one report pointing out that [...]
The beginning of the end for GM crops in the US?
The Daily Mail of the UK reports here that consumers in the United States have finally begun to wake up to the engineered biochemicals that the GM foods industry is serving up on their plates. This appears to be the case, judging from the results of a study by the Soil Association titled Land of [...]
Be happy, old fruit – and do some good!
A strong inclination towards gardening, particularly of the organic variety may draw smirks from friends these days. Maintaining close links with nature is unfortunately seen as a sign of approaching geriatric obsolescence. So be it. My near-obsession with the natural way of life finds expression in different ways. Last year, I told Mr. M.B.Nirmal of Exnora [...]
The oil squeeze: fertilizer prices begin to bite
The impact of high oil prices has begun to affect agriculture in a fundamental way. Fertilizer, on which much of the intensive agriculture of the world has come to depend, is now both scarce and more expensive for many farmers. Combined with the decline in production of grains in some countries, this is very bad [...]
The media’s shrinking moral universe
Magsaysay winner P. Sainath upbraided the media in his convocation lecture to the graduands of the Asian College of Journalism the other day, for giving up its basic function of upholding liberal values and keeping democracy in good health. A glance at the “moral universe” of today’s media, not just in India but even in [...]
The end of ‘cheap’ food?
Slowly but surely, politics in this country is acquiring a foundation in contemporary issues, rather than one of mere rhetoric, alliances and muscle power. It is not that the shift is sharp, or that all core issues are being addressed — education and healthcare access are glaring examples – but there is hope that the reality of economics will [...]
