Vol. 2 No.

1 January, 2011

KISAN KI AWAAZ
National Magazine of Farmers’ Voice
Editor :

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary,

President, CONTENTS
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj,
F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, Working Group Report on Agriculture Production Submit 2
Delhi-110091

Advisory Board : Food mismanagement - between storage and supply 5

* Prof. J. George
S. P. Gulati, Sect. G.O.I., Retd.
Lingraj B. Patil
Prof. Sanjay Jadhav Climate Change -Some Facts Most Ignored 9
Dr. R.B. Thakare * Professor Arun Deep Ahluwalia
D. Guruswamy, Adv.
Rajesh Sharma “Bittoo”
Pratap Singh, DIG Retd. Hike Food Prices To Boost GM Crop Approval 10
Hatam Singh Nagar, Adv. * Rady Ananda
K. Sareen
Ajay Singh
egaxkbZ Mk;u [kk, tkr gS 13
Desiged by : Rahul Sharma * jes'k HkV~V
Aastha Chaudhary
“The Role of peoples Diplomacy in Strengthening 16
Printed & Published by : Ekgk & Hkkjr 18

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary on behalf of In Defence of the Commons : Dr. Binayak Sen's 19
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj.
* Dr. Vandana Shiva
Printed at Everest Press, E-49/8, Okhla
Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-20. Viruses and Virus Nucleic Acid 22
Published at : * Prof. Joe Cummins

F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, Delhi-110091 Wikileaks cable reveals U.S. conspired to retaliate 25
Mob.:9810331366, Telefax:011-22751281,
E-mail:kbchaudhary1951@gmail.com, * Mike Adams
bharatiyakrishaksamaj@gmail.com
Website:- www.kisankiawaaz.org Malaysia's GM Aedes mosquito planned release: 28

Pesticides lobby’s coup 32

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January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz 1

 Working Group on Agriculture Production Submits Report to
Prime Minister: Calls for Cheaper Farm Loans and Higher MSP
T he Working Group on Agriculture
Production (WGAP) has called for
farm loans at not more than 4% per
annum interest and MSP to be fixed at 50% higher
price over the actual cost of cultivation. The Group
submitted its report to the Prime Minister here today.
The Group headed by Haryana Chief Minister
Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda was constituted by the
Core Group of Central Ministers and State Chief
Ministers on Prices of Essential Commodities (Core
Group) in its meeting held on April 8, 2010 under the
Chairmanship of the Prime Minister. The other
members of the Group are Chief Ministers of Bihar,
Punjab and West Bengal.
The Working Group has made more than 150
specific recommendations. These recommendations
organised in 9 themes will be discussed in the Second
th
Meeting of the Core Group being convened on 28
December, 2010.
Significant recommendations of the Working
Group are summarised below (some
recommendations have already been implemented
during the course of the current year):
 Bridge the horizontal and vertical gaps in
yield by ascertaining these through specific studies
and address them through appropriate interventions
like timely sowing, balanced use of fertilizers and soil
ameliorants, improving water use efficiency etc.
 Expansion of area under boro (winter) rice
by increasing cropping intensity especially in the
states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West
Bengal. (Extending Green Revolution to Eastern
India programme launched to address this)
 Assam should also be included in the
Extending Green Revolution to Eastern India
programme. (Included)
2 Kisan Ki Awaaz
 As electric power is unlikely to be available to
the extent required, it is necessary to assist farmers
partly in meeting higher cost of diesel pumping sets
for lifting water in eastern states. A scheme on the
lines of Diesel Subsidy Scheme of Bihar should be
launched in other States also.
 Undertake an ambitious time bound
programme of ground water use through bore-
wells, shallow wells and lift irrigation schemes in
eastern India.
 Additional investments are required to
maintain canals and to fund research on
conjunctive use of brackish water with canal
water.
 Develop and upscale integrated farming
systems including crops, horticulture, livestock etc. to
generate both on-farm and off-farm employment for
small and marginal farmers.
 Include short duration summer mung-bean
varieties under zero tillage in areas under irrigated
cereal production systems of the country, and
Reintroduce pulses in sugarcane
productionsystems areas. In eastern India, relay
cropping of zero till planting of winter legumes
(lentil, chickpea etc) should be focussed in 'rice-
fallows'.
 Promote production of hybrid seed
aggressively and provide incentives to Private
Sector.
 Improve seed replacement rate of oilseed
crops. Popularise Cyto-plasmic Male Sterility (CPM)
based hybrids as they promise substantial productivity
enhancement. Superior sunflower hybrids should be
developed and promoted in northern India. In castor,
special focus is required for the development of
hybrids and varieties resistant to abiotic stresses such
as drought and salinity.
January - 2011
 State Seed Corporations should either be
reformed/re-organized to make them vibrant
organisations or should be closed to allow
development of alternative mechanisms.
 Fertiliser companies should produce right
kind of mixtures of nutrients to suit the specific
requirements of soils in all agro-climatic zones.
Target to bring at least 10% area under bio-
fertiliserapplication. Encourage use of liquid
fertilisers.
 There is need to create appropriate
pesticide/ bio-pesticide quality control set up and to
provide deterrent punishment for the sale of spurious
pesticides.
 New irrigation technologies like furrow
irrigation, mulching, drip and sprinkler irrigation etc.
need to be promoted as a national priority. Micro
irrigation systems (i.e. drip and sprinkler) must be
promoted as a matter of priority in both canal
command and rainfed areas. In situ water
conservation is the best solution for stability and
sustainability of agriculture, and improving yields of
crops in the rainfed areas.
 Institutional development across States is a
priority area for equitable flow of credit. Credit
should be made available at not more than 4% per
annum rate of interest.
 Farm mechanisation is not only necessary for
increasing productivity, but has become essential in
view of emerging labour shortage and needs
considerable support from Government.
ATechnology Mission on Farm Mechanisation
should be started.
 Encourage establishment of agri-business
centres by Self Help Groups to purchase, maintain
and provide farm machinery to farmers under custom
hiring.
 All types of tools, implements, machinery
and equipment should be allowed to be freely
imported without any import duty.
 States may consider taking up segregation of
feeders for dedicated availability of power to
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
agriculture sector and making power available in un-
served areas especially in eastern India.
 Much needed emphasis to encourage use of
solar, biomass and wind power in agriculture is
required. It will be highly desirable to initiate a
National programme on Harnessing Bio-energy in
Agriculture.
 A time bound programme to fill up existing
vacancies in all KVKs and Extension Directorates
should be prepared and implemented.
 Train and Develop Technology Agents
through vocational training at State Agricultural
Universities for establishment of Agri-Clinics.
 It is necessary to bring in private sector
investments for developing marketing
infrastructure to give better choices to farmers and
for developing more efficient supply chain for better
handling of agriculture produce.
 System of Spot Electronic Trading, one of
the biggest institutional reforms in agriculture
marketing system, needs to be institutionalised.
 Funds available under the Scheme 'Gramin
Bhandaran Yojana' should be fully utilised to create
a network of rural godowns in the country.
 Methodology of calculating costs of
cultivation of Commission for Agriculture Cost and
Prices (CACP) must be reviewed in the context of
need to provide economic and remunerative prices to
the farmers. The Working Group supports
acceptance of the National Commission on Farmers'
report suggesting 50% higher price over the actual
cost of cultivation or adoption of Bureau of Industrial
Cost and Prices (BICP) formula used for estimating
industrial costs.
 Minimum Support Price (MSP) for vegetables,
especially Potato, Onion and Garlic, should also be
fixed by GOI.
 Market for agricultural produce must be
immediately freed of all sorts of restrictions on
movement, trading, stocking, finance, exports etc.
No monopoly, including that of APMCs or
3
corporate licensees, should be allowed.
 Agriculture land ceiling for corporates
could be fixed at 25 times the ceiling for individual
farmers.
 Proper policy should be put in place for land
lease and contract farming. Guidelines need to be
chalked out for contract farming/leasing, to ensure
that the rights of both land owner and tenant are
safeguarded.
 Indian companies can be encouraged to
buy lands in foreign countries for producing pulses
and oilseeds under long term supply contracts to
Indian canalising agencies.
 A consolidation exercise should be taken up
by the Planning Commission to convert existing
CSSs into a few focussed schemes.
 From the Twelfth Plan, it will be advisable to
extend the NFSM to cover all the districts of wheat
producing States. Crops such as maize and coarse
cereals (sorghum and bajra) should be included in
NFSM.
 Entire statistical system needs to be
revamped to cover all crops and to increase accuracy
of data collection and elimination of higher or lower
bias.
 A national system of collecting and
monitoring identified weather parameters should
be developed and put in place using RKVY and other
funds. Market information along with daily
weather conditions should be provided to the
farmers using modern ICT tools and techniques
(SMS, Panchayat e-services, FM radio, AIR, TV etc.).
 The States may consider setting up separate
Universities of Veterinary and Animal Sciences.
Union Government should also set up a Livestock
Mission.
 Efforts to promote use of plastics in
agricultural operations should be encouraged.
 A coordination mechanism for Ministries of
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Public
4 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Distribution, Irrigation, Fertilisers and Power in the
Central/State Government is urgently needed. A
Scientific Advisory Council on Agriculture should
be created under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister.
 States may consider bringing all agriculture
and allied sector related production programmes
under the Agriculture Production Commissioner,
for coordinating with other allied departments.
 A comprehensive policy for insurance
coverage of all important food crops and live stock
needs to be put in place on priority and the same
should be implemented with additional funding
support from the Centre, with village as a unit instead
of the Block.
 Norms of Calamity Relief Fund (CRF)
should be revised and the compensation for the loss
of crops due to natural calamities like
flood/drought/frost should be enhanced to at least Rs.
25,000 per hectare.
 A massive effort for building modern silos to
arrest post harvest losses of foodgrains is needed at the
national level through both public and private sector
interventions as a national priority.
 In addition to use of location-specific
technology, suitable policy initiatives in terms of
insurance, preferential credit, strengthening
infrastructure and extension services are also needed
for climate proofing rainfed agriculture.
 A Second Green Revolution focusing on the
Rainfed areas is possible only through a
technological breakthrough in the use of bio-
technology to strengthen conventional breeding
methodology by evolving plant varieties resistant to
pest and diseases, tolerant to adverse weather
conditions, better nutritional value and enhanced
durability of product.
 A National Mission for Development of
Rainfed Agriculture should be established with
defined outcomes and convergence with line
Ministries/ Departments and State Governments.
MP:SB:CP: working group (15.12.2010)
January - 2011
Food mismanagement - between storage and supply
* Prof. J. George
I t is time to set a course for market to foster
expectations of the 'common man' in place of
extracting and squeezing every bit of intangible
asset in matters concerning food security. During the
seven-eight weeks after writing my thoughts
(published alongside), issues of food security
legislation have been further pushed back into fiscal
2011-12. In no uncertain terms the detractors of the
bill have been leveraging on the proposed changed
name from National Food Security Bill to National
Food Entitlements Bill 2010. Besides, the proposed
setting up of autonomous National Food Commission
and State Food Commission to oversee/monitor
implementation, enforcement and grievance redressal
is not only short circuiting enabling provisions but
makes a travesty of the constitutional mandate on sub-
national governance as well as directive principles.
This has happened despite the 23 October 2010
National Advisory Council (NAC) recommendations.
These are being vetted by an expert task force headed
by the Chairman of the PMs Economic Advisory
Council (EAC) since our revered Prime Minister
would like them to carry out a 'due diligence'
ostensibly on prudent fiscal (subsidy) discipline.
A much better food entitlement legislation would
have come about if we had concentrated on the
decision making protocol on grain storage and supply
(GSS) schedules that is mismanaged by the
entitlement driven managers supported by the public
exchequer. The current so-called burgeoning food
subsidy needs to be looked at in a much more
disaggregated and fragmentary manner to understand
the real import of entitlement and efficiency in the
system.
In sum these dilatory and circular motions are prime
examples of impediment tactics. This also gives out a
strong signal that the space and proclivities for candid
discussions and actions as demonstrated with the
employment guarantee scheme have drastically
shrunk to concentrate on the five wise sentient beings
constituting any expert committee.
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
NDA Legacy
The current food imbroglio is a NDA legacy. This
must be underscored to work out a sustainable
solution. The dichotomy between BPL-APL during
the Ninth Plan (1997-2002); devising targeted public
distribution system (TPDS) without any appropriate
operating protocol; nullifying the most crucial section
3 of the Essential Commodities Act 1955 during the
Tenth Plan (2002-07) and fortifying market extracting
power through a Model Act: Agricultural Produce
Marketing (Development & Regulation) Act 2003 in
place of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee
(APMC) Act are three significantly damaging
bequests being cherished and nurtured by UPA under
the national food security bill rubric. For illustration,
the foundation laid to completely overhaul the
Warehousing Corporation Act 1962 was successfully
concluded in the form of the Warehousing
(Development & Regulation) Act 2007 during
September 2007.
The damaging consequences of ECA's section 3 were
felt in the wheat import saga in the Tenth Plan period.
UPA cannot and should not forget the September 2006
Nainital conclave in these circumstances. We must
painfully highlight that NDA refrain of reforms in
agriculture sector had been “control over agricultural
markets by the State has to be eased to facilitate
greater participation of the private sector, particularly
to engender massive investments required for the
development of marketing infrastructure and
supporting services.”
Unfortunately in this sordid food insecurity drama the
adjudicative, price stabilising properties and
addressing structural deficiencies using ECA
(specifically sub-clause (v) and (xi) of clause (a)
section 2, and generally section 3) have been either
forgotten or nullified by various executive orders. The
PDS control order 2001, for instance, is a rehash of the
old regime of universal PDS with a tighter control on
release of allocated food grains. Interestingly no
operating protocol has been designed ab initio to
5
uphold TPDS. Hence it is no surprise that the High
Level Committee (HLC) on long term grain policy in
2001 pointing towards the high proportion of old
grain stocks in the possession of the central pool
management strongly recommended corrective
measures to retire these stocks. The Supreme Court in
their recent hearings has not been able to address this
critical question of mismanagement. The judgmental
significance comes about since some estimates in
2000 reported that about half the FCI stocks were at
least 2 years old, 30 per cent were 2-3 years old.
The central vigilance committee on public
distribution system, as a consequence, was
constituted by the Supreme Court in 2006. Therefore
it was grossly unfair on the part of our PM to overlook
this legacy and contemporary history of food
management.
Cavil over BPL
A few significant developments are worth noting and
reflecting since it is now certain that food insecurity
will surge primarily due to mismanagement of the
comfortable staple food stock. The first is the strategic
pressure being applied by the Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Finance that appears to endorse the
state's number of BPL families at 11.5 crores as
opposed to the Plan panel's 6.52 crores and 8.34 crores
recommended by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee.
The quibble over number of poor will in all
probability escalate to the delight of number
crunchers 'livelihood security' in the Planning
Commission, the Agriculture, the Food and the
Finance ministry.
6 Kisan Ki Awaaz
The factual position to be noted here is that these
numbers explicitly exclude those poor people in the
(APL) above poverty line that have felt food insecure
due to the persistent headline food inflation in the
double digits. Neither NAC nor the Prime Minister or
EGOM seems to recall their promise on this score
made in February 2010 and constitution of a
committee that included chief ministers of the states
as well.
However, a simple number crunching done in the
Table below show that various BPL estimates based
on two proximate assumptions about the average
family size (5 & 6) indicate futility of number
crunching specifically on BPL.
The supplemental food requirement exclusively for
BPL range from 13.7 million tonnes (current Plan
panel scenario indicated as the underlined second
column) to 24.2 million tonnes (States number
scenario). The Tendulkar BPL estimates yield 17.54
million tonnes food requirement as the middle path. It
needs to be noted here that in addition to (TPDS-
accounting for about 90 per cent of staple food offtake
from the central pool) the current food supply
schedule also constitute food distribution on account
of nine welfare schemes (about 8 per cent of offtake)
such as mid-day meal scheme, wheat based nutrition
programme, emergency food programme to tackle
incidence of extreme hunger in KBK belt of Orissa
like places, allocation to hostels/welfare institutions,
etc. The remaining per cent of the offtake from the
central pool is on account of the open market scheme.
The obduracy of the food ministry despite the
January - 2011
Supreme Court intervention can be clearly
understood from the above. Hence the question arises:
why could not the offtake be substantially augmented
under these nine “Welfare schemes”? Three critical
points (allocation norms, faulty parliamentary
oversight encouraging fiscal dishonesty and
obsession with misunderstood market principles) in
this respect hold the key to plausible explanations.
Firstly, the allocation norms to consuming points
from the central pool in addition to the frequency of
updating these norms. In the Targeted Public
Distribution System (TPDS) an effort was also made
to target benefits to the poor. However, the principle
of allocating subsidised grain across States on the
basis of their poverty ratios has led to imbalances
between the resulting allocations and what is
necessary to meet the difference between cereals
production and requirement. Also, the stabilising role
played by the universal PDS has weakened.
As to a welfare sensitive state these are routine
matters particularly governed by the Constitution of
India Articles 301-306; Article 19(5) as well as Article
19(6) (ii) in particular. Perhaps these were ignored or
swept under the carpet because of the overbearing
'dirty dozen' recommendations by the consulting firm
McKinsey.
Parliamentary Fiasco
Secondly, the Parliamentary committees have been
using the food security legislation as crutches and
fronts to procrastinate as well as divert issues to other
areas of contention. Indeed a sad commentary for the
democracy.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food,
Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, for
instance, is building up pressure in a calculated
manner by extolling the empowered group of
ministers to introduce the food security bill in the next
session of the Parliament. Such actions by the
Standing Committee unfortunately undermine and
clash with the “mucky dozen” indictments of the food
mismanagement made in August 2010 to the Fifteenth
Lok Sabha. The committee handling rural
infrastructure does not have grassroots production
landscape on their monitors except the rural
telephony. One does not have to ask why since the 3M
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
dictum- money makes the mare go- aptly sums up the
operatining principle.
These unpleasant incidents need critical appraisal
from three perspectives at least if not more. These are
quantum of grain entitlement, extent of coverage, cost
burden on consumers as well as on the public
exchequer and delivery mechanism. NAC
recommendation of monthly 35 kgs (equivalent to 7
kgs per person), for instance, is only supplemental to
the recommended total dietary allowances. Certainly
the assumption here is that these segments of the
consumer will have sufficient money income derived
from their economic activities that ensure livelihood
security. The validity of such valiant assumptions
surely are to be contested and must be subjected to
dispassionate examination. The food security
discussions have taken place against the backdrop of
hunger and malnutrition at the one end of the spectrum
and obesity and lifestyle related health ailments at the
other.
The unfolding events since 27th October 2010 do
suggest that a distinct slant away from hunger and
malnutrition is being encouraged by a design inimical
to ensuring food security. The latest design of
requesting PMEAC chairman Rangarajan headed
expert group/committee to examine NAC
recommendation is at best dilatory and certainly ill
advised. What was the trigger for appointing 'expert
group/committee? The terms of reference for this
committee is not clearly spelt out but the composition
of the group does provide a cue. For instance, the
Census Registrar-General, two-three economists and
two bureaucrats does not inspire any confidence
whatsoever. This strategy was adopted during UPA's
term 1 when procurement price recommendations
made by the agricultural price commission were
referred to PMEAC for examination. The sum total
thus appears to be of a further escalation in food
insecurity.
The stylized fact indicate that we have rotting food
grains due to absence of adequate storage facilities
and the public distribution system is mismanaged. The
affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court by the Food
ministry indicate the bullying tactics of certain state
governments and gross disrespect for constitutional
direction of social justice along with economic
growth.
7
Whereas the outcome of the expert group is in the
realm of distinct probability of undercutting NAC
recommendation, there are certain immediate action-
points that our sensitive government need to take
without fail.
Market Extraction vs Fostering
The High Level Committee for Long Term Foodgrain
Policy (2001) clearly said that “TPDS penalised
States with relatively low incidence of income
poverty but relatively high incidence of calorie
deficiency. At the same time, it did not reach the poor
in States where the PDS was weak prior to its
introduction. We feel that it is essential to go back to
the universal PDS, which involves one Central Issue
Price for each item that is sought to be procured and
distributed.” Against this backdrop
In the discussion, we must also reckon with the stark
ground realities revealed by the National Sample
Survey Organisation (NSSO) report in 2007. The data
from the 61st Round (2004-05) of their survey was
carried out to know ground realities about the TPDS
and household consumption pattern. This report
indicate, in no uncertain empirical terms, that market
extraction principles being followed as TPDS
operating protocol has brought in unbearably high
incidence of exclusion of deprived households.
Moreover, the contemporary commentaries (finance
ministry's discussion paper, for instance) and all
multimedia expert analyses have unmistakably built
their arguments on the market extraction principle.
For example, running down the buffer stock concept,
minimum support price paid to the producers, virtues
of fiscal prudence, value addition to primary product
through processing, etc., are merely a brief and simple
list of subject and language of discourse.
Consequently, the gap between India and Bharat has
widened.
The PDS must adopt the market fostering role as
mandated by its founding charter, namely, appropriate
dual pricing and market stabilisation. Here we must
understand that staple foodgrain stock perform three
functions, namely, use value as diet and raw material;
store value due to creation of time as well as space
utilities since it can be consumed over a period of time
and bridge the gap between surplus and deficit areas
8 Kisan Ki Awaaz
in the process; and precautionary or reserve stock for
unforeseen natural disasters and designed greed of
speculative price discoverers.
Three-some Strategy
A three pronged strategy to address these three most
dominant weaknesses of TPDS must be the bedrock of
any fostering market turn around package. These are
creating scientific storage infrastructure,
smoothening the supply schedule originating at the
central pool and reigning in the speculative market
players. The common thread amongst all three is the
concentration of power a la 'welfare fascism'. Changes
in food consumption over time have been also brought
about changes in production.
The arbitrages between these two changes have
neither been shared with consumers nor producers.
This malady must be corrected by the fostering
market. This requires sync between the economic
growth rate and public distribution system. Market
failures are short run phenomenon and must not deter
attempts to design any long term sustainable public
distribution system in conformity with the
constitutional directive of economic growth with
social justice.
Scientific covered storage facilities, following IS
code 607: 1971, must be created under the ownership
of the Panchayati Raj Institutions to encourage
effective wholesome capital formation and diffusion
of market arbitrage. A leverage to accelerate this must
be provided under the flagship rural infrastructure ─
'Bharat Nirman' template necessarily by replacing the
rural telephony window. This decentralised storage
facilities must be nurtured into reaping benefits by the
rural producers and all consumers of the market for
foodgrain.
Two international initiatives must be referred to for
deriving lessons in our efforts at attaining a market
fostering environment. These are UN Special
Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter's
clarion call to focus on the vulnerable rural (+urban-
emphasis added) communities and smallholder
farmers and the Brazilian experience of supporting
decentralised food production and access through
local public procurement.
January - 2011
 CLIMATE CHANGE & ENVIRONMENTAL
POLLUTION - SOME FACTS MOST IGNORED!
* Professor Arun Deep Ahluwalia
G lobal warming though falsely attributed in an
exaggerated manner entirely to man is in fact
largely natural. All the hype and projections
about it makes most geologists wonder if the climate
change has been hijacked from scientists by
politicians and some pliable scientists in IPCC have
been been bending backwards to conform to the
politicians and gain grants and favours from UNO and
various governments.
Earth has witnessed prolonged ice ages with much
longer spells of global warming since the first ice age
which was a snow ball event around 2300 million
years. Only issue can be if man during last 50 years of
fast industrialization has accelerated the natural
process of global warming.
Last word on this question as a simplistic cause and
effect relation cannot be said with any certainty. The
sun-earth system and atmosphere ocean system is too
complex to make such generalizations. Our biosphere
may have huge capacity to absorb the carbon dioxide
generated.
I was amazed to learn during a teleconference with
Copenhagen meet from Constitution Club in Delhi
that climate was a political issue in the meeting. It is
indeed a pity that in their haste to fleece the poor
nations the Al Gores and the Obamas are twisting
climate science to suit their political and economic
agendas.
It was nice to see for a change a TV channel ask a
question if we were once again heading towards a
mini ice age like of which has happened twice even
during last 18000 years of global warming after the
last major ice age which had lasted around 2.4 million
years and was preceded by a massive period of global
warming during the age of dinosaurs followed by
flourishing mammals. Sea levels which were about
120 metres lower than today around 18000 years ago,
are even today extremely low compared to geological
past.
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Let us restore our balance and sense of proportion in
matters of global warming and environmental
pollution. Over 1000 eminent scientists across the
world are debating if we are entering a mini ice age
and if global warming is waning.
At times one suspects that the huge money involved in
all other pollutions of soil,water,air and consequently
our food chain, mother's breast feed and even an
infant's blood, makes powers that be and their brokers
all around create a crooked hype around global
warming and divert attention from real man made
pollution of the environment which doubtless is their
dirty gift to mankind.
Indeed we need to promote walking,cycling, better
public transport and safety of pedestrians and cyclists
but look around if anyone of these dogooders is
bothered about it? None at all! They travel in chartered
flights to preach car pooling! If there was Nobel Prize
for hypocrisy there would be tough competition for it.
If anything they are all in a mad race to promote more
cars, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, GM Foods and
discourage organic farming systematically. We do
plant trees but never care to look back at the saplings
after the ritual.
Life of the poor nations and their four billion
populations is very hard, it is not a ritual but a battle to
survive in this climate of politics and inspite of the
politics and climate!
It is time to call the bluff of the politicians turned
pseudo climatologists/ environmentalists and recreate
the respect for water, soil, air in the spirit of our Gurus
& Vedas and Guru Nanak Dev and Mahatma Gandhi
and see the TRUTH of climate change as well as
environmental pollution. If we fail to see and speak
the truth, coming generations not yet born will ask us
all why were we so gullible and unwise!
Arundeep.ahluwalia@environmentplanetearth.com
9
 Hike Food Prices To Boost GM Crop Approval
In Europe: Leaked Cable
* Rady Ananda
15 December, 2010 - In a January 2008 meeting, US
and Spain trade officials strategized how to increase
acceptance of genetically modified foods in Europe,
including inflating food prices on the commodities
market, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable
released by WikiLeaks.
During the meeting, Secretary of State for
International Trade, Pedro Mejia, and Secretary
General Alfredo Bonet “noted that commodity price
hikes might spur greater liberalization on biotech
imports .”
It seems Wall Street traders got the word. By June
2008, food prices had spiked so severely that “ The
Economist announced that the real price of food had
reached its highest level since 1845, the year the
magazine first calculated the number,” reports Fred
Kaufman in The Food Bubble: How Wall Street
starved millions and got away with it .
The unprecedented high in food prices in 2008 caused
an additional 250 million people to go hungry,
pushing the global number to over a billion. 2008 is
also the first year “since such statistics have been kept,
that the proportion of the world's population without
enough to eat ratcheted upward,” said Kaufman.
All to boost acceptance of GM foods, and done via a
trading scheme on which Wall Street speculators
profited enormously. Mass food riots in several
nations ensued, as did an investigation by the U.S.
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs, resulting in a finding that,
yes, unrestricted speculation in food commodities
caused soaring prices.
In a comment at the end of the cable, the diplomat also
revealed a level of pessimism about Spain's
willingness to help force GM foods on Europe:
“This was a very good substantive discussion.
However, it is clear that while Spain will continue
sometimes to vote in favor of biotechnology
10 Kisan Ki Awaaz
liberalization proposals, the Spaniards will tread
warily on this issue given their own domestic
sensitivities and other equities Spain has in the EU.”
That pessimism was largely unfounded, as “Spain
planted 80 percent of all the Bt maize in the EU in
2009 and maintained its record adoption rate of 22
percent from the previous year,” noted a report by the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-
biotech Applications (ISAAA).
The leaked cables , amounting to over 1,300 right
now, reveal US obsession with expanding the biotech
market:
 One leaked cable confirms US concern with
promoting GM foods in Africa, which Richard
Brenneman described as “a significant item on the
State Department's agenda.”
 In another leaked cable describing the
potential to expand US interests in “isolationist”
Austria, that nation's ban on GM foods is highlighted.
 According to a leaked cable from 2007 , of
concern was French President Sarkozy's desire to
implement a ban on GM foods in line with populist
sentiment. According to GM Free Regions , France
maintains its opposition to GM foods today.
 In this leaked cable , the Pope openly blamed
global hunger on commodity speculation and corrupt
public officials, so far refusing to support the use of
GM foods. (Also see my Dec. 12 piece, “ Leaked
cables confirm Pope's distance from GMO debate and
limited stance on bioethics .”
More may be revealed in the remaining cables.
Profiteering Leaves World open to Future Price
Manipulation Food commodity speculation was
enabled in 2000 by the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act. Deregulation handyman Senator
Phil Gramm (R-TX) introduced the bill, coauthored
January - 2011
by financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), the chairman of the
Agriculture Committee.
Mother Jones describes the legislative climate when
the bill passed: “As part of a decades-long anti-
regulatory crusade, Gramm pulled a sly legislative
maneuver that greased the way to the multibillion-
dollar subprime meltdown….
“Gramm's most cunning coup on behalf of his friends
in the financial services industryfriends who gave him
millions over his 24-year congressional careercame
on December 15, 2000. It was an especially tense time
in Washington. Only two days earlier, the Supreme
Court had issued its decision on Bush v. Gore .
President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled
Congress were locked in a budget showdown. It was
the perfect moment for a wily senator to game the
system. As Congress and the White House were
hurriedly hammering out a $384-billion omnibus
spending bill, Gramm slipped in a 262-page measure
called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act.”
Not only did that Act enable the subprime meltdown
that crashed the economy and put tens of millions into
foreclosure, it also enabled Wall Street investors to
artificially spike the price of food.
“Bankers had taken control of the world's food,
money chased money, and a billion people went
hungry,” Kaufman clarified.
After a year long investigation, he confirmed that
price hikes in food from 2005 thru the peak in June
2008 had nothing to do with the supply chain, but
instead occurred as a result of a Wall Street investment
scheme known as Commodity Investment Funds.
The first to develop the idea was Goldman Sachs,
which took 18 different food sources, including cattle,
coffee, cocoa, corn, hogs and wheat, and created an
investment package. Kaufman explains:
“They weighted the investment value of each
element, blended and commingled the parts into
sums, then reduced what had been a complicated
collection of real things into a mathematical formula
that could be expressed as a single manifestation, to be
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
known thenceforward as the Goldman Sachs
Commodity Index. Then they began to offer shares.”
(Kaufman summarizes his report in this June 2010
interview by Thom Hartmann , and in this July
Democracy Now interview.)
Kaufman points out that also in 2008, ConAgra Foods
was able to sell its trading arm to a hedge fund for $2.8
billion. The world's largest grain trader and GMO
giant, Cargill, recorded an 86% jump in annual profits
in the first quarter of 2008, attributed to commodity
trading and an expanding biofuels market. The Star
Tribune calculated that Cargill earned $471,611 an
hour that quarter.
The investment bubble burst in June 2008 and
“aggregate commodity prices fell about 60% by mid-
November 2008,” notes Steve Suppan of the Institute
for Agricultural and Trade Policy .
Though the US House of Representatives introduced a
regulatory bill, “ legislative loopholes will exempt at
least 40-45%” of such trades . Supporting the
loopholes is Cargill, among other multinational
corporations. Suppan concludes:
“The outlook for a sustainable and transparent
financial system to underwrite trade dependent food
security is not good…
[The budget for the just launched congressional
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, scheduled to
report December 15, [2010] is just $8 million. The
Wall Street lobbying budget for defeating financial
reform legislation is thus far $344 million…”
The final bill was signed into law in July 2010
(summarized by the New York Times ), and the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission continues
to issue new rules purportedly aimed at regulating
financial markets. “But big banks influence the rules
governing derivatives through a variety of industry
groups,” notes another New York Times piece.
Did the artificial price hike open EU doors to GM
foods?
No, in fact ISAAA noted that: “Six European
countries planted 94,750 hectares of biotech crops in
11
2009, down from seven countries and 107,719 European acceptance of GM foods failed, it worked
hectares in 2008, as Germany discontinued its elsewhere. Globally, biotech crops expanded by 7% in
planting.” 2009 over 2008 figures, according to this chart by
ISAAA:
A closer look at EU member state actions on GM
foods after June 2008 details some of the GM-free In fact, ISAAA asserted GM expansion was due to the
battle in Europe: 2008 price hikes, as noted by chairman and founder
Clive James: “With last year's food crisis, price spikes,
 In December 2008, after a ten-year hiatus, and hunger and malnutrition afflicting more than 1
Italy agreed to open field tests of GM crops. billion people for the first time ever, there has been a
global shift from efforts for just food security to food
 The Czech Republic became the second self-sufficiency.”
largest grower of Bt corn in the EU in 2008, nearly
doubling the acreage planted in 2007. The USDA Poorer nations hardest hit by hunger in Africa and
characterized it as being an investment target not only South America are more vulnerable to price hikes.
in agriculture but also in vaccine development.
But even after the geologically unusual earthquake in
 At the EU level, “In an apparent U-turn in his January, Haitian farmers rejected Monsanto's “gift” of
attitude as one of EU executive's most GM-wary GM seeds. However, the big push remains in Africa
commissioners, environment chief Stavros Dimas” and China .
wrote draft approvals for two more varieties of GM
corn, reported Reuters in December 2008. A Wary Future

 However, by September 2008, Wales, Although it is now widely accepted that Wall Street
Northern Ireland and Scotland had all become GM- speculation caused the food bubble, starving hundreds
free, and urged the UK to do likewise. of millions, regulators have so far failed to curb the
practices that allow international banksters to
 Though pressured by the European manipulate food prices.
Commission, in January 2009 Hungary refused to lift
its ban on GM foods. Its sovereign right to reject Meanwhile, the biotech industry continues to repeat
GMOs, along with Austria's, was later upheld by an its mantra that GM food can cure world hunger.
EU vote with 20 member states supporting such bans.
This claim is not backed by the science and it seems to
 In March 2009 , Luxembourg became the fifth hold less sway in the GM food debate, especially with
EU nation to ban GM foods, following France, the Pope recognizing what many others assert: There
Hungary, Greece and Austria. is no shortage of food; hunger expanded because of
price hikes.
 In October 2009, Turkey banned the import of
biotech products.

For updates and a more thorough history of EU

actions on GM foods, see GMO-Free Europe . http://www.countercurrents.org/ananda151210.h
European states handle the issue differently than in tm
the US, allowing regions within a nation to maintain
GM-free zones. Each step a nation takes toward GM
approval invariably draws regional resistance.

Biotech Crops Expand Globally in 2009

Though the strategy to hike food prices to spur

12 Kisan Ki Awaaz January - 2011

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January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
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13
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gksrh gSA
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14 Kisan Ki Awaaz
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January - 2011
 “The Role of peoples Diplomacy in Strengthening
The Multifaceted Relations Between Russia and India”
New Delhi, December 20, 2010: to the 85th Anniversary of the
Speakers at a seminar organized at Federal Agency for CIS Affairs,
the Russian Centre of Science and Compatriots Abroad and
Culture (RCSC) on December 17, International Humanitarian
2010 emphatically underscored the C o o p e r a t i o n
importance of peoples' diplomacy in (ROSSOTRUDNICHESTVO), was

strengthening the ties between addressed by a galaxy of prominent

Russia and India. The Seminar “The political leaders, academics,
Role of Peoples' diplomacy in diplomats and attended by an elite
Strengthening the Multifaceted gathering. Dr. Thokchom Meinya,
Relations Between Russia and M.P. (Lok Sabha), presided over the
India”, marking the forthcoming Seminar. A Photo Exhibition was
v i s i t o f H . E . M r. D m i t r y also inaugurated on the occasion.
Medvedev, President of the Russian
Federation, to India, and dedicated The significant role of Russian
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz 15
Centre of Science and Culture in
preparing a potential forum for
people-to-people diplomacy
through diverse programmes
thereby strengthening multifaceted
relations between India and Russia
in different spheres was underlined
by Mr. Krishnan Raghunath,
former Ambassador of India to
Russia and former Foreign
Secretary of India in his key-note
address. He said that the Russian
President's visit is an important
landmark in the Indo-Russian
relations. recalled the visit of
distinguished Russian scholars,
academics, scientists, economists,
political leaders and artists enabling
the Indian counterparts to interact
with them.
Referring to the holding of the
seminar as distinctly opportune in
terms of its relevance, topicality and
significance, Mr. Gadzhi M.
Akhmedov, Deputy Director,
RCSC, in his welcome address
noted that Moscow hosted an
extremely important forum almost
simultaneously and literally on an
identical subject with the
participation of majority of world
nation, and India made its gracious
presence at the forum with the right
representation of dignitaries from
the spheres of politics, education
January - 2011
and media.
Describing the visit of Russian
President as a decisive event in the
history of Russian-Indian relations,
Mr. Sergey V. Karmalito, Senior
Counsellor, Embassy of the Russian
Federation in India, pointed out that
it gives a great opportunity for the
dynamic leaders of both sides to
reiterate and renew the historical
ties between Russia and India
against the background of the
current global scenario. He cited
nuclear energy, science and
technology and other fields in which
both sides are to sign agreements
during the historic visit of the
Russian President.
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary,
President, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj
said that India can benefit from
Russia's rich deposits of
hydrocarbons and expertise in
infrastructure building, particularly
construction and engineering.
Russia can benefit from India's
expertise in pharmaceutical,
information technology and
communication sectors. Russia is
today the world leader in reducing
green house gas emissions. Joint
efforts of scientists from India and
January - 2011
Russia can facilitate the introduction
of innovative technologies and more
effective cooperation. Such
cooperation could not only
strengthen food security of our
countries, but also make it possible
to reduce the negative impact of
global climate change.
Mr. Virendar Kataria, Ex.M.P.
Mr. Ranji Thomas, Secretary, All
India Congress Committee, Prof.
Arun Mohanty, Political Scientist,
Head of the Centre for Eurasian
Studies, JNU, Mr. K. Jaya Kumar,
M.L.A. (Tamil Nadu), Secretary, all
India Congress Committee, Mr. S. P
Govil, President, Indo-Russian
Council for Child Development, Dr.
R. B. Singh, General Secretary,
India-Russia Friendship Society
(Delhi State), Mr. K. L. Malhotra,
General Secretary, Indian Council
for UN Relations, Mr. S.S.
Chaman, Secretary-General,
Indian Association of Friendship
with Foreign Countries, Ms.
Purnima Anand, General
Secretary, International Federation
of Indo-Russian Youth Clubs, Ms.
Urmil Satyabhushan, President,
Parichay Sahitya Parishad and other
spoke on the occasion.
 Ekgk *
&
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etcwj dj fn;k gS fd orZeku esa Hkkjrh; cktkj esa fuos'k
dh cM+h xqatkb'k gSA Hkkjr dks Hkh vius dbZ {ks=ksa esa fons'kh
fuos'k dh t:jr gSA [kkldj <kapkxr fodkl dh xfr dks
cuk, j[kus ds fy,A
la;qDr jk"Vª lqj{kk ifj"kn esa lq/kkj
phu dks NksM+dj ckdh pkjksa ns'kksa us la;qDr jk"Vª lqj{kk
ifj"kn esa lq/kkj ds lkFk Hkkjr dh mlesa vge Hkkxhnkjh dh
iqjtksj odkyr dj gesa [kq'k dj fn;kA igyh ckj vesfjdk
us u flQZ Hkkjr dh nkosnkjh dk [kqydj leFkZu fd;k
cfYd vQxkfuLrku esa gekjs dke dh tedj ljkguk Hkh
dhA b/kj phu ds joS;s esa dqN [kkl cnyko ns[kus dks ugh
feykA exj loky mBrk gS fd mldk ;g fojks/k vdsys
D;k xqy f[kyk,xkA og dgrs gS u fd vdsyk puk D;k
HkkM+ QksM+sA eryc phu dks Hkh nsj lcsj Hkkjr dk leFkZu
djuk gh iM+sxkA cgjgky la;qDr jk"Vª esa lq/kkj dh izfdz;k
dkQh tfVy gSA fQygky blh >qu>qus ls fnokyh eukuh
pkfg,A
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flDds ds nks igywA nksuksa ds chp ds bl vVwV fj'rs dks phu
dks NksM+dj lHkh us tedj [kjh [kksVh lqukbZA ikfdLrku
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January - 2011
 In Defence of the Commons : Dr. Binayak Sen's
Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability and Justice
* Dr. Vandana Shiva
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a
point, where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism
ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power”
- Franklin D.Roosevelt

T he commons for me are inseparable from

ecology and democracy. They are the
foundation of Earth Democracy. The web of
life is a commons. Non-seperability and
interconnectedness is the nature of nature and the
basis of sustainability is the basis of a just and
democratic society.
We live in strange times distorted by privatization of
the commons. Privatisation of nature and natural
resources and privatization of governance are the
dominant tendency. And the multiple scams that have
grabbed the headlines are all off-shoots of
privatization of the commons. When the state itself is
privatized, with corporations using lobbyists like
Nira Radia to appoint Ministers, and then using
Ministers to further privatise decision making and the
economy, it signals the death of democracy. A
privatized state separates itself from society and the
public good.
The privatization of the state is most intense in the
resource rich tribal areas. And it is in these areas that
the privatization of nature's commons and people's
commons is being undertaken with force and
violence. When the state becomes a corporate state
with privatization of public goods as its main
objective, then the defense of the commons, the
defense of the democratic and constitution rights of
the people is seen as a threat. And defenders of
people's rights are criminalized to facilitate criminal
takeover of the commons.
This is why Dr. Binayak Sen, one of the most
compassionate of human beings, one of the most
courageous defenders of the commons has been
sentenced to life-imprisonment. Ironically, the news
of “rigorous life imprisonment for Dr. Sen” was
brought to Indians on Christmas Day. Dr. Sen a gold
medalist from Christian Medical College could have
beomce a millionaire through private practice.
Instead he chose to serve the tribals, thus practicing
health care as a public service, and a commons. He set
up the Shahid Hospital with Shankar Guha Niyogi
and workers in Dalli Rajhara (Niyogi was murdered
by corporate interests). He joined the People's Union
for Civil Liberties to defend our common human
rights. Dr. Binayak Sen has spent a lifetime in
defending the common good.
For over thirty years, I have worked with Dr. Binayak
Sen and his wife Dr. Ilina Sen to protect biodiversity
and water as a commons. I started Navdanya to
protect seeds from privatization through patents and
genetic engineering. Binayak and Ilina visited us in
Dehradun to see our work in biodiversity
conservation and seed saving.
They started seed saving in a village outside Raipur,
to keep alive Dr. Richharia's legacy. Dr. Richharia had
saved 22,972 rice varieties and documented hundreds
of thousands in the region that is today's Chhattisgarh.
The Richharia collection is with the Raipur based
Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya IGAV
(Agricultural University).
In 2002, Syngenta, the biotech giant, tired to grab the
precious collections of 22,972 varieties of paddy,
India's rice diversity, from Chhattisgarh in India. It
has signed a MoU with the Indira Gandhi Agricultural
University for access to Dr. Richharia's priceless
collection of rice diversity which he had looked after
as if the rice varieties were his own children.
This news (Dainik Bhaskar, 09.11.2002) came soon
after the news that Syngenta was going to be on the

January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz 19

board of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research).
Dr. Richharia was the rice sage of India. He is the
inspiration behind all agricultural biodiversity
conservation movements in India, including
Navdanya. He had collected thousands of rice
varieties first in the Cuttack Rice Research Institute
(which is older than IRRI) and then the Raipur
Research Institute (now called the Indira Gandhi
Agricultural University).
In 1971, at the initiative of Robert McNamara, the
President of the World Bank, a Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) was
formed to finance the network of these International
Agricultural Centers (IARC). Since 1971, nine more
IARCs were added to the CGIAR system. The
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-
Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was started in Hyderabad in
India in 1971. The International Laboratory for
Research on Animal Diseases (ICRAD) and the
International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA)
were approved in 1973.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was
set up in 1960 by the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations, nine years after the establishment of a
premier Indian Institute, the Central Rice Research
Institute (CRRI) in Cuttack. The Cuttack Institute
was working on rice research based on indigenous
knowledge and genetic resources, a strategy clearly
in conflict with the American controlled strategy of
IRRI.
Under international pressure, Dr. Richharia, the then
Director of CRRI, was removed when he resisted
handing over is collection of rice germplasm to IRRI,
and when he asked for restraint in the hurried
introduction of HYV (High Yield Varieties) from
IRRI. The Madhya Pradesh Government gave a small
stipend to Dr. Richharia the ex-Director of CRRI so
that he could continue his work at the Madhya
Pradesh Rice Research Institute (MPRRI) at Raipur.
On his shoestring budget, he conserved near about
20,000 indigenous rice varieties insitu in India's rice
bowl in Chhattisgarh. Later the MPRRI, which was
doing pioneering work in developing a high yielding
strategy based on the indigenous knowledge of the
20 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Chhattisgarh tribal's, was also closed down due to
pressure from the World Bank (which was linked to
IRRI through CGIAR) because MPRRI had
reservations about sending its collection of
germplasm to IRRI.
Much of the rice germplasm had been painstakingly
collected from local farmers by Dr. Richarria, who
had devoted his lifetime to the conservation of local
rice varieties. Dr. Richharia's vision was to
disseminate all appropriate varieties selected from the
collection to farmers across Chhattisgarh through
decentralized research and extension networks with
rice farmers and scientists as equal partners in
development with the ownership of these varieties
vesting with farmers.
Syngenta's getting access to Dr. Richharia's
collections, and also controlling the World Bank run
International Agricultural Research System, which is
getting patents on rice was the MNC's search for total
control on rice, the staple food of most Asia's. Since
this news became public, several groups working on
people's rights to natural resources from Chhattisgarh
and outside firmly opposed this deal between
Syngenta and IGAU.
Several people's organization came together and a
mass based agitation was started from 3rd December,
the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Day. In addition, the
Chhattisgarh Seed Satyagraha was launched on 10th
December, 2002, the International Human Rights
Day.
Thousands of workers, peasants, women and youth
from all over Chhattisgarh began to court arrest to
protect their sovereignty for survival and sustenance
of human community and to re-assert their rights over
the rare varieties of rice seeds. Dr. Binayak Sen
played an important role in the seed satyagraha.
Syngenta was forced to withdraw from the MoU with
IGAU.
Not only did Dr. Binayak Sen play an important role
in the defense of the biodiversity commons and seed
sovereignty, he also contributed to the defense of
water as a commons by resisting the privatization of
the Sheonath river and participating in the movement
for water democracy. The villagers have been living
beside the semi-perennial Sheonath river near Durg in
January - 2011
Chhatisgarh, through droughts and floods. They
have watered their crops, and caught enough fish.
Ghats, where village folk bathed and washed clothes
can be seen along the river. 23.6 km stretch of the
river was sold to “Radius Water” Ltd. (RWL), a
company floated by a local person Kailash Soni. The
company has the sole monopoly on the supply of
water from Sheonath river, through a BOOT
arrangement which will be reviewed after 22 years.
Sheonath project was meant for supplying water to
the Industrial Estates of Borai, near Durg city. In
2001, Soni was given the contract to build a dam
across the river and has full right to the 23.6 km
reservoir and the water collected behind it. He has
monopoly rights to supply water to the industries
around this area. Since the dam has come up, the
villagers who used to fish in the river and depended
on the river for daily needs have no longer any rights
for the same.
Following are some of the affected villages at the
upper stream of Sheonath river.
i. Rasmara
ii. Mohlai
iii. Siloda
iv. Mahmara
v. Peepar Cheedi
Discussions with the villagers of Rasmara and
Mohali revealed shocking facts.
Rasmara and Mohlai are worse affected villages as
these villages are located near the dam built by RWL.
According to farmers of Rasmara and Mohlai
villages, they were growing vegetables near the
banks of Sheonath, which is no longer possible,as no
water supply is available from Sheonath river. Some
farmers tried to grow vegetables on the small portion
of land; however it was washed away due to the
excess release of water by RWL from the dam.
Sometime due to sudden discharge of water,
children and women are at risk of being carried away
a long distance by water.
Farmers who were using pumps to draw water
from the rivers have had their pumps forcibly taken
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
away by RWL, which has issued warning of dire
consequences should farmers use pumps.
Farmers are not even allowed to install tube wells
within a radius of 1 km from the river.
A large number of families in these villages were
dependent for their livelihood on fish fur a substantial
part in a year. Now they do not have any income as no
fishing is allowed.
For farmers even rearing the animals is difficult.
Now animals are allowed only for few minutes in the
river, while earlier, animals particularly buffalos used
to remain in river water for hours.
Bathing at Ghat and washing clothes is totally at
the discretion of RWL.
Rasmara Gram Panchayat used to get Rs. 90,000
per year out of the contract for lifting the sand from
riverbank, which now has been monopolized by
RWL.
The movement for water democracy stopped the
privatization of the Sheonath river. Now, it is the
mineral wealth that is being privatized. The scam is
bigger than the telecom 2G scam. The Constitutional
rights of the tribals guaranteed through PAISA and
Forest Rights Act are being brazenly violated.
Salwa Judum and the Operation Green Hunt are new
militarized initiatives for the natural resource grab
taking place in Chhattisgarh. Dr. Binayak Sen is one
of the outstanding defenders for the rights of the
tribals of Chhattisgarh and the Commons. 70 percent
of India survives in the ecological commons of
biodiversity, forests, rivers and tanks. 100% of India
needs the commons of governance as democracy to
live as citizens free of fear and injustice.
Dr. Binayak Sen's sentence for life is a death sentence
for all the citizens of India who will lose their access
to the commons because of privatization and hence
will be denied their right to life. It is people like Dr.
Sen who have stood for the rights of people and who
keep India's fragile democratic fabric alive. Without
them India will be a militarized dictatorship, a facist
state based on violent privatization of the commons.
Dr. Binayak Sen must be set free if India is to be free.
21
 Viruses and Virus Nucleic Acid
Contaminate Many Vaccines
* Prof. Joe Cummins
R isks of cancer and creation of new pathogens
should not be underplayed by regulators
Garbage viruses and DNA in vaccines
Vaccines are currently produced using fertilized
chicken eggs, cell culture or a combination of egg and
cell culture. An 'attenuated' vaccine is created from a
pathogen by reducing its virulence, but still keeping it
viable, in contrast to those produced by 'killing' the
virus (inactivated vaccine). Inactivation is done by
selecting non-pathogenic strains of the pathogen after
treatment such as heat or cold culture, or targeted
deletion of virulence genes.
Many live attenuated vaccines are produced using cell
culture. A number of such vaccines have been found to
contain not only the live attenuated viral pathogen but
also contaminating viruses or viral nucleic acid . These
contaminants are garbage, and people administering
such vaccines should inform patients of potential risks
associated with the garbage.
Recently, the United States Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) acknowledged the
contamination of the live attenuated rotavirus vaccine
(to prevent traveller's diarrhoea) and suspended the
vaccine, but later decided that the benefits of the
vaccination outweigh potential contamination risks .
The FDA opinion is premature because the circovirus
contaminating the vaccine is active in replication,
transcription and translation of viral genes and able to
produce toxic products. Contaminated vaccines are not
isolated cases, they are widespread.
Lessons from SV40 contaminated vaccines
Simian virus 40 (SV40) is a monkey virus
inadvertently administered to human populations in
contaminated vaccines produced in SV40-infected
monkey cells. Molecular biology and epidemiological
studies suggest that SV40 may be contagiously
transmitted in humans by horizontal infection,
22 Kisan Ki Awaaz
independently of the earlier administration of SV40-
contaminated vaccines. In humans, SV40 has been
found associated at high prevalence with specific
tumour types such as brain and bone tumours,
mesotheliomas and lymphomas and with kidney
diseases . SV40 was discovered as a contaminant of
poliovirus vaccine lots distributed to millions of
individuals in the United States between 1955 and
1963; and contaminated vaccine batches were later
circulated worldwide.
After SV40 was observed to cause animal and human
cell transformations in culture, and tumour formations
in animals, researchers began to search for SV40 in
human cancers . For example, a 2005 study undertaken
in Costa-Rica showed that SV40 is significantly
associated with cancers of the immune system .
US FDA acknowledges that the SV 40 virus (simian
virus 40 from monkey kidney cells) was in the early
polio vaccines and its risks : “The experience in the
early 1960s with SV40 contamination of poliovirus
and adenovirus vaccines and the continuing questions
regarding whether SV40 could be responsible for some
human neoplasms [cancers] underscores the
importance of keeping viral vaccines free of
adventitious agents.
“ (See also Flu Vaccines and the Risk of Cancer, SiS
44). SV40 contamination of polio vaccines is an old
lesson that seems to have been ignored in the current
rush to profit from manufacturing vaccines.
Numerous vaccines for humans are contaminated
There are numerous cases of documented
contaminated vaccines intended for humans . Measles
vaccine Attenuvax grown in chicken embryo fibroblast
cells was contaminated with Avian leucosis (myeloid
leucosis cancer virus) and avian endogenous
retrovirus. Yellow fever vaccine YFvax grown in
chicken embryo fibroblast cells was contaminated with
avian endogenous retrovirus.
January - 2011
Herpes 3 vaccine Varivax grown in MRC-5 human
cells from aborted foetuses was contaminated with
human endogenous retrovirus K. Rota virus vaccine
Rotarix grown in Vero E6 (African green monkey )
cells was contaminated with with porcine circovirus 1
and porcine circovirus 2. Rotavirus Rotateq vaccine
grown in Vero (African monkey) cells had Baboon
endogenous retrovirus as contaminant.
Measles mumps vaccine MMR II grown in chicken
fibroblast cells had Avian endogenous retrovirus and
human endogenous retrovirus K as contaminants; and
Rubella vaccine grown in WI-38 human diploid lung
fibroblast cells was contaminated with Human
endogenous retrovirus K. Rubella vaccine meruvax II
grown in WI-38 human lung fibroblast cells contained
human endogenous retrovirus-K.
Veterinary vaccines are similarly contaminated. The
genomes of all animal species are colonized by
endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). Although most
ERVs have accumulated defects that render them
incapable of replication, fully infectious ERVs have
been identified in various mammals.
A feline infectious ERV (RD-114w) was isolated from
many live attenuated vaccines for pets. Isolation of
RD-114 was done independently in two laboratories
using different detection strategies and from vaccines
for both cats and dogs commercially available in Japan
or the UK. The study shows that the methods currently
employed to screen veterinary vaccines for
retroviruses are inadequate and should be re-evaluated
. in some autoimmune diseases, in particular, multiple
Tests of veterinary vaccines for viral contamination
in Hungary found that a torquetenovirus (TTV), a very
small circular single stranded DNA virus, was present
in many vaccines including avian vaccines. The
presence of any extraneous agent may have a
significant impact on the safety of the vaccine .
A rogues' gallery of vaccine contaminating viruses
and DNA
Avian leukosis (myeloid leukosis cancer virus)
Avian leukosis virus (ALV-J) appears to be a
recombinant of an exogenous avian leukosis virus
(ALV) with an envelope (env) gene probably
originating from an endogenous (subgroup E) ALV.
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
ALV-J can infect cell cultures from other avian species,
but not mammalian cells. No genetically resistant
meat-type strain of chickens has been found to date.
Commercial Leghorn chickens appear to be resistant to
tumour development, but they may be susceptible to
infection.
Most tumours associated with ALV-J infection are
expressed as myeloblastomas or myelocytomas. Even
though the bird cancer virus does not appear to infect
mammals, the persistent exposure of young human
may select mutations of the virus that are virulent in
people; and virulent recombinants can always be
created with endogenous human viruses.
Avian endogenous retrovirus
Avian endogenous retrovirus (AER) are a highly
diverse group comprising many inserts into the
chicken genome. There are three families of such
endogenous retroviruses, related respectively to avian
sarcoma or leukosis cancer virus, mouse leukemia
viruses, and human endogenous retroviruses.
Most of the AER are dormant in the chicken
chromosomes, but several are active and capable of
making RNA transcripts. The active transcripts may
replicate by reverse transcription and recombine with
related viruses.
Human endogenous retrovirus K
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are suspects
sclerosis; a member of the family of human
endogenous retrovirus W has been identified as “MS-
associated retrovirus” (MSRV).
HERVs comprise nearly 8 percent of the human
genome, with 98 000 elements and fragments; all
appear to be defective, containing nonsense mutations
or major deletions, and cannot produce infectious virus
particles. Most are remnants of viruses that integrated
many millions of years ago.
However, one family HERV-K (comprising less than 1
percent of HERV elements) - have been active since the
divergence of humans and chimpanzees, and is one of
the most studied. There are indications it has even been
active in the past few hundred thousand years, as some
human individuals carry more copies of the virus. The
23
lack of elements with a full coding potential within the
published human genome sequence suggests that the
family is less likely to be active at present. HERV-K
contaminants in vaccines should not be considered
innocuous as they may recombine with related viruses
or with viral sequences in the human chromosome.
Baboon endogenous retrovirus
Baboon endogenous retrovirus (BERV) is a
inactivated retroviral sequence. BERVs are also found
in the African green monkey. BERV circulating in the
bloodstream of humans could conceivably mutate and
recombine to form a virus that could spread rapidly in
the human population because the virus is new to the
immune repertoire of the human.
Feline infectious ERV (RD-114)
An infectious endogenous retrovirus was discovered
in live attenuated vaccine for cats and dogs. EVR RD-
114 is related to other oncogenic virus such as feline
leuekemia virus and mouse leukemia virus 83.
Porcine circovirus 1 and porcine circovirus 2
The pig circoviruses are small circular single stranded
DNA viruses. Type 1 virus does not cause illness in
pigs while type 3 virus causes a serious wasting disease
of young pigs. The viruses are frequently found
infecting mammalian cell lines. Circovirus type 1 and
type 2 infect many human cell types. Type 1 virus
proliferates without causing distinct cell damage while
type 2 virus does. Type 2 virus causes cytoskeleton
rearrangements in dendritic cells, leading to
immunosuppression.
Porcine circovirus is lodged in the cell nucleus where it
is replicated. Replication is by a rolling circle
mechanism where the single stranded viral
chromosomes are rolled off a double stranded
replicative master. The virus is so small that it only has
room for a few genes including two genes for initiating
DNA replication along with genes for nuclear
localization and viral coat protein and a few genes for
virulence. The host cell nucleus provides the enzymes
for DNA replication.
Torquetenovirus (TTV)
Torquetenoviruses (TTVs) are vertebrate infecting,
24 Kisan Ki Awaaz
single-stranded circular DNA viruses. Two genetically
distinct TTV groups (TTV1 and TTV2) infect swine
worldwide with high prevalence. Currently, swine
TTVs are considered non-pathogenic, although TTV2
has been linked to post-weaning multisystemic
wasting syndrome, a porcine circovirus disease TTV
replicates similarly to the circovirus but is much
smaller than the circovirus.
TTV is often presumed to be non-pathogenic, and is
distributed widely among mammals including
humans. TTV infection is widely dispersed in the
human population and the virus has been found to
accumulate in the central nervous system and
implicated in dementia. Children with recurrent
pneumonia have been found to lack ciliary motility
associated with high level infection of ciliarycells with
TTV.
To conclude
Human and veterinary vaccines have been found
contaminated with wide array of viruses that are
deemed harmless or less risky than the attenuated live
virus of the vaccine. These contaminating garbage
viruses are nowhere near as well investigated than they
should have been prior to the commercialization of the
vaccines.
The contaminating garbage viruses are deemed
harmless because they do not elicit sera conversion
(production of antibody) even though the garbage
viruses frequently produce proteins that are toxic in
specific tissues. The contaminating garbage vaccines
are actively cytotoxic in some cases, and potentially so
in other cases by mutation or recombination to create
new retroviruses that are life threatening. Among the
garbage viruses, the small circular single stranded
DNA viruses deserve special attention as they are so
widespread in the human and animal populations.
Such widespread dispersal of TTV and circoviruses
could cause disaster. The first step in dealing with the
garbage viruses is to provide informed consent to those
being vaccinated with contaminated vaccines. The
second is to carry out post-release monitoring for
potential hazards from mutation and recombination, as
highlighted in this article.
Http://www.isis.org.uk/Viruses_and_Virus_Nuclei
c_Acid_Contaminate_Vaccines.php
January - 2011
Wikileaks cable reveals U.S. conspired to retaliate
against European nations if they resisted GMOs
* Mike Adams
December 24, 2010 - Wikileaks continues to rock the
political world by shedding light on conspiracies,
corruption and cover-ups. The latest batch of
diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reveals what
can only be characterized as a U.S.-led conspiracy to
force GMOs onto European countries by making
those countries pay a steep price if they resist.
The cable reveals the words of Craig Stapleton, the
US ambassador to France, who was pushing the
commercial interests of the biotech industry by
attempting to force GMOs into France.
In his own words (below), he expresses his frustration
with the idea that France might pass environmental
laws that would hamper the expansion of GMOs:
"Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this
issue with France playing a leading role, along with
Austria, Italy and even the [European] Commission...
Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current
path has real costs to EU interests and could help
strengthen European pro-biotech voice."
Got that so far? His own words: "Retaliation" as a way
to "make [it] clear" that resisting GMOs will have a
price.
Stapleton goes on to say something rather incredible:
"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a
target retaliation list that causes some pain across the
EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that
also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list
should be measured rather than vicious and must be
sustainable over the long term, since we should not
expect an early victory...”
As you read these words again, remember that these
are the words of the U.S. ambassador to France who is
suggesting the US "calibrate a target retaliation list" in
order to "cause some pain across the EU" that must be
"sustainable over the long term.”
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
The global GMO conspiracy is no longer a theory
Need we say anything more? This cable proves, once
and for all, that there is a global GMO conspiracy
where government operatives work in secret to push
Monsanto's GMO agenda while punishing opponents
of GMOs and adding them to a "target retaliation list."
This cable also proves that NaturalNews has been
right all along about the GMO conspiracy, and that
GMO opponents such as Jeffrey Smith are battling
what can only be called an evil conspiracy to control
the world's food supply. It also proves that when Alex
Jones talks about the global conspiracy to control the
world food supply, he's not just ranting. He's warning
about the reality of the world in which we now live.
As Jeffery Smith said today in a Democracy Now
interview:
"We've been saying for years that the United States
government is joined at the hip with Monsanto and
pushing GMOs as part of Monsanto's agenda on the
rest of the world. This lays bare the mechanics of that
effort. We have Craig Stapleton, the former
ambassador to France, specifically asking the U.S.
government to retaliate and cause some harm
throughout the European Union.")
(Http://www.democracynow.org/seo/201...
Military terms
Do you notice something about these words used by
the US ambassador to France? "Calibrate a target
retaliation list" sounds eerily familiar, doesn't it? It's
the kind of language you might find tossed around in a
military bombing war exercise.
That's no coincidence: These government operatives
quite literally consider themselves to be at war with
the world, and they intend to conquer the world with
their genetically modified poisons. They will do
anything, it seems, to force-feed their deadly crops to
the public.
25
Eight important realizations from these leaks
This Wikileaks cable brings up all sorts of issues that
each might deserve a separate article, but here are the
highlights of what comes to my mind on this issue:
Realization #1) Wikileaks is valuable for exposing
the government lies in our world. Without Wikileaks,
we never would have known about these cables which
prove the existence of this GMO conspiracy.
Realization #2) US government diplomatic officials
are working for the corporations! It's just as we've
described here on NaturalNews numerous times --
Big Government is really just an extension of the most
evil and most powerful corporations that now
dominate our planet: The drug companies, the
weapons manufacturers, the agricultural giants and so
on. Here's what Jeffrey Smith had to say about
governments conspiring with Monsanto:
"In 2009, we have a cable from the ambassador to
Spain from the United States asking for intervention
there, asking the government to help formulate a
biotech strategy and support the government --
members of the government in Spain that want to
promote GMOs, as well. And here, they specifically
indicate that they sat with the director of Monsanto for
the region and got briefed by him about the politics of
the region and created strategies with him to promote
the GMO agenda.”
Realization #3) The US is willing to retaliate against
European countries if they try to block GMOs.
This brings up the question: Why is the US so
desperate to push GMOs on Europe? Clearly there is
another agenda behind all this (maybe we'll learn
more in future Wikileaks releases).
Realization #4) No wonder the US government has
declared war on Wikileaks because these dark
secrets and "conspiracy notes" are never made public
through any normal means. It takes a whistleblower to
expose the true government corruption taking place in
our world today.
Realization #5) The GMO conspiracy reaches to
the highest levels of global control. This US
ambassador Stapleton wasn't just a nobody. He was, in
fact, the co-owner of the Texas Rangers with former
26 Kisan Ki Awaaz
President George W. Bush! His wife, by the way, is
George Bush's cousin. This is a conspiracy involving
the highest-ranking officials across multiple countries
who are pushing a GMO agenda that's poisoning
people across the planet.
Realization #6) Governments are literally trying to
kill their own people. It is widely known in the inner
circles of power that GMOs are deadly, but
governments keep pushing them anyway. As Jeffrey
Smith explains in his interview with Democracy Now:
"...the person who was in charge of FDA policy in
1992, Monsanto's former attorney, Michael Taylor, he
allowed GMOs on the market without any safety
studies and without labeling, and the policy claimed
that the agency was not aware of any information
showing that GMOs were significantly different.
Seven years later, because of a lawsuit, 44,000 secret
internal FDA memos revealed that that policy was a
lie. Not only were the scientists at the FDA aware that
GMOs were different, they had warned repeatedly
that they might create allergies, toxins, new diseases
and nutritional problems. But they were ignored, and
their warnings were even denied, and the policy went
forth allowing the deployment GMOs into the food
supply with virtually no safety studies."
Realization #7) The GMO conspiracy is always
reframed as "science". At one point in the leaked
cables, Stapleton warns that in opposing GMOs,
France would "roll back established science-based
decision making." The GMO conspiracy, you have to
remember, is always hidden behind the term "science"
so that anyone who opposes GMOs can be
characterized as being somehow against "scientific
thinking.”
All this gives science a bad name, of course, but I
suppose that since the history of science is filled with
arrogant scientists poisoning people in the name of
science (mercury, vaccines, radiation, plastics,
medications, etc.), we shouldn't be all that surprised to
observe this.
Realization #8) Spain has been a key co-conspirator
to push the U.S. GMO agenda. Much of the
conspiring taking place in the EU has been
spearheaded by Spain, whose officials met personally
January - 2011
with the head of Monsanto to plot their push of GMOs
into Europe.
All of a sudden the Blackwater story adds up
This all reminds me of a story published a few months
back by The Nation in which Jeremy Scahill exposed
a link between Monsanto and the military contractor
known as Blackwater. His article claimed that
Monsanto had hired Blackwater spies to "infiltrate
activist groups organizing against the multinational
biotech firm.”
Monsanto vehemently denied the allegation. I looked
hard at covering that story at the time but could not
substantiate the accusations to my satisfaction.
However, given the new information gleaned from
these leaked diplomatic cables -- which blatantly state
that the GMO conspirators plan to "calibrate a target
retaliation list" -- all of a sudden the Blackwater story
adds up.
This is the verbage of a military-style retaliation
campaign, and that's exactly the business of
Blackwater. Remember how Stapleton said the US
needed to "cause some pain?" That's Blackwater's
calling card!
Although these cables don't prove any connection
between Monsanto and Blackwater, they do lend
credence to the idea that such a link is not only
possibly, but perhaps even probable. It clearly
deserves additional investigation.
Regardless of whether the Blackwater / Monsanto
link is ever proven, what's crystal clear from all this is
that the global GMO conspiracy is very real and that
GMO conspirators plot retaliatory actions against any
nation that refuses to allow GMOs into their country.
The whole thing is then disguised as "science" so that
anyone who opposes it can be branded as "non-
scientific." This is the same sick way in which
vaccines are pushed, too: They're called "scientific"
even when they're based entirely on scientific fraud
(as are GMOs).
How governments really operate
Above all, what these Wikileaks cables really reveal is
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
that government conspiracies are, of course, not only
real but that they are taking place right now.
Diplomats and ambassadors are, in effect,
government thugs who engage in the most unethical
actions, full of threats and retaliation, in order to serve
the financial interests of their corporate masters.
That's how the world really works, despite the Disney-
like image portrayed by the mainstream media.
Behind the scenes, the U.S. government is literally
plotting with Monsanto to take over the world's food
supply. That is not an exaggeration. It's not conjecture.
It is a statement of fact based on the words of the
government's own operatives (who obviously didn't
know their words would ever be made public).
Through Wikileaks, we have been given a glimpse
into the truth behind the Great Wall of government
lies. And that truth, it turns out, is a lot uglier than most
people could have imagined.
(It's no surprise to me, because I've seen things that
most regular people have never witnessed. But to a
regular Joe Blow working his J.O.B. and watching the
evening news, the hard-core truth about the world is a
bit too much to handle...)
Personally, I can't wait to see what other dark secrets
are buried in these Wikileaks cables. And it all makes
me wish we had a Wikileaks for the FDA, too. Can you
imagine all the dirty secrets that would come out of the
FDA's offices if we could read their emails? We need
an FDA leaker.
The other thought that comes to mind is how much I
wouldn't want to be Julian Assange right now. His
head is now the world's most powerful bullet magnet...
especially when government rifles are anywhere
nearby.
If the U.S. government would conspire to create a
"retaliation target list" of nations that are merely
resisting GMOs, can you imagine what they will do if
they ever get their hands on Assange?
Http://www.naturalnews.com/030828_GMOs_Wi
kileaks.html#ixzz19Vw6A78y
27
Malaysia's GM Aedes mosquito planned release:
ethical, legal and human rights concerns
20 December 2010 - The memorandum of
Consumers' Association of Penang and Sahabat Alam
Malaysia outlines some of the serious ethical issues
which need to be addressed before any field releases
of the GM mosquitoes are allowed to take place.
They include the one-year delay by Oxitec in
announcing the GM mosquito release in the Cayman
Islands which has raised serious concerns among
international biosafety experts; the 3-4% unexpected
survival of GM mosquito offspring which was not
reported by Oxitec or the Institute for Medical
Research (IMR) in its public documents; and the
import process and the contained trials carried out
were approved in the absence of the National
Biosafety Board (NBB) under the Biosafety Act 2007.
Additionally, the transboundary environmental
release of GM mosquitoes is governed by the
Cartagena Biosafety Protocol.
As such Malaysia could have contravened national
and international laws when it decided to import and
release GM mosquitoes. Further, Malaysia could have
broken the de facto UN moratorium on Terminator
technology.
The absence of effective public participation and the
shroud of secrecy surrounding the project, and the
undue haste in implementing the field trials have
caused unease and anxiety among Malaysians.
Conflicts of interests of Oxitec have further fuelled
distrust.
While acknowledging that dengue fever and malaria
are serious mosquito-borne diseases that need to be
controlled using safe measures, it is however very
doubtful if the proposed release of GM mosquitoes to
control dengue fever is proper and 100 per cent safe
under the present dubious conditions.
These serious ethical, legal, public health and human
rights concerns are listed below.
1. Non-transparency of GM Aedes trials in the
28 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Cayman Islands
Oxitec announced its GM Aedes mosquito field trials
in the Cayman Islands only a year after the event. This
has raised serious concerns among international
biosafety experts.
Although the Cayman Islands is a British overseas
territory, it is a non-Party to the Cartegena Biosafety
Protocol, thus the Protocol laws do not apply.
It was very convenient for Oxitec to run the release
experiments in the Cayman Islands, which did not
have biosafety laws in place.
Thus the choice of releasing the GM mosquitoes in the
Cayman Islands is similar to MNCs' behaviour where
they avoid the strict environmental laws in developed
countries by exporting their dangerous activities to
developing countries which have much weaker
environmental rules and compliance mechanisms.
2. Non-transparency of GM Aedes trials and
planned releases in Malaysia
Under the Cartegena Protocol which Malaysia is a
Party to, the exporter of GM organisms is required to
inform in writing the importing country before the
intentional transboundary movement of the GM
organism.
Likewise, Oxitec's shipment of GM mosquito eggs
from the UK is subject to EU laws on GMOs which
require the exporter (Oxitec) to notify the relevant
authority in the importing country i.e. the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) and to
await its consent to proceed.
To our knowledge, there is no publicly available
report that MNRE had given consent for the shipment
of GM mosquito eggs from Oxitec in the UK to IMR
in Malaysia.
Further, there is no known proper risk analysis having
been done. If there was a proper Risk Assessment
January - 2011
(RA), it should be made public. And where are the
Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (EIA
and SIA)?
3. Conflict of interests in Oxitec and close links
with agrochemical MNCs
It has been reported that Oxitec has been facing
financial losses since 2008. The company is losing
some £1.7 million annually.
It owes £2.25 million to a US investor which it has to
repay by 2013. It is clear Oxitec is under great
pressure to sell its GM mosquito project to earn
money.
The MNRE Biosafety unit repeatedly cites as
reference that there is no evidence of cross-mating of
GM Ae aegypti with Ae Albopictus, a paper co-
authored by Dr Seshadri Vasan, a member of Oxitec
UK and CEO of Oxitec Sdn Bhd (Malaysia).
He was not indicated in this 2009 paper as being from
Oxitec. This paper also does not carry a conflict of
interest statement, usually required in other reputable
publications.
Oxitec's staff is closely linked to big MNCs. Malaysia
has worked hard for more than a decade to ensure that
biosafety issues are addressed in the Cartegena
Biosafety Protocol, it appears ineffective when
locally GM mosquitoes are being released in a hasty
manner in cooperation with agribusiness and pharma
companies and links.
4. The hidden 3 to 4% offspring of male GM
mosquitoes and normal females actually survive
into adulthood
Please note that the 3-4% unexpected survival was not
reported directly by Oxitec or IMR in its public
documents. It was first revealed in October 2010 by
the head of the Genetic Modification Advisory
Committee (GMAC) to reporters at the height of
concerns regarding the field releases.
According to a SciDevNet report, Ahmad Parveez
Ghulam Kadir, head of the GMAC a technical
advisory body to the NBB of the MNRE - said that the
committee had been concerned that lab tests had
January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz
shown that 3% of the offspring of male GM
mosquitoes and normal females actually survive into
adulthood rather than dying as larvae as intended.
According to the same SciDevNet report, Ricarda
Steinbrecher, a geneticist and co-director of
EcoNexus, a UK-based non-profit research
organisation, said that it is not clear how the offspring
of the male GM mosquitoes survive into adulthood
and do not die as 'programmed', but it raises the
possibility that they could breed and pass on this as
yet unknown mechanism for overcoming the
lethality. She said, "I would suggest that it is far too
early for any open field releases.
More data are needed from laboratory experiments.
Furthermore, trials in field cages [large outdoor
enclosures made from netting, i.e. confined field
trials] are needed.”
However, previous MNRE and Oxitec responses to
the public have been that the GM mosquitoes will not
affect public health and safety or the eco-system!
Once again, Oxitec has not been truthful and
transparent on important biosafety issues regarding
the GM mosquitoes, and it seems the IMR has been
complicit.
5. Proper due process was not followed prior to
GM mosquito release
GM mosquitoes importation, contained trials and
field releases are regulated nationally and
internationally.
Take note that the NBB was only established in March
2010 under the Biosafety Act 2007, but the Oxitec-
IMR contained trials were done a few years ago.
Thus the contained trial conducted much earlier did
not go through the NBB. The Biosafety Act requires
the establishment of the NBB which will decide on all
matters relating to the approval for release and import
of living modified organisms.
The contained trial conducted much earlier remains
controversial as it was contrary to the spirit and
provisions of Malaysia's Biosafety Act.
29
The Ministry of Health (MOH) would have been
involved in the process of drafting the Biosafety Act
2007.
It would appear that the MOH was ready to import
GM mosquitoes but the said Act was not in force.
In which case, which was the regulatory authority
responsible for the import process? Did the MOH
notify the MNRE (under whose jurisdiction the Act
falls) prior to its importation of the GM Aedes
mosquito eggs? Did the MNRE approve? Under
which process and criteria?
Since the NBB did not officially exist until March
2010, who or which body was responsible to ensure
that the Biosafety Act was implemented?
Was the Director General (DG) of Biosafety within
the MNRE tasked with the responsibility? Under the
Biosafety Act, the DG acts under the general authority
and direction of the NBB.
Since the NBB was only formed this year, under what
laws or powers was the DG acting? Or were decisions
simply made by administrative fiat bypassing legal
requirements?
The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (the Protocol)
regulates the transboundary movements of LMOs
(living modified organisms) which include GM
mosquitoes. Under the Protocol, the importing
country i.e. Malaysia must ensure that risk
assessments are carried out.
Thus the risk assessment should determine the
chances of an unintentional transboundary movement
of GM mosquitoes if they are to be released in the
importing country.
It also suggests that the importing country should
require the exporting country to assess the likelihood
that GM mosquitoes will cross borders
unintentionally. It is obvious that if such an event is
likely, the release should not be allowed.
Did the MNRE or MOH request Oxitec to do the risk
assessment before it made the decision to import the
GM mosquitoes?
30 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Mosquitoes, natural or engineered, do not respect
national borders. It is not possible for any country to
control mosquitoes from crossing their borders.
For instance, in the 1990s, the Asian tiger mosquito
(Aedes Albopictus), a potential vector for dengue
fever virus, was introduced into the US in a shipment
of rubber tyres imported from Asia.
In fact, Ae. aegypti is an invasive species introduced in
the 1970s to Malaysia but is now part of the
ecosystem.
What is the likelihood that any country can contain
GM mosquitoes to remain within its borders in this
age of air travel, and large-scale movements of people
and materials? For this reason, releasing a GM
mosquito must be considered as a worldwide release
which will potentially affect every nation on the
planet.
In which case, there is every likelihood that an
unintentional transboundary movement of GM
mosquitoes will occur. Article 17 paragraph 4 of the
Protocol states that the country where the
environmental release occurred 'shall immediately
consult the affected or potentially affected States to
enable them to determine appropriate responses and
initiate necessary action, including emergency
measures.’
Hence, were Malaysia's neighbouring countries such
as Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand officially
informed about the impending release?
The MNRE had told the public that it 'used the
guidelines developed for GM mosquitoes under the
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.' Did it really?
6. Risk assessment (RA) lacking
In its scientific analysis of risk assessment concerning
the GM mosquito field release, the MNRE had
reportedly reviewed and taken into consideration the
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by the United
States Department of Agriculture on the release of
insects carrying a dominant lethal gene (RIDL), i.e.
the GM pink bollworm (developed by Oxitec) and the
GM fruit fly as this RIDL technology is similar to that
applied in the production of GM mosquitoes.
January - 2011
However, the GM fruit flies and the GM pink This is crucial as the people especially those in the
bollworms are plant pests or agricultural pests that do release sites must know the details to make an
not pose a threat to human health. informed decision.

In the words of a critic who was once involved in
vector control: 'To imply that the same level of criteria
should be applied to GM mosquitoes, a known human
blood feeder and human disease vector vastly
oversimplifies the safeguards that need to be
considered.’
There was a workshop on Risk Assessment of
Transgenic Insects in Kuala Lumpur in November
2008, organised by MNRE, IMR and Universiti
Malaya.
ssessment of Transgenic Insects in Kuala Lumpur in
November 2008, organised by MNRE, IMR and
Universiti Malaya.
The GM Aedes mosquito case study was conducted as
the risk assessment (RA) 'for a hypothetical large-
scale open field release in Peninsular Malaysia'.
7. GM mosquito field trials undermine UN CBD
moratorium on Terminator technology
GM mosquitoes are Terminator insects as they have
been designed to produce sterile offspring. Since
2000, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) has imposed a de facto global moratorium on
this technology.
Malaysia's decision to test the GM mosquitoes in the
field in effect undermines the global moratorium on
Terminator technology. Malaysia's decision is
inconsistent with its international role where it is a key
player in the CBD.
In fact, Malaysia was responsible for introducing the
biosafety issue in the CBD negotiations. Indeed, when
countries worldwide are banning and rejecting
Terminator

The RA for this was later published in a paper and the

co-authors include Camilla J. Beech and S. Vasan,
both of who are from Oxitec Ltd. H t t p : / / w w w . b i o s a f e t y -
info.net/article.php?aid=757
Since the Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) on
GM bollworm and the GM fruit fly were the only two
cases reviewed and cited by the MNRE, and no other
risk assessment for GM mosquitoes was reported
widely other than the paper from the workshop
mentioned above, it appears that the paper is the only
Risk Assessment conducted on the GM Aedes
To protect the environment:
mosquito release which is in the public domain.

In the absence of further information, this paper could

be the sole basis of the approval of the GM mosquito
forestry should be promoted,
field release, unless the Malaysian government
categorically states otherwise.

Hence, the many worrying concerns raised regarding

Deforestation should be prevented.
the GM mosquito make it imperative that the Risk
Assessment (RA), in line with the Precautionary
Principle, be made public. - Aastha Chaudhary -
Similar to the Environmental Impact Assessment
(EIA) which is required by law, the detailed RA
should be in the public domain.

January - 2011 Kisan Ki Awaaz 31

 Pesticides lobby’s coup
* Latha Jishnu
Krishi Bhavan supports endosulfan companies; Kerala protests
THE timing and the message of the conference could not
have been more stark. At a time when the endosulfan
problem is in the limelight, sparking calls for a
nationwide ban on the pesticide, its manufacturers
staged a remarkable feat.
They held a three-day conference on rural prosperity at
Delhi's Vigyan Bhavan, venue for high-power official
meetings, and put across the message that the hazardous
chemical is safe. Their biggest coup: roping in President
Pratibha Patil to inaugurate the event.
Organised by Crop Care Federation of India (CCFI), the
association of the 45 leading pesticides manufacturers,
the conference had both the Ministry of Agriculture and
the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers as partners for
the three-day conference in December.
The high-profile event also roped in related industries:
seed, fertiliser and processed food. It was a powerful
showing with leading sponsors such as Monsanto India,
Excel Crop Care and United Phosphorus (UPL) along
with the association of the biotech industry (ABLE) and
the National Seeds Association of India.
Excel Crop Care is a subsidiary of Excel Industries, the
leading endosulfan producer, and a sister concern of
UPL. With the campaign against endosulfan gaining
momentum in Kerala, it is obvious why the pesticides
lobby was keen to organise such a seminar. It claimed
“rural prosperity through better agriculture” as its theme
but the conference had minimal participation from the
farmers: just Sharad Joshi, president of Shetkari
Sanghatana of Pune.
Krishi Bhavan, headquarters of the agriculture ministry,
had no convincing argument to justify its partnership
with CCFI, which is chaired by Raju D Shroff, chairman
and managing director of UPL. Agriculture minister
Sharad Pawar, the main speaker, focused on the pet
theme of the ministry: increasing private sector
participation in agriculture services. He said the new
momentum in Indian agriculture meant “the private
sector has a critical role in meeting the demand of higher
investment, inputs and services in agriculture”. Kerala,
though, was incensed by the open display of cosiness
32 Kisan Ki Awaaz
between the endosulfan lobby and the government.
The strongest criticism came from Congress stalwart V
M Sudheeran who has been in the forefront of the
campaign against endosulfan. “When the country is
asking for a ban on the hazardous pesticide, I am
completely at a loss to hear the Ministry of Agriculture
had organised an agricultural development seminar
sponsored by none other than the producers of
endosulfan,” he wrote to Pawar.
Sudheeran, a former member of Parliament, is a highly
regarded member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress
Committee. His letter summed up the shock and anger
such an event has occasioned, more so since it was used
to promote endosulfan. “The irony is that when at least
1,000 people have been killed by this chemical and more
than 8,000 people seriously impacted in the villages of
Kasaragod, the pesticides industry has used the good
offices of the ministry to unleash its propaganda that
endosulfan is a safe chemical.”
He was referring to the fact that Arun V Dhuri, vice-
president (registration & business development) of
Excel Crop Care, had facilitated the discussion on the
“truth and falsehoods and remedies” regarding
pesticides and had used the occasion to depict
endosulfan as harmless.
CCFI, formerly Pesticides Association of India, puts the
total value of agro-chemicals produced in the country at
Rs 13,000 crore, of which exports account Rs 7,000
crore. A recent report by Rabobank, which pegs the
production of pesticides at Rs 7,000 crore, says 50
percent of the domestic market is controlled by
multinational corporations.
The event was also used for pushing genetically
modified (GM) crops. According to CCFI, one of the key
aims of the conference was to promote technological
innovation. “If a second Green Revolution is to ramp up
food production, quicker green signals are needed on
GM,” it said.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/2763
January - 2011