India’s Debt-Ridden Farmers Committing Suicide
Nashik, India — On a recent afternoon, Seetabai Atthre heard a faint cry from the edge of a vineyard that her family has cultivated for more than 40 years. Through the furrows, she found her husband, Vishal, smoldering on the ground next to an empty can of kerosene. He had lit himself on fire and died three days later in a local hospital.
Atthre attributes her husband’s suicide to a $5,600 debt. The farm located on the arid plains of northern Maharashtra state near the town of Nashik had not turned a profit in more than two years, and 65-year-old Vishal could no longer secure a bank loan to pay off interest on the debt.”This is wrong, and it’s killing us,” Sanjay Gangode said at a gathering of debt-ridden grape farmers in the region. “There is no future here.”
While India’s economy surges forward on the crest of globalization, thousands of farmers are taking their own lives every year to escape mounting debt and an uncertain future. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, at least 87,567 farmers committed suicide between 2002 and 2006. In Maharashtra state, there were 4,453 suicides in 2006, the last year for which statistics were made available, an increase of 527 compared with 2005. Sharp increases have also been reported in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states.
Last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged more than $930 million in relief to bail out struggling Maharashtra farmers and “relieve the misery.”
Possible causes of suicides
Analysts cite several factors for the suicides, including crop failure due to agrochemicals and climate change, lower prices due to U.S. farm subsidies, state restrictions on export trade, and the dumping of surplus crops in an oversaturated domestic market.
“The phenomena of indebtedness will recur as long as policies to depress agricultural prices continue,” said Sharad Joshi, founder of Shetkari Sanghatana, a leading farmers’ rights organization.
Ironically, many farmers are facing a backlash of their own remarkable transformation.
In the 1960s, India underwent a green revolution in favor of high-yield farming to counter acute food shortages. Plant breeding, irrigation development and the use of synthetic fertilizers ramped up production. Today, India is a major exporter of rice, and the world’s second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables after the United States.
The changes caused higher operating costs and production that created a market glut exceeding demand at home and abroad. To remain in business, many farmers were forced to take out loans at high interest rates. Once credit had been exhausted, they turned to private lenders, who charged even more exorbitant interest rates.
And that’s when the suicides started, most activists say.
“Suicide has become so common that no one takes it seriously anymore,” said Giridhar Patil, an agricultural activist in Nashik.
Like Napa Valley
About a four-hour drive northeast of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, the agrarian communities around Nashik boast a Napa Valley-like mild climate and rich soil. Fruit stands and onion warehouses line a highway that wends through a quiltwork of vineyards under a cloudless horizon. Despite the ideal growing conditions, 53 farmers committed suicide in Nashik district last year, according to police records. In an ironically tragic gesture, the majority drank pesticides.
In Umbarkhad, a small village located less than a mile from the Atthre farm, Parshram Athari plies the 5-acre grape farm where he grew up. At first glance, he and his family of five appear to be prosperous: A two-story concrete home with a satellite dish overlooks the property; the vineyard is hedged and well-irrigated, tended by day laborers who carefully pack export-quality grapes into stamped cardboard boxes. Athari is also paying 12 percent interest on a $17,500 loan.
About 15 years ago, his farm produced 26,000 pounds of grapes per acre. These days, an acre yields about 11,000 pounds, and production costs have quadrupled. A hefty share is spent on fertilizers, whose harsh chemicals deplete soil nutrients, making it more difficult to regroup when a crop is lost to drought. A tractor sits idle, a rusty relic from better days. Athari also worries that he won’t have enough money to send his eldest daughter to a good university or pay for her dowry when she marries.
“The (laborers) we employ are better off than we are today,” said Athari, who says he now has only $200 a month to cover household expenses. “Our costs are going up and market prices are going down, so we don’t have enough to make ends meet.”
The same grapes he sells to wholesalers for 30 cents per 2.2 pounds can fetch as high as $2.50 in a Dubai supermarket. The price imbalance is made worse if domestic prices rise, he adds, since the Indian government then bans exports, reducing potential profit and flooding the domestic market, which knocks prices down even more.
Such price volatility is a function of globalization, most critics say - and is especially unstable for cotton farmers. As the world’s largest cotton producer, the United States provides massive subsidies that allow American farmers to undercut overseas competition by selling at an artificially low cost.
Moreover, many Indian farmers are now using genetically engineered Bt cotton seeds made by U.S.-based Monsanto Co., which produce higher yields. The seeds and fertilizer, however, must be bought each year, costing farmers thousands of dollars.
Debt waiver proposal
Not surprisingly, debt-ridden farmers have mobilized to support a debt waiver proposal that is floating around congress. Mohan Dharia, a former commerce minister turned social activist, threatened a nationwide protest this month if demands for fairer crop prices were not enacted by the end of the month.
“Political parties can ignore farmers at their own peril,” he said.
The threat of widespread protests ended after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced a $15 billion aid package for “small and marginal farmers” who owe money to state banks.
Nevertheless, many critics say Indian farmers need a long-term solution, not a one-time bail out.
“The government knows we will take out more loans in the end and fall in the same trap,” said Nivruti Dokhale, a Nashik onion farmer who is $8,000 in debt.
© 2008 The San Francisco Chronicle
Lets all join together and shout the mantra again — ‘Globalization’. The new Indian economy is shaped after the U.S economy and we all know how that goes. Life is cheap but profits remain forever.
These mass suicides are tragic and send a clear signal that capitalism does not serve the people, instead, the people serve capitalism at their own tragic expense. The few live at the top of the pyramid in splendor getting there mostly through dishonest and cutthroat dealings devoid of moral behavior, while the rest exist in various stages of economic servitude and decomposition ultimately leading to slow death through health failure or rapid death by suicide. Why do it?
“In the 1960s, India underwent a green revolution in favor of high-yield farming to counter acute food shortages. Plant breeding, irrigation development and the use of synthetic fertilizers ramped up production”
With some obvious differences Cubans in general not just farmers went through a catastrophic Special Period in the early nineties , when the average , adult , Cuban citizen lost 15 lbs. of body weight . There are no comparable statistics for suicides and if there were the Communist Party would choose not to publish them .
In a nutshell the Cuban Revolucion and economy had been heavily subsidized both in exports and imports by the USSR from early sixties to the collapse of the USSR in 1989.
As street-kid orphans and stray cats learn to survive without any visible means of support , again , in a nutshell , Cubans learned to do without oil-based fuel , pesticides , fertilizers and total dependence on imported food and export of their monoculture commodity , sugar.
Without sounding too much of a pie-in-the-sky pollianna , to a certain extent every Cuban that has a window box or outdoor earth space big enough to swing a cat , has become a “farmer”.
The gamut of agricultural-volume production runs from still-in-existance large , regimented collective-farms to entreprenuerial-market gardening where the “farmer” can sell the surplus on the open market-stand to the doctor-”farmer” or teacher-”farmer” who only has a window box and may or may not be able to grow enough for the immediate family.
The synopsis above is presented in detail in the DVD entitled “The Power of Community : How Cubans Survived Peak Oil” I’m sure that if P. Chidambaram and the desperate farmers in the Nashik district were to appeal to the “new dictator” of Cuba or even better his Minister of Agriculture there would be a proferred planeload of agricultural consultants on their way to Mumbai.
If readers are skeptical of my idea , find out from UNESCO or UNICEF or WHO or WORLD VISION or…how many Cuban-trained health-care professionals are serving in foreign countries around the world compared to soldiers ( which they once did .)
It sure is a clandestinely-convoluted way to build an empire.
A trade agreement between the United States and India, the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA), was backed by Monsanto and other transnational corporate giants. This has allowed for the seize of India’s seed sector by Monsanto, its trade sector by Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, and its retail sector by Wal-Mart. This amounts to pronouncing a death sentence to India’s independent farmers and small businesses. Moreover, in 1998, the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced India to open its seed sector to transnational corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill. As a result of this adjustment, traditional farm saved seeds have been replaced with genetically engineered seeds which are non-renewable. So the farmers have to purchase seeds for each growing season, which is a costly investment for them. In most cases this has led to poverty and severe indebtedness. In order to relieve themselves of debt, some farmers have even sold their own organs. When these attempts have failed to rectify their financial situations, many farmers committed suicide.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data record, there have been 1,66,304 farmers’ suicides in a decade since 1997 in India. Of these, 78,737 occurred in five years between 1997 and 2001. The next five years — from 2002 to 2006 — proved worse, seeing 87,567 farmers take their lives. This means that on average, there has been one farmer’s suicide every 30 minutes since 2002.
The irony is: the government of the “developing” India is very eager to get the India-US Nuclear Deal sealed. According to The Wall Street Journal it opens the way for nuclear power business and massive arms deals worth an estimated $25,000 crores. The US Chamber of Commerce and companies such as General Electric and Boeing are lobbying for the deal. The visits of highest level delegations (including recent Nanci Peloci visit to India, and Pranab Mukharji, Foreign minister of India to America) show the concern towards this.
However in contrast, the Indian government has showed very little concern to the deaths of the poor farmers. The minister of Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, who belongs to Maharashtra, where the number of deaths are more, did not even visit the state when there was a spate of farmers’ suicides. This only shows the apathy of Indian government towards the poor, weak and vulnerable. It is very eager to spend money on WMD rather than to feed the poor and hungry.
In the light of the above, the “modern” understanding of “development”, like “freedom” and “democracy”, is nothing but a pretty shell, emptied of all content or meaning.
deepa March 23rd, 2008 12:53 pm — “democracy”, is nothing but a pretty shell, emptied of all content or meaning.”
Beg to differ deepa, Democracy means now what it has always meant: Cotton, Rum, & Slaves.
Peace.
deepa,
You said “As a result of this adjustment, traditional farm saved seeds have been replaced with genetically engineered seeds which are non-renewable. So the farmers have to purchase seeds for each growing season, which is a costly investment for them.”
Please enlighten us on why Indian farmers cannot buy the non-GM seed that they have always used and why they cannot save this seed.
Mr. Obvious has not been to a feed store or farm supply store to check prices and availability lately I see.
Monsanto has pulled this all over the third world, and literally there are thousands of third world farmers in debt up to their eye-balls. Monsanto is a disease, and people need to treat them as such. India should pay the farmers to go organic, and reuse their own seeds like they did for centuries. They have lots of billionaires in India now. Those billionaires need to do something besides buy expensive houses in England. They need to help out the poor in their own country.
jungleboy - Yes I have been to the elevator/co-op. You won’t find farmers shoping for seed at the farm supply store. Non-GM varieties are both readily available and cheaper. They are required to be available because non-GM refuges are required. Sounds like you have been doing your research from a StarBucks.
shankari25 - Organic is for the urban rich. The Indian farmers need production by the best and safest methods. They do not have the luxury of waxing philosophically while sipping a latte.
“Organic is for the urban rich.”
Yeah … just like McDonalds and Walmart are for the super poor and chi-chi cafe houses and bloomingdales is for the rich …
What you need to question yourself is why do the poor have such poor choices to begin with ??
Go back to your books and do some reading and then come back and spout your ignorance.
gyptian - The rural poor need help, but hopefully it will not be from you. They have enough difficulty without adding silliness from well-meaning but clueless urbanites.
–”They have enough difficulty without adding silliness from well-meaning but clueless urbanites.”
This is classic drivel from obviously wrong posters who would rather divert the thread into meaningless nonsense than focus on the topic on hand.
gyptian - After your 2:24pm post, arn’t you calling the kettle black?
“Doom n Gloom March 23rd, 2008 11:14 am
… The few live at the top of the pyramid in splendor getting there mostly through dishonest and cutthroat dealings devoid of moral behavior, while the rest exist in various stages of economic servitude and decomposition ultimately leading to slow death through health failure or rapid death by suicide. Why do it?”
WHY? Because they “worship” Mammon?
As for the rest of what’s quoted above of DnG’s words, it’s been well enough, even en masse, ascertained that corporate chiefs [are] psychopaths, and when not quite that bad, then still sociopaths; and it’s very easy to [prove].
Mr Obvious argues that these Indian farmers can get non-GM seeds, however I have read articles in which it’s sufficiently explained why the opposite really turns out to be true. Which articles these were is something I don’t precisely recall, so I can’t presently provide links to those articles that I’ve read; but reading enough of what’s available from independent sources should provide the information, so it’s just a question of doing some Web searches.
What’s happening in India is tragic and very much the fault of the Indian govt dealing with devils; as if the unjust caste system wasn’t already bad enough for the various peoples of the country. Instead of correcting the previously existing injustice system of pointy-headed elitists, the new govt decided to go along with making life ever worse for the poor.
Francis of Assisi’s way of dealing with the devil when he tried to “play” his tricks with Francis was to say, f.e., “Satan, open your mouth so that I can empty my bowels in it!”; and Satan apparently didn’t like this idea, or sort of deal, and vanished.
What the Indian govt should’ve done with imperialist-West corporations is to, say, flip’em the bird and say, ‘NO WAY, Jose!’.
There recently enough was an article posted I believe here at CD and about this corporate GM crap’s impact in Africa, I believe Kenya and another country there, and as one person who [knows] the situation said, while the GM seed crops matured around 2x as fast, meaning more harvests and quicker, as well as increased incomes, those material benefits were very temporary, and the overall negative impact definitely weighed more heavily. In appearance, so at first, the GM seeds seemed to be proving to be a good idea, but soon, very too, [reality] set in and replaced the initial appearances with hard facts proving GM definitely was to be ceased, stopped “dead in its tracks”. So that is the project now, to try to return to the prior, old’fashioned farming ways; and that evidently is not as easy to do as it sounds for farmers who made the tragic mistake of accepting to farm with GM seeds.
It’s awfully similar to the Big Pharma anti-generics “campaign” that imperialist-West Big Pharma. wages against humanity via instruments we call our govts, too. No, it’s not that GM seeds are analogous to meds, certainly not per se anyway; but the goals are definitely the same, and we all know what these are. $$$$$, Mammon.
We can trust one thing about all or most imperialist-West Big Corporations, and it’s that their words can’t be trusted.
They have their promoters and defenders operating freely on the Internet, although perhaps while being paid to do so. They will, f.e., claim that it’s up to anti-GMO activists to prove that GM is not safe, and that’s what? It’s like or analogous to a devil’s attempt to try to trick people onto the path of, f.e., slavery; it’s one way of seeing what our warning alarms should tell us anyway. It’s the corporatist way, and corporatism and fascism are akin, en masse.
Au contraire, [if] Big Corp. can be trusted on its word, then it needs to be trustworthily [proving] that its products and services are indeed safe, and either beneficial, or minimally benign; although safe quite necessarily does imply minimally benign, already. Big Corp. refusing to comply immediately tells us that BC indeed cannot be trusted!
Natural hybridisation is safe, for if Nature permits the non-forced hybridisation, then it means that the genetics naturally are suitably combinable. GMO is NOT natural hybridisation; it’s forced. Put two plants of different species or subspecies, whatever the terminology is, next to each other and if the cross-pollenisation naturally produces a stable hybrid, then voila! You then have a safe hybrid; nice and simply.
That is the SOLE form of hybridisation that I will accept! And it only requires a little patience, which definitely [is] a virtue to promote and wisely live by.
We have absolutely NO need for GMO even if some does turn out to be safe. What we do need is de-corporatisation of our world, to eliminate the corporatist CRAP, corruption. They are NOT persons; they are business entities, point final. Like it or not, that is all they are, and ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ need to have the dominant voice. ‘We the People’ must be ‘The Deciders’!
Else, ‘Satan, open your damn mouth so that I can empty my bowels!’.
Mike - If you have no need for GM then don’t buy it, but don’t condemn the rest of the world for their choice. GM is a choice, just like taking a patented drug. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it.
I wonder how many small farming households could bave been bailed out with the money America used to bail out Bear Sterns or with even a few minutes armistice.
whatfools - I cringe at the thought of bailing out Bear Sterns. They took business risks that turned out to be foolish. Why should their management be rewarded with a bailout? Things get a little more grey when government subsidies of one group create an unfair market for another group. This is why the convoluted system of subsidies is a bad idea.
Mr. Obvious-
Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding from reading some of Vandana Shiva’s articles is that many of India’s farmers were convinced that GM seeds would be better and more profitable, so they bought them. However, the GM seeds were not designed to stand India’s climate. After a few years of failed crops, they were left with fields of GM plants that can’t reproduce because they come from “terminator” seeds. Now in debt, they can’t afford to keep the farm going partly because they have to buy a new crop of seeds (GM or non-GM seeds), because they don’t have any of their old seeds saved.
cheencheen - First, the suicides started before GM seeds were introduced in India. The farmers that use GM seeds are actually making higher profits and the Indian government and public scientists are strongly encouraging their adoption by farmers. In India the highest yields are from hybrid seed, so saved seed (GM or not) will not yield well [just like hydrid corn seed in the developed countries (US, Canada, Brazil etc.)]. Terminator technology was discovered the USDA but was never commercialized anywhere in the world. The problems in India stemmed largely from export restrictions and drought and were most severe for farmers not using hybrid or GM technology. Cheap inbred seed (that can be saved) yields too poorly to produce a profitable crop, thus the massive switch to GM technology in India.
Capitalism does serve the people. It provides constant innovation and brilliant efficiencies brought on by the desire to please the customers. Globalization should be a global manifestation of this freedom. We should be able to place orders for products and services from and to people all over the globe within a fixed framework remembering that we must have a healthy environment and living wages which reflect our growing world communities prosperity.
The problem is, like with anything we humans do, we must constantly fight for freedom and against greed driven crime so often done by the few at the expense of the many. Globalization is a lie just like so many things the fascists come up with, it’s a nice title for something very sinister. It is a title for a program wherein the interests of only super corporations and their government cohorts are considered at the expense of absolutely everyone and every thing else. This is the very essence of fascism.
What I see if we survive this which must be fought for is a truly free world which lives in harmony, where thanks to the internet we all interconnect as friends and trade our crafts and services freely using energy not made by the few but by the many and which does not pollute environment. A world where we share medical technology and end up wiping out disease and suffering on a grand scale. A world where we can really start to enjoy life, all of us. This is not an impossibly utopia but this is the very nature of this wonderful life that God has given us. We are stalled and set into warring and polluting by the wicked few. This has always been the case but we can’t afford to let it go on anymore not only because we will lose this lovely future so bright and full of hope but because we could well lose everything utterly. With the profusion of mass murdering weaponry and horrific misdeeds of this low life scum who want everything for themselves and little for anyone else we could end up destroying the gift of life itself on this planet.
Free market with a strong vital Democracy made stronger by a truly free and unfettered press exceeds any other form of society but we cannot ever fail in our duties as citizens to ensure it remain free and grow ever freer. Free trade and globalization are lies but fair trade which uplifts life, both our environment and the quality of all our lives is wonderful. It turns us from enemies in arms to brothers in each other’s arms. China and India will become great nations when they also stop and turn inward to focus on building up the welfare of their people building up the very thing that made the USA a super economy, it’s middle class. All the power and wealth the few play with in those countries is entirely beholden to unbalanced trade(in terms of current accounts) with super economies whose middle classes are being destroyed like the USA and UK for instance. This is but one of the many products of the lie of globalization. We must keep our middle classes and have a system that plugs in all who wish to trade fully and freely; one that leads to greater wealth for both the few and the many. China and India, all of us really, will never be free unless and until their people too are brought up from the misery of poverty and made free not to work for super corporations but for their own ingenuity and passions.
Global capitalism as we know it must stop. I know very well how impossible this sounds but it has to happen anyway. what is referred to as “unsustainable” Vandana Shive calls much more accurately, “suicidal”. Why this is so is because global capitalism, by its very nature must keep using up more of the planet each year than it did the year before. Since our planet is finite, and already suffering severe illness as a result of what capitalism has done to it, and unless this stops, capital will kill it. Another world is not only possible, it is necessary to save our planet.
meanwhile the maniacally predatory practices of big agreobusines, monsanto, adm, cargill and the rest must be outlawed.
for more info see Vandana Shiva’s Earth Democracy, or vist this website
http://www.navdanya.org/earthdcracy/index.htm
cheencheen, P.S. If you ever want to verify some of the “facts” presented here, google them and look for .edu (education) sites, or papers in scientific journals. These have had some level of review by scientists or academic institutions. Many sites just print opinions as facts. I have seen a lot of verifiably incorrect “facts” presented here. Please look these things up so you are not influenced by propaganda.
Capitalism is like fire. You can cook with it or if you let it, it will cook you.
heh genetically inbred seeds, Monsanto save us from that please,,,
I grow the nicest and far better producing tomatoes etc.. from saved seed.
I planted a few hybrid seeds from commercial providers that , well just don’t stack up in growth or quality.
ALL my saved seed out perform ANY hybrid seed I have used,, my saved seed is acclimatized and they just get stronger and healthier.. no need for the big agro biz genetically modified crap ( off topic.. the jury is still out on the health effects of unnatural man tinkered seeds.. i read history and the evidence is all there to see how the Big companies all claim something is safe..and years later oops..guess we were wrong)
Mr. Obvious(ly), is a firm believer in the ”american way or no way”.. it is a mind set that has been carefully developed and ingrained for generations…
that and i sometimes think he just likes to argue for arguings sake
The day is soon approaching when the water is so full of crap and the soils so poisoned by all those chemicals, I will have to arm myself against the roving bands of starving thirsty people combing the countryside looking for food and water.. i hope i am wrong , but i just can’t see any other result if we ‘’stay the course” (sound familiar?) on agrabiz as it is today
“The same grapes he sells to wholesalers for 30 cents per 2.2 pounds can fetch as high as $2.50 in a Dubai supermarket.”
Well, there’s your problem right there. Who’s raking in the money?
obviouslywrong–”farmers that use GM seeds are actually making higher profits and the Indian government and public scientists are strongly encouraging their adoption by farmers.”
Lets see .. the farmers are making higher profits from GM seeds but inexplicably higher profits cause them to commit suicides. If only this logic applies to Wall Street, the world would truly be a better place.
Since June 2002, Lady de Rothschild has been the Chief Executive of E.L Rothschild LLC, a private investment company that focuses on India. Since 2004, she has also been Co-Chair of FieldFresh Pvt. Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises, established to develop the Indian agricultural sector in India.”
Lynn Rothschild also runs Ronald S. Lauder’s company. Yup! That’s the same Ronald S. Lauder who has intimate ties with Israeli intelligence. Indeed the same Ronald S. Lauder who was behind the 24 July, 2001 WTC Privatization agreement.
India’s farmers would might want to look at http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/ which is a non-profit website about the uses of charcoal in agriculture as a permanent substitute for purchased fertilizers. Of course a commitment to improving their soils is only part of the solution if the market only gives them one-tenth the retail value of thier produce.
The capitalistic marketing concept of debt-forced production will always result in runaway growth of debt and the destruction of productive classes of people. In a very real sense a debt agreement can be a form of slavery and should be considered a worse moral problem than promiscuos sexuality or drug abuse. The farmers should form political co-operatives and go on debt strikes and simply blockade those that make attempts to collect on debts as american farmers did in the Great Depression.
Worldwide debt-capitalism and fiat monetary policies are being revealed for the frauds that they are. There is no penetration of the gordian knots of the american financial system except to understand that elites lent money to each other at very low rates and charged the rest of us much higher rates. Then they imagined complex and devious investment frauds to hide the fact that they were stealing from their shareholders.
Debt is theft. A thief is owed nothing and his paper seizures of real property should be ignored.
It looks like the Indian government needs to make a lot of adjustments if it wants small farms to survive. No farmer should be paying 12% interest on seed and fertilizer loans. 2-3% tops. It sounds like the “middle men” need to be regulated, too. India is really big on “energy independence” with a huge nuclear ebergy development program. They better keep and eye on the “food independence” ball too, and form cooperatives, subsidize these guys or guarantee loans in bad years. They should be able to find something that works.
Sustainability. Somebody better figure out a formula for it.
Economic elites are people who attempt, through propaganda, to convince you to act against your own best interests. Their financial hegemony is crumbling so control of food and water is their new paradigm of wealth and control. Never ever surrender your organic seeds and never go into debt. Maintain your own water supply and learn to use it sparingly but successfully. Buy used, buy local, and make due wherever possible. Utilize voluntary inter-dependence through community cooperatives and grassroots democracy. Live as independently as you possibly can and keep your money in local community banks with a percentage in precious metals. Live life cooperatively and respect all life. Decentralization as a concept is the key to successful modern living. Centralization results in elitism and is an old 20th Century model. Learn how to build and develop decentralized and inter-dependent lifeways. Say no to corporate centralized planners. Profit maximization is unnecessary and harmful to the sustainability of our lifeways. Learn to distinguish between a hustle and need and always provide what you can for those in need. Learn to fight the corporate goon squads, Blackwater etc., who will be sent to disrupt your communities. Power and greed are the twin evils of this nation and they will not fall without a fight. Be ready when they come.
johnycanuck - My wife and I raise fresh-market tomatoes commercially and have tried most heirlooms and hybrids (and continue to experiment every year). The heirlooms taste great but yield is terrible, and disease resistance pittiful. I am glad they work for you in your backyard. We have selected a couple great-tasting hybrids that yield reasonably well and our sales are through the roof. Seed is a minor cost for us. At the farmers markets, we outcompete the organic growers many times over. We also make enough money on our high-intensity production to finance the conversion of 90% of our farm back to natural habitat. This is the advatage of high-intensity agriculture - a smaller footprint.
gyptian - Where do you get the information from that GM-farmers in India are at greater risk of suicide. The statistics that I have seen say exactly the opposite. Gm farmers in India make the highest profit (not net but profit). It is those that cannot access technology that are experiencing hopelessness.
Sadness and despair are on the rise everywhere in the world, and this cannot be a good omen for the whole of mankind. Idiots in charge of big corps and govts think they can indefinitely reap profits while others suffer. That is perhaps an illusion of the most insidious kind.
In the US, for many decades now, farmers of major crops have been subsidized by the taxpayers, both annually and in the event of weather-related problems. This has been a wonderful thing for America’s farmers. Because there has been virtually no cap on these subsidies, the profitability has been such that bigger farmers quite naturally outbid smaller farmers for land. We have far fewer farmers, and more with good business sense. In India, my wild guess is that their multitude of small farmers receive very little government support (or none). I believe also that farmers in general get ‘hooked’ on their profession and if they get in trouble financially, they too easily assume debt and the hope of good harvests and prices. Of course hope is a poor business plan and many suffer. In the case of India, I believe the people are far better off with the best seed, fertilizer, and education that they can get. Starvation and malnutrion are much less than before. Without a little government help now and then, some farmers will always lose.
The final straw, from the article above, is indebtedness. From above: market saturation, successful green revolution, regional draughts, maximized profits for suppliers, financiers, and middle-men.
There is no doubt that U.S. agriculture is efficient, but can it survive without government subsidies? Will India’s?
There was an article from the AP that appeared in my local paper last fall concerning the unexpected glut of corn (here in the midwest)from last summer’s harvest, and the consequent depressed price. Many midwestern farmers were counting on the increased demand for ethanol and switched some production to corn. The actual demand was not immediately there and many were going to try to store until the price rose. The price (at the time of the article) didn’t cover the production cost. Thought it was interesting that article was only reportage I saw on that, and I didn’t try to follow up.
Hetware: re: Rothschilds. Interesting links. Thanks for providing them. I read somewhere (can’t remember where now) that Koffie Annan - former head of the UN - has recently married into the Rothschild family. Do you know if that’s true? (As if we needed any more evidence of the corruption and ineffectiveness of the UN.)
This family’s tentacles are really vast. And yet, why have so few heard about them - or, if they have, why don’t they care?
TRUORANGE
take a look at alex jones’ ‘end game’. you might be further enlightened.
Globalization was designed to benefit the “few” - not the “many”.
Democracy: Of, by and for the people.
Globalization: Of by and for the corporate elite and their whores.
Early in this discussion, Ronald White referred to Cuba’s successful survival of ‘peak oil’. I just returned from a 3 week visit there, and because I live on a similar island, I was very interested in how they managed it.
They are now growing more then 30% of their food crops and meats/proteins. The cities are compact and crowded, with more foot traffic and bicycles than cars. Right outside of town the farms start, and the locals brag about the ‘Organicos’ which provide most of the fruits and vegetables. They also provide jobs and an income to local Cubans.
The ‘Green Revolution’ is not perfect. Chavez provides enough oil that they are not focussed on solar and wind power, rather they are upgrading to high efficiency generators, which is a mistake, imo.
Most of the people I met [I was traveling outside the usual tourist areas] were eager to talk politics when they discovered I’m from the US. The consensus seemed to be that Bush is “loco”.
They are very interested in what will happen when we have a new President: Would the Boycott be lifted? I had to tell them I am not optimistic…
I was there when Fidel retired, and it seemed to be ‘business as usual’ No one seemed too excited or surprised.
I traveled to China for a month in 2006. I prefer Cuba. It’s cleaner, and has a very real sense of community and mutual dependence. The cops don’t carry guns. Neither did the few soldiers I saw. I didn’t see any homeless or public drunkenness - and there really is music everywhere. The biggest difference was the level playing field: Most people seemed to be economically on a par with everyone else. Even in Havana, You don’t see the limos, etc. that fill the streets of NYC - and Havana is every bit as cosmopolitan.
Oh, another misconception harbored by Americans, is that Cuba is isolated because of the boycott. Only from us, is the truth. I met people from almost every Latin American Country, Sweden, Greece, England, and Ireland, and Finland, and many Canadians.
Viva La Cuba!
xntrk - You don’t need to travel to Cuba to find that concensus on Bush.
P.S. Republicans are coming out in droves to vote for Clinton in the primary so that McCain can win.